As TikTok sues over potential U.S. ban, Chicago business owner emphasizes app’s importance

CHICAGO (CBS) — The social media app TikTok filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government Tuesday, trying to fend off new legislation that could essentially ban the platform next year.

A Chicago business owner on Tuesday explained how crucial the app is to his business.

“I have had posts that have gotten over 30 million views,” said Dr. Benjamin Caughlin, a plastic surgeon and the owner of Many Faces of Chicago. “So that’s like a Super Bowl commercial – and it’s free.”

In his office, Caughlin displays a map with pins and yarn attached to show how some of his patients have found him from across the country—estimating up to 20% of his plastic surgery patients come to him from TikTok. He has 480,000 followers on the platform.

“Patients care more about your TikTok blue checkmark than they do your—I have two board certifications. Nobody ever asked me. They don’t care,” said Caughlin. I mean, it’s crazy, you know? I think it’s a powerful thing.”

But the clock is ticking for the popular platform. The Biden administration defending new legislation that would force the Chinese-owned social media company ByteDance to sell to a U.S. owner—or be banned sometime in the next year.

“Do we want the data from TikTok – children’s data, adults’ data—to be staying here in America, or going to China,” said U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. “That is the fundamental question at issue here, and the president is clear where he stands.”

TikTok fought back, filing a lawsuit stating the ban violates the First Amendment protection to free speech.

The petition filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleges that the legislation that could result in its ban is unconstitutional. The petition argues that this is part because it violates the First Amendment rights of its users in the U.S. by effectively shutting down their access to the popular forum.

Filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the petition calls for the court to block Attorney General Merrick Garland from enforcing the measure. The suit names TikTok and Beijing-based ByteDance as plaintiffs and was filed against Garland.

“There are exceptions to the absolute right to a First Amendment,” CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller said in an initial analysis of the lawsuit. “What the courts don’t like, however, is prior restraint. They don’t like you telling somebody ahead of time that you can’t exercise your freedom of speech.”

Miller said it is an issue that will likely end up in the U.S. Supreme Court – and more quickly than most cases, with the countdown already on.

“When you say national security could be at risk, that allows some types of restrictions on speech that normally wouldn’t be there,” Miller said.

But it could still be many months before a ruling that could affect whether TikTok is available for users like Dr. Caughlin.