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Friend,
Yesterday, a federal appeals court upheld the federal TikTok ban.1 This is unconstitutional — and a clear violation of Americans’ free-speech rights. The app will face a national ban unless ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, sells it by Jan. 19, 2025.
Free Press Action has partnered with other civil-society organizations2 to argue that any effort to restrict Americans’ access to a social-media platform should be subject to stringent First Amendment scrutiny. “The TikTok ban is plainly unconstitutional; it’s also on par with practices by repressive regimes that the United States has historically criticized for their disregard of democratic principles,” said Yanni Chen, policy counsel at Free Press Action.
We understand that many of you feel strongly about TikTok content and may not agree with our defense of the platform. Indeed, there are good-faith concerns around privacy and misinformation on the app. We aren’t giving TikTok a pass on this front, but it’s important to remember that this is a huge problem that’s prevalent across all social media.3 It doesn’t make sense to single out one app.
Inevitably, bans like this one threaten free expression and access to ideas. This is why Free Press Action is instead calling on Congress to pass comprehensive federal civil-rights and privacy legislation to protect internet users. We need to limit how all companies collect, store, analyze and sell our personal data — and we need to do so without jeopardizing core constitutional rights.
We’ll keep you posted on the next stage of this legal fight.
Thank you for staying by our side,
Amy and the rest of us at Free Press Action
P.S. It shouldn’t be up to the government to decide which platforms you use — and with your support, Free Press Action will have the resources we need to defend your rights to connect and communicate.
1. “Appeals Court Upholds Federal TikTok Ban,” Free Press, Dec. 6, 2024
2. “Knight Institute's Amicus Brief (in support of Petitioners),” Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, June 27, 2024
3. “New Free Press Study Reveals Social-Media Company Missteps on the Eve of the U.S. Election,” Free Press, Nov. 1, 2024
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