First Amendment defense firm Davis Wright Tremaine is quietly recruiting TikTok creators to join a lawsuit fighting a ban on the app.
AFP via Getty ImagesA top First Amendment law firm is assembling a lawsuit of creators and small businesses to fight a new law that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok, according to several creators who told Forbes they were contacted directly by the firm or aware of its outreach.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a bill that would shut down the app used by 170 million Americans unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells its crown jewel to an American owner—a divestiture that some say is near impossible. TikTok CEO Shou Chew and top brass have promised a court battle to push back, and just 24 hours after the law was passed, it appears some of those efforts are already underway.
One of them is being led by Davis Wright Tremaine, the same litigation firm that sued Montana over its TikTok ban last year on free speech grounds and thwarted former President Donald Trump’s move to ban the app in 2020. The firm, which has also represented tech giants including Meta and Apple, is actively reaching out to TikTok creators across the country to pitch them on joining a suit, creators told Forbes.
TikTok and Davis Wright Tremaine did not respond to requests for comment on whether they are working together on the potential suit, whether TikTok is bankrolling the suit, and how many TikTok creators and small businesses have joined so far. In the Montana case, TikTok said it was funding the lawsuit.
"I don't want to put my company or myself in harm's way by turning against the government of the United States."
Among those who said they’d been contacted by creators or lawyers about joining possible lawsuits is Puneet Nanda, a small business owner who found overnight success on TikTok and for a time became the top seller on TikTok Shop. (He says he has also recently become a TikTok Shop spokesperson.) He told Forbes he has heard of at least three lawyers from different firms actively working on suits and “trying to gather steam,” including one in Tennessee, but declined to name them because he is still deciding whether to participate. Nanda said talks of the ban, and the prolonged legislative whiplash, have already dealt a major blow to his business, which he said has over 200 employees in the Los Angeles area.
“Our sales are dropping every single day,” Nanda told Forbes. “Our sales have literally seen a 30-plus percent drop in the last three weeks alone.” He said people don’t understand there will be a lengthy legal road ahead and attributed the drop in sales to customers’ fear that if they buy on TikTok Shop, the app will go under before their order can be fulfilled. “This is all happening so quickly, it's unreal.”
Asked whether he is likely to join a suit refuting the TikTok ban, he told Forbes: "I don't want to put my company or myself in harm's way by turning against the government of the United States." He said he is meeting with his legal team on Monday to discuss the matter further.
Creator Vitus "V" Spehar, whose handle @UnderTheDeskNews has an audience of more than 3 million on TikTok, said in a viral video Wednesday that “I’ve also been reached out to by a lawyer who is trying to put together a class action lawsuit of creators and businesses who would be negatively impacted if this ban were to go into effect. I’m not sure I’m joining that class action lawsuit so I’m going to wait until I have more information until I give you details on what that might look like.”
TikToker @BlackJackAmerican, who has 84,000 followers, said he, too, was assembling a class action suit, linking a website with information about stopping the TikTok ban in his TikTok bio. Forbes was unable to reach him.
TikTok has been harnessing the power of its enormous userbase to try to stop the ban in other ways, too, urging many of its 170 million American users to flood Congress with calls protesting the looming shutdown.
Got a tip about TikTok or ByteDance? Reach out securely to Alexandra S. Levine on Signal/WhatsApp at (310) 526–1242 or email at alevine@forbes.com.
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