U.S. District Court Judge Overturns Trump's TikTok Ban

TikTok Cleared

U.S. District Court Judge CARL J. NICHOLS overturned President DONALD TRUMP's AUGUST 6th ban on the popular music website TIKTOK.

"If the app was shut down (even briefly) but that shutdown was later held to be unlawful, TIKTOK would not be able to recover the harm to its user base," the federal judge explained, finding that the U.S. government sought to act outside its authority by taking "arbitrary and capricious" action to regulate personal communications and the exchange or information via the app.

NICHOLS found TIKTOK has shown a likelihood of succeeding on its claims related to the IEEPA and APA. His opinion notes the dispute hinges on defining three key phrases: “to regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly,” “personal communication,” and “information or informational materials.”

TIKTOK argued the ban exceeds authority by, at best, indirectly regulating personal communication and the exchange of information, while the government argued it was only trying to regulate commercial transactions.

"All postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications transfer some value to the networks that facilitate those communications. Yet CONGRESS still chose to protect those communications," wrote the judge. "The phrase 'anything of value' cannot be expanded to reach beyond the participants to the communication itself, without doing violence to the structure of § 1702(b)(1).

"TIKTOK surely derives more value as a result of facilitating communications than 1977-era telephone networks and postal services. But that is a difference in degree, not in kind. To avoid rendering most of the provision inoperative, the phrase 'anything of value' must refer to the transfer of value between participants in a personal communication itself."

NICHOLS also found it's quite clear that TIKTOK would suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction.

"Functionally shutting down TIKTOK in the U.S. would, of course, have the immediate and direct effect of driving all existing and potential users to alternative platforms and eroding TIKTOK’s competitive position. The nature of social media is also such that users are unlikely to return to platforms that they have abandoned. Thus, if the app was shut down (even briefly) but that shutdown was later held to be unlawful, TIKTOK would not be able to recover the harm to its user base."

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