TikTok Strikes Back Using US Constitution As Shield, Says Other Foreign-Owned American Outlets Don't Lose First-Amendment Rights

ByetDance-owned TikTok has defended itself against the U.S. government’s attempts to enforce a sale or ban of the platform, citing its First Amendment rights.

What Happened: TikTok’s legal team has made the First Amendment a central part of their challenge to the federal law that requires ByteDance to sell TikTok to an approved buyer or face a ban.

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department argued that TikTok and its parent company were not entitled to First Amendment protections as they are “foreign organizations operating abroad.”

Now the short-form video platform has argued that TikTok’s U.S. arm does not lose its constitutional rights simply because it is owned by a foreign entity, reported the Associated Press.

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In a court document on Thursday, TikTok’s attorneys drew comparisons between the platform and some American media organizations owned by foreign entities.

“Surely the American companies that publish Politico, Fortune, and Business Insider do not lose First Amendment protection because they have foreign ownership,” the attorneys wrote.

They asserted that “no precedent” justifies what they described as “the government’s dramatic rewriting of what counts as protected speech.”

In a separate move, the DOJ requested the court on Thursday evening to submit evidence under seal, citing that the case involved “Top Secret” classified information. TikTok has been resisting these requests, the report noted.

The case is set to begin oral arguments on Sept. 16.

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Why It Matters: Earlier in June, TikTok and ByteDance argued that the U.S. could have considered alternatives to banning the app to address national security concerns.

They had negotiated a 90-page national security agreement with the U.S. government that offered “multi-layered safeguards and enforcement mechanisms,” but Congress disregarded it when enacting the TikTok ban, stated TikTok’s lawyers in a court filing.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, a study by the Network Contagion Research Institute in collaboration with Rutgers University suggested that TikTok's algorithm promotes content favoring the Chinese government.

Photo by XanderSt on Shutterstock

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.