WASHINGTON—The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today dismissed a First Amendment challenge to the federal TikTok ban, which is scheduled to go into effect in January. 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.

“This is a deeply misguided ruling that reads important First Amendment precedents too narrowly and gives the government sweeping power to restrict Americans’ access to information, ideas, and media from abroad,” said Jameel Jaffer, the Knight First Amendment Institute’s executive director. “We hope that the appeals court’s ruling won’t be the last word.”

In their amicus brief, the groups argued that any official effort to restrict Americans’ access to a social media platform—including a foreign one—should be subject to stringent First Amendment scrutiny; that the court should review the TikTok ban especially closely because it recalls practices that have long been associated with repressive governments; and that the ban is unconstitutional both because it is “viewpoint-motivated and forecloses an entire medium of expression online” and because the government could achieve its legitimate aims in other ways.

“This decision swings far too broadly at a time when First Amendment protections for Americans' speech and access to information are already under growing attack,” said Eileen Hershenov, PEN America's Deputy CEO and counsel. “What was needed was a narrowly tailored decision going to articulated privacy and security risks. This needs to be fixed.”

“We’re disappointed to see this court undermine Americans’ First Amendment right to information and access in favor of the government’s overbroad interests in national security,” said Yanni Chen, policy counsel at Free Press. “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. Free Press is hopeful that this decision will be revisited and remedied in due time.”

Read today’s decision here.

Read the groups’ amicus brief in TikTok v. Garland here.