TikTok ban; America's latest move to restrict free speech

In response, a free speech group in the US said that the US Supreme Court recently dealt a major blow to free speech online in the country by refusing to block laws that would have banned TikTok from operating in the US from Sunday, January 19, 2020.

Experts say the decision will affect more than 170 million Americans who use the social media platform and threatens every American’s constitutional right to speak and receive information online.

"The Supreme Court’s ruling is deeply disappointing, allowing the government to shut down an entire platform and many free speech rights based on fear-mongering and speculation,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. “By refusing to block this ban, the Supreme Court is giving the government unprecedented power to silence voices it doesn’t want to hear, increasing the risk that broad national security invocations will infringe on our fundamental rights."

The group said that under the First Amendment, the government must have a compelling reason to ban an entire online communications platform. The government must show that the ban is the only way to prevent a serious and substantial harm to the nation’s national security and that the ban does not restrict speech beyond what is necessary to achieve that goal.

As the American Civil Liberties Union pointed out in its support of TikTok, the government has not come close to meeting that standard.

According to the ruling, TikTok will be removed from app stores in the United States starting January 19, and current users in the United States will, at best, lose the ability to update their devices.

However, President-elect Donald Trump or Joe Biden could legally grant TikTok a reprieve or order the Justice Department not to enforce the ban.

US Senator Ed Markey recently introduced a bill that would give TikTok's owner, ByteDance, more time to force the sale of its software.

A threat to democracy

Jenna Lontoff, senior policy advisor at the American Civil Liberties Union, said: "Taking back the right to free speech does not make the country safer; it endangers democracy; the next administration must urgently work with Congress to amend or repeal this flawed law; no one should be denied freedom of speech, especially on a platform that brings together such a large and vibrant collection of voices from around the world."

The Freedom of the Press Foundation, a US-based organization, also reacted to the move against free speech, saying that it came at a time when US officials admit that they have no real evidence that China is using TikTok to spy on Americans.

Some US lawmakers have acknowledged that the real reason for the ban is that the US government and its supporters in Congress do not like what people say on TikTok about the war in Gaza.

Setting a dangerous precedent

Legal experts have warned that the future of social media regulation and the protection of free speech are in jeopardy, citing the US decision to ban TikTok as creating a risky precedent.

In addition to pointing out that the US government has not offered any proof of a national security threat or even expressed any concerns about it, they claim that the US government has not explained why the prohibition would be justified by the absence of a mandatory handover.

However, under the guise of preserving national security, the law in question grants US presidents previously unheard-of authority to censor speech and Americans' access to information.

The TikTok ban is unprecedented and unconstitutional, according to American lawyers, and government restrictions on the internet raise the possibility that widespread invocations of national security will violate Americans' fundamental rights.

They contend that the government cannot impose restrictions on Americans' freedom of speech on the basis of ill-defined and speculative harms.