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Constitutional Law Expert Calls TikTok Ban ‘Extremely Harmful’ First Amendment

Art by Visuals via Unsplash

Constitutional Law Expert Calls TikTok Ban ‘Extremely Harmful’ First Amendment

By Movieguide® Contributor

TikTok has announced they will be leaving the US by Jan. 19 — unless the Supreme Court strikes down an impending law. 

Last year, President Joe Biden signed into law legislation that would get rid of TikTok in the US, provided its parent company Bytedance does not sell to an American company. 

In response, TikTok “filed an emergency motion for an injunction to stop the ban from taking effect, arguing that it violates the First Amendment and will generate ‘substantial losses,’” per E! News.

The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear arguments on Jan. 10. 

READ MORE: SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR APPEAL ON LAW BANNING TIKTOK

“If the court relies on notions of disinformation or content manipulation as a justification, that would be extremely harmful to the First Amendment doctrine because it would essentially give a greenlight to the government targeting a speech platform for the content it carries,” Thomas Berry, an expert in constitutional law at the Cato Institute, told CBS News. 

He explained that, if the court passes the law based on these data collection concerns, “that would still be unfortunate deference shown to government arguments that haven’t been backed up by a public record, but that would potentially be more of a good-for-this-case-only type of ruling.”

Berry also said the potential ban would have a major impact on TikTok’s average users. 

“It humanizes the speech happening on this platform and emphasizes, especially to justices who might not be familiar with it, that this isn’t just speech being broadcast in from foreign countries,” he explained. “This is primarily Americans speaking to other Americans, and lots of totally apolitical speech is happening and being found through the TikTok discovery algorithm.”

Others have spoken about the impact a TikTok ban would have on small businesses that rely on the app to reach customers around the world. 

“When people aren’t connected to your brand, they aren’t hearing from you, they’re hearing from someone else,” Ali Reff, owner of Alice & Wonder boutiques, told the Chicago Tribune. “It’s really hard running a small business and trying to keep your name in the ears of your consumer above so many other retail options and choices that people can choose from today.”

READ MORE: HOW BANNING TIKTOK WILL IMPACT SMALL BUSINESSES

TikTok executives have not publicly discussed their next moves, should the ban go ahead. 

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January, the app’s head of business marketing, Rema Vasan, said, “We are very aware that we are privileged to have a large number of audiences spending a lot of time with us not just as an entertainment destination, but TikTok has a significant impact on culture…it has changed the way we shop. It has changed the way we travel. It has changed the way we search. It has even changed the way we speak.”


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