If TikTok Is Banned, Free-Speech Litigation Could Follow


一项诉讼将迫使美国的法院权衡美国政府的国家安全目的与第一修正案赋予TikTok及其用户的权利。


如果美国国会两党针对TikTok的法案获得通过，除非出售给非中国所有者，否则TikTok在美国的业务将被关闭。

美国国会针对TikTok的两党立法上周在众议院顺利通过，这使该公司及其中资控股的母公司字节跳动(ByteDance)面临一个严峻的选择：出售该平台在美国的业务或面临禁令。 6park.com
The bipartisan TikTok legislation that sailed through the House this past week gives the company and its Chinese-controlled parent, ByteDance, a stark choice: Sell the platform’s U.S. operations or face a ban.  6park.com
   
不过，TikTok可能会选择第三种方案：起诉美国政府。 6park.com
TikTok, though, may go for option three: Sue the government. 6park.com
    
美国参议院能否通过拜登(Joe Biden)支持的这项法案尚无定论。但如果该法案获得通过，除非出售给非中国所有者，否则TikTok在美国的业务将被关闭。字节跳动将有六个月的时间来遵守这项法律。 6park.com
It isn’t guaranteed that the Senate will pass the Biden-backed legislation. But if the bill is approved, it would shut down TikTok’s U.S. operations unless sold to a non-Chinese owner. ByteDance would have six months to comply.  6park.com
    
由于中国已经暗示反对强制出售，TikTok的命运最终可能由美国联邦法院决定。 6park.com
Since China has already signaled its opposition to a forced sale, the fate of the video app juggernaut could ultimately be decided by the federal courts. 6park.com
   
任何诉讼都可能引发多个法律问题，但核心问题是，一旦进入法庭争端，就要由法官来权衡这项禁令的国家安全目标与美国宪法赋予TikTok及其用户的第一修正案权利。 6park.com
Any litigation could raise several legal issues, but at its core, a court dispute would require judges to weigh the national security objectives of the ban against the First Amendment rights of TikTok and its users.  6park.com
   
长期以来，美国一直限制外国资本对广播和电视的所有权，但美国国会从未对一家数以百万计的美国人用来交流的互联网平台采取过如此严厉的行动。 6park.com
The U.S. has long restricted foreign ownership of radio and television broadcasting, but Congress has never taken such drastic actions against an internet platform used by millions of Americans to communicate.  6park.com
    
虽然这项立法不会授权对试图继续使用该应用的美国居民采取执法行动，但之前参与TikTok诉讼的法官已经承认，该应用的粉丝在发布和消费内容时享有美国宪法规定的言论自由权，而关闭该应用将损害这些权利。 6park.com
Though the legislation doesn’t authorize enforcement actions against U.S. residents who attempt to keep using the app, judges in previous TikTok litigation have recognized that the app’s fans have constitutional free-speech rights in posting and consuming content that would be harmed by its shutdown. 6park.com
   
这意味着，美国政府在为任何禁令进行法律辩护时，不仅需要证明该立法在防止中国不当影响或获取美国人数据方面符合美国利益。要使该禁令对言论自由的侵犯符合法律要求，美国政府可能还需要证明严厉程度弱一些的措施不会起到作用。 6park.com
That means the government’s legal defense of any ban will have to do more than show the legislation advances U.S. interests in preventing undue Chinese influence or access to Americans’ data. For the ban’s free-speech infringements to pass muster, the government will likely need to demonstrate that less drastic measures wouldn’t work. 6park.com
    
Electronic Frontier Foundation是数字公民自由领域的非营利组织，该组织律师David Greene说：“这将取决于政府如何解释制定该法的理由。”该基金会反对这项禁令。 6park.com
“It will really depend on how the government explains the reasons for the law,” said David Greene, a lawyer with digital civil liberties nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, which opposes the ban. 6park.com
    
字节跳动不予置评。该公司在法庭上曾有过一些胜诉记录，但当法官做出有利于它的裁决时，并不总是以第一修正案为由。因此言论自由的保护伞是否有效，在某种程度上是未经验证的。 6park.com
ByteDance, which declined to comment, has had some court successes in the past, but First Amendment concerns haven’t always been the reason judges sided with the company. That leaves the free-speech questions somewhat untested. 6park.com
    
特朗普(Donald Trump)执政期间，华盛顿的一名联邦地区法院法官曾两次叫停美国商务部旨在封禁TikTok之举，判定商务部超越了20世纪70年代的《国际紧急状态经济权力法》(International Emergency Economic Powers Act)赋予的权限。在另一起宾夕法尼亚州的案件中，另一位联邦地区法院法官援引类似的法律理由，做出了有利于一群TikTok网红的裁决；这些TikTok网红在该公司支持下起诉了特朗普政府。 6park.com
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. twice ruled against Commerce Department efforts to ban TikTok during the Trump administration, deciding that it exceeded its authority under a law from the 1970s called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. In a separate Pennsylvania case, another U.S. district judge, citing similar legal grounds, sided with a group of TikTok stars that sued the Trump administration with the company’s support.  6park.com
    
上述两位法官均称，虽然时任总统特朗普拥有广泛的紧急状态经济权力，但当政府寻求采取会限制个人沟通交流及信息材料传输的行动时，这种权限是受到制约的。 6park.com
Both judges said that while then-President Donald Trump had broad emergency economic powers, that authority was constrained when the government was seeking to take actions that would restrict personal communications and informational materials.  6park.com
   
在那桩诉讼中，美国政府的律师称TikTok受控于中国是一种不可接受的威胁，也许会让中国政府得以获取美国人的个人信息、监视美国联邦机构雇员、参与公司相关的谍报活动。 6park.com
Government lawyers in that litigation described China’s control of TikTok as an unacceptable threat that could give the Chinese government access to Americans’ personal information, enable it to spy on federal employees and allow it to participate in corporate espionage. 6park.com
    
他们称，该禁令未超出特朗普的行政权力范围，也没有侵犯言论自由，因为TikTok用户即便无法再使用该应用，也可以在Instagram等其他平台上发布和浏览同样的内容。 6park.com
They argued that the ban was within Trump’s executive authority and didn’t impinge on speech rights because TikTok users shut out from the app could post and consume the same content on other platforms such as Instagram. 6park.com
   
类似的诉讼也曾在特朗普政府寻求封禁WeChat（在中国的版本是微信）时上演。微信是一款在中国人气很高的多功能应用；很多讲中文的美国居民也使用WeChat。加州的一名法官阻止了该禁令，称看不出为何不能以一些限制性较小的替代方案来应对美国的安全担忧，比如禁止在政府设备上使用WeChat。 6park.com
Similar litigation unfolded when the Trump administration sought to ban WeChat, China’s dominant multipurpose app used by Chinese-speaking U.S. residents. A judge in California blocked that ban, saying it wasn’t clear why less restrictive alternatives, such as barring WeChat from government devices, wouldn’t address U.S. security fears. 6park.com
    
华盛顿特区律师Joel Thayer说，WeChat案“教训很多”。Thayer运营的科技政策智库Digital Progress Institute支持众议院通过的TikTok法案。“政府有责任证明这是唯一的选择。” 6park.com
“There were a lot of lessons learned” from the WeChat case, said Joel Thayer, a D.C.-based lawyer who runs the Digital Progress Institute, a tech policy think tank that supports the TikTok ban that passed the House. “The onus is on the government to demonstrate that this is the only option.” 6park.com
    
在更近一些的案例中，蒙大拿州禁用TikTok的举措被法院驳回，当时法官裁定蒙大拿州此举可能是非法的，原因有几个，其中包括侵犯言论自由。该法官称，该应用为一些用户提供了一种独特的交流方式，而蒙大拿州全面封禁这个平台缺乏依据。 6park.com
More recently, Montana lost a court ruling that blocked its attempt to ban TikTok, with a judge ruling the state’s effort was likely illegal for several reasons, including because it intruded on free-speech protections. The app provided a unique form of communication for some users, and Montana hadn’t justified its move to cut off the platform entirely, the judge said.  6park.com
    
最高法院的几个先例可能会影响未来诉讼。1965年，最高法院裁定公民有权接收信息，即使是外国宣传内容。该判决宣布一项联邦法律无效，该法律允许美国邮政总长只有在收件人提出要求的情况下，才派送外国邮寄的共产主义政治宣传资料。1986年，最高法院裁定政府可以关闭一家涉嫌从事非法活动的商业场所，实际上是一家成人书店，驳回了有关关闭书店构成非法限制其表达活动的主张。 6park.com
Multiple Supreme Court precedents could color future ligation. In 1965, the high court ruled citizens have a right to receive information, even if it is foreign propaganda. The decision invalidated a federal law that allowed the U.S. postmaster general to deliver foreign mailings of Communist political propaganda only upon the addressee’s request. In 1986, the court ruled the government could shut down a business—namely an adult bookstore—suspected of engaging in illegal activity, rejecting arguments that the closure unlawfully limited the bookseller’s expressive activity.  6park.com
    
随着围绕TikTok法案的辩论进入参议院，议员们可能会考虑更多的法律问题。一些议员担心，一项专门针对TikTok的法案会有违宪之嫌，因为该法案可能被法院视为试图不经正当程序惩罚这家公司。 6park.com
As the congressional debate moves to the Senate, additional legal issues could be in play. Some lawmakers have expressed concern that a bill specifically aiming at TikTok could be constitutionally vulnerable because courts could view it as a legislative attempt to punish the company without due process. 6park.com
    
在最近的一些案例中，其他外国公司曾提出这样的主张但并未获胜。中国科技巨头华为(Huawei)和总部位于俄罗斯的网络安全公司卡巴斯基实验室(Kaspersky Lab)曾提出美国立法限制其业务构成违宪惩罚的观点，但两家公司都在法庭上败诉。 6park.com
Other foreign companies have struggled to make that argument in recent cases. Chinese tech giant Huawei and Russia-based cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab each lost on legal claims that U.S. legislation limiting their businesses amounted to an unconstitutional punishment.