TikTok isn’t the only party asking the Supreme Court to overturn a federal law that could result in the app being sold or effectively banned in the U.S. later this month. A group of eight TikTok creators also sued the government, saying the law violated their First Amendment rights.
Creators have claimed they haven’t found the same success on platforms like Instagram or YouTube. This includes Brian Firebaugh, a first-generation Texas rancher, and Paul Tran, who runs a skincare brand with his wife. Other plaintiffs include hip-hop artist Christopher Townsend, who shares Biblical trivia with his followers, and Kiera Spann, an advocate for sexual assault survivors.
Ms. Firebaugh, who has more than 400,000 TikTok followers, said without income from TikTok’s Popular Creators Fund and sales of ranch products available through the app, “I would have to get another job and pay for childcare instead of raising my son at home.” Lawyers for the creators wrote this in a document submitted last year. Townsend, who has 2.6 million followers, “is at risk of losing the platform that allows him to express his beliefs and share his spirituality and music with the world,” the complaint says.
TikTok is paying legal fees for creators’ lawsuits. TikTok has pursued similar legal strategies at least twice. Once in 2020, when a group of creators successfully challenged a federal ban, and again in 2023 in Montana, when creators sued the state after it attempted to ban the app.
