The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) condemned Friday’s “flawed and dangerous” federal appeals court ruling that upheld the law banning the social media platform TikTok.
“This ruling sets a flawed and dangerous precedent, one that gives the government far too much power to silence Americans’ speech online,” deputy director of ACLU’s National Security Project, Patrick Toomey, said in a statement shortly following the ruling. “Banning TikTok blatantly violates the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans who use this app to express themselves and communicate with people around the world.”
“The government cannot shut down an entire communications platform unless it poses extremely serious and imminent harm, and there’s no evidence of that here,” he added.
The three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled on Friday that the legislation is not in breach of the First Amendment, an argument TikTok has deployed in the case.
The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversaries Act received bipartisan support in Congress with lawmakers expressing national security concerns over the ByteDance, the app’s China-based parent company. It sped through Capitol Hill and was signed by President Biden in April.
The legislation provided ByteDance until Jan. 19 next year to either divest from TikTok or have it banned from U.S. app stores and networks. The company could also get a 90-day extension if approved by Biden.
The ruling was condemned by TikTok and the platform said it would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
“Taking away Americans’ free speech rights does not make us safer; it endangers our democracy,” said Jenna Leventoff, ACLU’s senior policy counsel. “If the Supreme Court does not step in, the next administration must immediately work with Congress to fix or repeal this flawed legislation.”
“No one should be stripped of their ability to express themselves, especially on a platform that brings together such an immense, vibrant collection of voices from around the world,” she added.
While initially supporting a ban on TikTok, Trump changed his stance on the issue, claiming that TikTok’s ouster from the U.S. market would bolster Meta. During his successful 2024 presidential run, Trump asked voters to back him in order to “save TikTok.”
