U.S. Court of Appeals for DC Circuit Hears Oral Argument on TikTok Ban Law

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument in TikTok Inc. v. Merrick Garland, a lawsuit brought on by Chinese company ByteDance over a law that forces it to either sell its ownership of TikTok in the U.S. or have TikTok be banned in the United States. Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act in April 2024, which was signed into law by President Biden that same month. Attorneys Andrew Pincus and Jeffrey Fisher, who respectively represented ByteDance and content creators, argued that the law was unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Justice Department appellate attorney Daniel Tenny, however, argued that TikTok presented national security concerns with regard to data collection and content manipulation
September 16, 2024