The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today expressed disagreement with a Supreme Court ruling upholding a “dangerous, unprecedented” law that effectively bans TikTok in the United States and welcomed statements from President Biden and President-elect Trump indicating that they will immediately the law. CAIR is urging President-elect Trump and Congress to protect free speech by working to repeal the law and replace it with a targeted law that bans all social media companies from misusing user data.
According to The New York Times, President Trump is considering an executive order to allow TikTok to continue operating for the time being.
SEE: TikTok Ban: Biden White House Says Trump to Determine Next Steps
In a statement, CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw said:
“We respectfully disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold this dangerous, overbroad law, which threatens the free speech rights of not only TikTok, but the over 170 million Americans who use the platform to share their stories, engage in content creation, and exercise dissenting views often silenced on other platforms.
“We welcome President Biden’s decision not to enforce the law and we support President-Elect Trump’s reported decision not to immediately move forward with enforcing the ban. We encourage President-Elect Trump to work with Congress to repeal this law and take steps to require all social media companies across the board to protect user data, without violating the free speech rights of those companies or their users.”
“While CAIR shares concerns about the Chinese Communist Party, which is perpetrating a genocide against Uyghur Muslims and committing various other human rights abuses, the open secret in Washington, D.C. is that many in Congress and pro-Israel groups were concerned that TikTok’s algorithm was permitting users to more easily share content critical of the Israeli government and supportive of Palestinian human rights. That’s part of the reason the law finally passed after being delayed for years.”
“It is time for our leaders to repeal this law, protect free speech across the board, require all social media companies to protect user data.”
The Supreme Court today ruled in favor of upholding the law, issuing a unanimous opinion stating the 2024 TikTok ban law that Congress passed—and President Biden signed into law—does not violate the First Amendment or its free speech protections. CAIR strongly disagrees with SCOTUS’s ruling and notes that some of the law’s supporters noted that the reason the stalled law finally passed was concern about TikTok supposedly permitting greater speech related to Palestinian suffering.
[CAIR notes that in a concurring opinion by Justice Gorsuch, the Supreme Court justice noted that the Court declined to rely on secret evidence provided by the U.S. government that was not shown to TikTok or the users who filed suit and said that relying on secret evidence in judicial proceedings raises “obvious” constitutional concerns. CAIR applauds Justice Gorsuch for this recognition and believes that his perspective in this concurring opinion is important to civil rights groups challenging the government’s reliance on secret evidence when defending unconstitutional surveillance and watchlisting practices.]
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Director of Government Affairs Department Robert S. McCaw, 202-716-6242, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com