Knight Institute, Free Press, PEN America Urge Supreme Court to Strike Down TikTok Ban

WASHINGTON—On Friday, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, Free Press, and PEN America filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the federal TikTok ban. The groups argue that the ban unjustifiably restricts Americans from accessing ideas, information, and media from abroad in violation of the First Amendment.

Read Friday’s brief here: https://knightcolumbia.org/documents/5coaind51n

“Restricting citizens’ access to foreign media is a practice that has long been associated with repressive regimes, and we should be very wary of letting the practice take root here,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute. “Upholding the ban would do lasting damage to the First Amendment and our democracy.”

In Friday’s brief, the groups urge the Court to scrutinize the ban especially closely, because it “forecloses an entire medium of expression online.” They also state that the ban “recalls practices that have long been associated with the world’s most repressive regimes.” They note that the government has no legitimate interest in banning Americans from accessing foreign speech, even if that speech reflects foreign manipulation, and that while the government has a legitimate interest in protecting Americans from covert propaganda and safeguarding their personal data, these interests can be achieved through less restrictive means.

“If our elected officials are concerned about the rampant harvesting of Americans’ personal data enabling the covert manipulation of public opinion, comprehensive data privacy legislation is the solution,” said Yanni Chen, policy counsel at Free Press. “Targeting a single social platform over specific content available on that platform not only violates our First Amendment rights, it also fails to solve an urgent problem plaguing our digital lives writ large.”

“The right to receive information is a core tenet of the First Amendment that ensures the free transfer and sharing of information, literature, news, and artistic expression across borders,” said Eileen Hershenov, PEN America’s deputy CEO and counsel. “To allow the government to continue in its efforts to ban Tik Tok not only violates this right but creates a dangerous and slippery slope of viewpoint-based censorship that impedes the free exchange of ideas and expression.”

Earlier this year, the groups filed an amicus brief in the court of appeals  in support of TikTok and a group of content creators, arguing that the ban violates Americans’ free speech rights. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the ban earlier this month in what the groups called, at the time, a deeply misguided ruling that reads important First Amendment precedents too narrowly and gives the government sweeping power to restrict Americans’ access to foreign speech.

Read more about the case here: https://knightcolumbia.org/cases/tiktok-v-garland 

Lawyers on the case include Jameel Jaffer, Alex Abdo, and Xiangnong Wang from the Knight Institute.

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