New Lawsuit Claims Texas TikTok Ban Violates First Amendment

After Republican Governor Greg Abott announced a sweeping ban of TikTok on state devices this past winter, a group representing university professors is challenging him with a new lawsuit. The complaint, filed Thursday, claims that the prohibition infringes on First Amendment rights.

The New York Times reports that the lawsuit was filed in Western District of Texas federal court by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University on behalf of a group known as the Coalition for Independent Technology Research. The latter’s members include professors at Texas colleges and universities who claim their research has been compromised after the ban restricted their access to the app. The main argument of the lawsuit is that professors should be excluded from the TikTok ban as the state restricting their research is a violation of the First Amendment.

“Banning public university faculty from studying and teaching with TikTok is not a sensible or constitutional response to concerns about data-collection and disinformation,” said executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute Jameel Jaffer in a press release. “Texas must pursue its objectives with tools that don’t impose such a heavy burden on First Amendment rights. Privacy legislation would be a good place to start.”

The Knight First Amendment Institute argues in its complaint that blocking TikTok-related research is Republicans shooting themselves in the foot as studying the app and its effect on society could illuminate some of the widely-cited issues surrounding data collection and privacy. Moreover, the ban blocks professors’ ability to use TikTok as a tool for instruction, whether that be pulling material from TikTok or instructing their classes about TikTok.

Texas was far from the first state to ban TikTok when a wave of backlash against the app percolated through Republican-led states late last year. South Dakota was one of the first states to enact a ban of the app on government phones and devices last November. Montana, however, was the first state to actually pass a total ban on TikTok that shuts off access to the app on almost all devices in the state, with the state’s House of Representatives voting on the bill in April. TikTok swung back in May with a lawsuit filed against Montana to block the ban.

After Republican Governor Greg Abott announced a sweeping ban of TikTok on state devices this past winter, a group representing university professors is challenging him with a new lawsuit. The complaint, filed Thursday, claims that the prohibition infringes on First Amendment rights.

The New York Times reports that the lawsuit was filed in Western District of Texas federal court by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University on behalf of a group known as the Coalition for Independent Technology Research. The latter’s members include professors at Texas colleges and universities who claim their research has been compromised after the ban restricted their access to the app. The main argument of the lawsuit is that professors should be excluded from the TikTok ban as the state restricting their research is a violation of the First Amendment.

“Banning public university faculty from studying and teaching with TikTok is not a sensible or constitutional response to concerns about data-collection and disinformation,” said executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute Jameel Jaffer in a press release. “Texas must pursue its objectives with tools that don’t impose such a heavy burden on First Amendment rights. Privacy legislation would be a good place to start.”

The Knight First Amendment Institute argues in its complaint that blocking TikTok-related research is Republicans shooting themselves in the foot as studying the app and its effect on society could illuminate some of the widely-cited issues surrounding data collection and privacy. Moreover, the ban blocks professors’ ability to use TikTok as a tool for instruction, whether that be pulling material from TikTok or instructing their classes about TikTok.

Texas was far from the first state to ban TikTok when a wave of backlash against the app percolated through Republican-led states late last year. South Dakota was one of the first states to enact a ban of the app on government phones and devices last November. Montana, however, was the first state to actually pass a total ban on TikTok that shuts off access to the app on almost all devices in the state, with the state’s House of Representatives voting on the bill in April. TikTok swung back in May with a lawsuit filed against Montana to block the ban.