meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Lawfare Podcast

A TikTok Ban and the First Amendment

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

International Law, Law, Government, Foreign Policy, News, Politics, Rule Of Law, International Relations, Current Events, Military, Constitutional Law, Intelligence, National Security, History, Terrorism, Diplomacy

4.76.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over the past few years, TikTok has become a uniquely polarizing social media platform. On the one hand, millions of users, especially those in their teens and twenties, love the app. On the other hand, the government is concerned that TikTok's vulnerability to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party makes it a serious national security threat. There's even talk of banning the app altogether. But would that be legal? In particular, does the First Amendment allow the government to ban an application that’s used by millions to communicate every day?

On this episode of Arbiters of Truth, our series on the information ecosystem, Matt Perault, director of the Center on Technology Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Alan Z. Rozenshtein, Lawfare Senior Editor and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, spoke with Ramya Krishnan, a staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and Mary-Rose Papendrea, the Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, to think through the legal and policy implications of a TikTok ban.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The following podcast contains advertising.

0:04.0

To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast,

0:08.0

become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair.

0:14.0

That's patreon.com slash law fair.

0:18.0

Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings,

0:22.0

rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.

0:29.0

I think there's still a possibility of this highest level of scrutiny,

0:37.0

strict scrutiny, even if the government is aiming to protect privacy interests

0:43.0

because the banning an entire platform where there's a real concern that people's access to information is going to be impacted.

0:53.0

I think that the government will have some issues with the content,

0:57.0

arguing that this is content neutral because it's a concerns rest so heavily on what a foreign power would do with that information.

1:05.0

It seems very speaker-based or platform-based, and not neutral in the way that we usually think of time place and beginner restrictions.

1:15.0

I'm Alan Rosenstein, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota and Senior Editor at LawFair.

1:21.0

And this is the LawFair podcast, April 14, 2023.

1:26.0

Today, we're bringing you an episode of Arbiters of Truth, our series on the information ecosystem.

1:32.0

Over the past few years, TikTok has become a uniquely polarizing social media platform.

1:37.0

On the one hand, millions of users, especially those in their teens and twenties, love the app.

1:42.0

On the other hand, the government is concerned that TikTok's vulnerability to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party makes it a serious national security threat.

1:50.0

There's even talk of banning the app altogether. But would that be legal?

1:54.0

In particular, does the First Amendment allow the government to ban an application that's used by millions to communicate every day?

2:01.0

To think through the legal and policy implications of a TikTok ban, my co-host, Matt Peralt and I, spoke with Rumbia Krishnan,

2:08.0

a staff attorney at the Night First Amendment in Sudaklumbia University and Mary Rose Peppandreya,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Lawfare Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Lawfare Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.