Judges Question National Security Justification for TikTok Restrictions in First Amendment Challenge

Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently questioned whether national security concerns justify speech restrictions as they heard a First Amendment challenge to a federal law requiring TikTok to either be sold or banned in the United States. This law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, mandates that ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, sell the platform within 270 days or face a ban. TikTok argues that the law unlawfully restricts its content curation and that national security concerns do not justify such a restriction on free speech. Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan questioned TikTok on whether a foreign-based company can challenge federal regulations on speech grounds. For more details, read the full article on Law.com.