A U.S. appeals court Monday questioned if the government's desire to ban TikTok prevents the video app's users from engaging in free speech.
The Chinese TikTok app is one of the world's most popular video platforms. It was declared a threat to national security by President Donald Trump during the summer. Some people in the Trump administration have called for TikTok to be banned in the U.S.
In December, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols said the Commerce Department was "arbitrary and capricious" in its attempt to ban TikTok. The Department of Justice appealed that injunction against the government.
In a hearing Monday before a three-judge D.C. Circuit panel, the DOJ argued the government should be allowed to ban the app, as reported by Bloomberg.
Thomas Byron, a senior appellate counsel at DOJ, said the federal government was aiming to ban people from creating TikTok accounts because that is how China collects user information. Byron said the DOJ was not trying to ban video sharing because TikTok users still would be able to see videos in web browsers.
Judge Patricia Millett took issue with Byron's explanation.
"By forbidding new users from joining, this prohibition bans a lot of Americans from joining the communications and exchanges that I think more than a quarter of the American population is already engaged in," Millet said, per the Washington Examiner. "For all those people who wish to join in those communications — they're banned. How are they not banned?"
Millett also said the government held "a fairly narrow definition of indirect regulation," which is prohibited by federal law.
Judge Judith Rogers even went as far as to say the proposed ban seemed to "to fly in the face" of past congressional definitions of indirect regulation.
The Commerce Department last week announced it will not enforce an order prohibiting U.S. companies from hosting the app.
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