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TikTok’s Rough Day in Court

Up close and in-person at the blockbuster trial—the First Amendment angle, the NatSec concerns, the creators’ pleas, the lawyers’ moxie, and Hollywood’s reticence to get involved.

Shou Zi Chew
While TikTok’s lawyers are well-versed in precedents that would seem to tip the scales in the social media giant’s favor, there are no guarantees that the judges really care about the asserted free speech at stake. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
September 18, 2024

On Monday, at long last, TikTok’s lawyers marched into the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge the much-debated law, signed by Joe Biden in April, forcing its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to either divest or face a ban in the U.S. Before slipping in the back door to watch the proceedings, I would have said it was anyone’s guess how the chips might fall in this legal blockbuster. The judges, after all, are weighing classic freedom of expression against national security concerns, at least as whispered by the government in partly sealed briefs that demonstrate a rare example of bipartisanship on the Hill.