WASHINGTON—On Monday, September 16, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit will hear argument in a case challenging the federal TikTok ban. In June, 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. 

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director:

“​​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. At the very least, the government should be required to demonstrate that the ban is actually necessary. It hasn’t done that, and it can’t. The court should strike down the ban under the First Amendment, and Congress should address legitimate concerns about data-collection by passing a strong privacy law.”

The following can be attributed to Xiangnong (George) Wang, a staff attorney at the Knight Institute:

“The ban is problematic in itself, but the government’s contention that it should be upheld on the basis of secret evidence is fundamentally undemocratic. We can’t think of any previous instance in which such a broad restriction on First Amendment rights was found to be constitutional on the basis of evidence that wasn’t disclosed.”

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

Read more about the case here.

Fore more information, contact Adriana Lamirande: [email protected].