The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) condemned Friday's “flawed and dangerous” federal appeals court ruling upholding a law banning social media platform TikTok.
“This ruling sets a flawed and dangerous precedent and gives the government far too much power to silence Americans’ speech online,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. said He said this in a statement immediately after the verdict. “A ban on TikTok would blatantly violate the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans who use this app to express themselves and communicate with people around the world.”
“Governments cannot shut down entire communications platforms without causing extremely serious and imminent harm, but there is no evidence of that here,” he added.
Three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that the law does not violate the First Amendment, an argument TikTok advanced in its lawsuit.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Enemies Act received bipartisan support in Congress, where lawmakers raised national security concerns about the app's China-based parent company ByteDance. It rolled through Capitol Hill and was signed by President Biden in April.
The bill would give ByteDance until January 19 next year to either withdraw from TikTok or be banned from U.S. app stores and networks. If approved by Biden, the company could receive a 90-day extension.
The ruling was condemned by TikTok, which announced it would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
“Taking away Americans' right to free speech doesn't make us any safer. It puts our democracy at risk,” said Jenna Leventov, senior policy advisor at the ACLU. said. “If the Supreme Court does not intervene, the next administration must immediately work with Congress to amend or repeal this flawed bill.”
“No one should be deprived of the ability to express themselves, especially on a platform that brings together vast and vibrant voices from around the world,” she added.
President Trump initially supported banning TikTok, but changed his stance on the issue, arguing that banishing TikTok from the U.S. market would make it more meta. During his successful 2024 presidential campaign, Trump asked voters to support him to “save TikTok.”
