WASHINGTON—Earlier today, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard argument in a case challenging the federal TikTok ban. In June, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, Free Press, and PEN America filed an amicus brief in the case in support of TikTok and a group of content creators, arguing that the ban violates Americans’ free speech rights. 

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director:

“​​Today’s argument confirmed what we already knew—that a ruling upholding the TikTok ban would do profound damage to our democracy, and to the First Amendment, by giving the government sweeping power to restrict Americans’ right to access information, ideas, and media from abroad. It would also be a gift to autocratic regimes around the world, which will waste no time in citing this precedent to justify the restrictions they impose on their own citizens’ expressive rights. There are of course very good reasons to be concerned about foreign disinformation campaigns and the data-collection practices of social media platforms, including TikTok, but the appeals court should make clear that Congress must address these concerns by passing transparency and privacy laws rather than by restricting Americans’ First Amendment rights.”

Read Jaffer’s blog post leading up to today’s argument, “History has Already Discredited the TikTok Ban,” here.

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, [email protected]