WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld the federal TikTok ban, which is scheduled to go into effect on January 19. The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, along with Free Press and PEN America, filed an amicus brief in the case, arguing that the ban unjustifiably restricts Americans from accessing ideas, information, and media from abroad in violation of the First Amendment. 

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute:

“TikTok’s future will turn on politics, not on today’s ruling by the Supreme Court. But make no mistake, by allowing the ban to go into effect, the Supreme Court has weakened the First Amendment and markedly expanded the government’s power to restrict speech in the name of national security. Its implications for TikTok may be limited, but the ruling creates the space for other repressive policies in the future.”

The Knight Institute’s amicus brief urged the Court to scrutinize the ban especially closely, because it is viewpoint-motivated; “forecloses an entire medium of expression online”; and “recalls practices that have long been associated with the world’s most repressive regimes.” Furthermore, it noted 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. 

Read the Knight Institute’s brief here.

Read today’s opinion here.

Read more about the case here.

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

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