A group of TikTok creators, including a rancher, a skin care entrepreneur, and a Bible literacy advocate, sued the federal government on Tuesday over a new law that would force them to sell the company to the app's owner, China's ByteDance, or face a ban. . US. They argued it violated their First Amendment rights.
The complaint states that the eight creators “found their voices, amassed large audiences, made new friends, and encountered new and different ways of thinking, all through hosting, curating, and spreading speech on TikTok.” Thanks to a novel method.” A potential ban “threatens to deprive them and the rest of the country of this unique means of expression and communication.”
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which the new law designates as a jurisdiction for challenges, was expected to be the company's next move after filing its own lawsuit against the federal government last week. . unconstitutional law. TikTok said it is paying the legal costs of the creators' lawsuits.
TikTok pursued a similar legal strategy in 2020, when its creators successfully challenged a federal ban, and last year in Montana, where creators who tried to ban the app lost a state lawsuit. Appealed. Davis Wright Tremaine, the law firm representing the creator, also represented the app creator in Montana last year.
TikTok is fighting for its future in the United States after President Biden signed the bill in April. There have long been concerns among lawmakers and intelligence officials that the Chinese government could rely on ByteDance to hand over sensitive data about TikTok users or use the app to spread propaganda.
TikTok rejects those claims and says it has spent billions of dollars to address security concerns. Many legal experts predict that the debate over this law will reach the Supreme Court.
A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday: “This bill addresses serious national security concerns consistent with the First Amendment and other constitutional limitations.” We look forward to defending this bill in court. looking forward to it. ”
The creators' lawsuit said a sale of TikTok from ByteDance would be “unfeasible, as stated by the company and as evidenced by publicly available records.” Therefore, it argued that the law is a prohibition that violates users' First Amendment rights.
Similar to last week's TikTok lawsuit, the complaint asks the court to issue a declaratory judgment that the law is unconstitutional and to order a halt to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland's enforcement of the law. I'm looking for it.
The creators represent a diverse group of people who use the app in the U.S., and TikTok says it has 170 million monthly users. They include Brian Firebaugh, a first-generation Texas rancher, and Paul Tran, who runs a skin care brand with his wife. Other plaintiffs include Christopher Townsend, a hip-hop artist who shares Bible quizzes with his followers, and Kyra Spann, an advocate for sexual assault survivors.
Firebaugh, who has more than 400,000 followers on TikTok, said that without the income from TikTok's Popular Creator Fund and the sale of farm products offered through the app, “I would have to work another job instead of staying at home to raise my son.” “They will have to get a job and pay childcare fees.” writes the lawyer. The suit says Townsend, who has 2.5 million followers, “faces the loss of a platform where he can express his beliefs and share his spirituality and music with the world.”
The creators tried using other social media apps, including Instagram, “with limited success,” according to the complaint. It also said that TikTok's “defining characteristics derive from the editorial decisions it makes using its proprietary content recommendation technology.” A change in ownership can “fundamentally” change the user's experience.
The complaint also points to comments from lawmakers who claim TikTok imposes pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel views on young users. “These claims focus on the censorship of TikTok's content recommendation system,” the complaint said, adding that there is no evidence that TikTok is pushing propaganda on Americans.
