EFF Statement on U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision to Consider TikTok Ban

The TikTok ban itself and the DC Circuit’s approval of it should be of great concern even to those who find TikTok undesirable or scary. Shutting down communications platforms or forcing their reorganization based on concerns of foreign propaganda and anti-national manipulation is an eminently anti-democratic tactic, one that the U.S. has previously condemned globally.

U.S. government should not be able to restrict speech, in this case by cutting off a tool used by 170 million Americans to receive information and communicate with the world, without proving with evidence that the tools are presently seriously harmful. But in this case, Congress has required and the DC Circuit approved TikTok’s forced divestiture based only upon fears of future potential harm. This greatly lowers well-established standards for restricting freedom of speech in the U.S. 

So we are pleased that the Supreme Court will take the case and will urge the justices to apply the appropriately demanding First Amendment scrutiny.