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Below is a statement from FIRELegal Director Will Creeley on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ruling today upholding a law passed earlier this year banning TikTok:

The government can’t effectively shut down an expressive platform used by over 170 million Americans in the name of national security without demonstrating exactly why such a dramatic step is absolutely necessary. The First Amendment requires a lot more than just the government’s say-so.

But the First Amendment analysis in today’s D.C. Circuit decision is driven by a troubling deference to the government’s characterization of TikTok’s alleged threat to national security. The government failed to provide sufficient evidence of that threat — and even conceded a lack of specific intelligence that China has ever manipulated TikTok’s content in the U.S.

Fifty years after the publication of the Pentagon Papers, Americans understand that invoking “national security” doesn’t grant the government free rein to censor. By failing to properly hold the government to its constitutionally required burden of proof, the court’s decision erodes First Amendment rights now and in the future.