TikTok Lawsuit: First Amendment is a Strong Case Against US Ban: Experts

A TikTok lawsuit is coming, said the company, and experts are now analyzing what it will throw against the US ban against them, citing that it has a strong case using the First Amendment of the American constitution.

TikTok previously said that when President Joe Biden signed the bill into law, it would bring a lawsuit against the government for what it imposes against them.

TikTok Lawsuit to Use First Amendment for its Case Against US Ban

TikTok is said to be preparing for one of the biggest fights of its existence in the United States, and Ars Technica reported that experts believe that it will lean on the US Constitution's First Amendment for its case.

It is known that the First Amendment centers on a citizen's freedom to express themselves, freedom of speech and the press, as well as freedom of religion.

It is an important one because TikTok is, first and foremost, a social media platform with communications and user engagements being one of its main features for users.

"Courts have said that a TikTok ban is a First Amendment problem," Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman said to Ars Technica. "And Congress didn't try to navigate away from that. They just went ahead and disregarded the court rulings to date."

Experts Believe TikTok's First Amendment Use is Strong

Moreover, according to US District Judge Donald Molloy's previous ruling on Montana's TikTok ban that was blocked, "User Plaintiffs are deprived of communicating by their preferred means of speech, and thus First Amendment scrutiny is appropriate."

It is also believed that other courts from various states would follow suit with "respect to a national order," said Georgetown Law's Anupam Chander.

TikTok's Ban in the US is Now a Law

Earlier this week, the US Senate passed a bill that would have the legal means to ban TikTok in the country, one that would identify it as a foreign entity and have it look for a buyer to avoid shutting it down.

This law will give TikTok 180 days to find a buyer and finalize the agreement, to divest ByteDance of its US operations if it wants to continue its availability.

Later on, it was signed by President Joe Biden, now a law, as part of the foreign aid package that supports Israel and Ukraine.

However, selling is not part of TikTok's goals for its US operations, and the company's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, previously expressed the company's intent to serve the American government with a lawsuit for passing this as a law. This only means that TikTok and ByteDance are not considering the sale of the social media platform to a US company.

There is still no formal serving from TikTok against the US, and there is still no information behind the case that TikTok will bring against the country, but it was said to be similar to the previous ones before.

Many experts believe that TikTok will bank on the First Amendment, a.k.a. free speech, for its case, one that it succeeded from before against Montana.