Square Peg, Meet Round Hole: Previously Classified TikTok Briefing Shows Error of Ban

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A previously classified transcript reveals Congress knows full well that American TikTok users engage in First Amendment protected speech on the platform and that banning the application is an inadequate way to protect privacy—but it banned TikTok anyway.

The government submitted the partially redacted transcript as part of the ongoing litigation over the federal TikTok ban (which the D.C. Circuit just heard arguments about this week). The transcript indicates that that members of Congress and law enforcement recognize that Americans are engaging in First Amendment protected speech—the same recognition a federal district court made when it blocked Montana’s TikTok ban from going into effect. They also agreed that adequately protecting Americans’ data requires comprehensive consumer privacy protections.

Yet, Congress banned TikTok anyway, undermining our rights and failing to protect our privacy.

No Indication of Actual Harm, No New Arguments

The members and officials didn’t make any particularly new points about the dangers of TikTok. Further, they repeatedly characterized their fears as hypothetical. The transcript is replete with references to the possibility of the Chinese government using TikTok to manipulate the content Americans’ see on the application, including to shape their views on foreign and domestic issues. For example, the official representing the DOJ expressed concern that the public and private data TikTok users generate on the platform is

potentially at risk of going to the Chinese government, [and] being used now or in the future by the Chinese government in ways that could be deeply harmful to tens of millions of young people who might want to pursue careers in government, who might want to pursue careers in the human rights field, and who one day could end up at odds with the Chinese Government’s agenda.  

There is no indication from the unredacted portions of the transcript that this is happening. This DOJ official went on to express concern “with the narratives that are being consumed on the platform,” the Chin

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