Who Are the 8 TikTok Influencers Suing the U.S. Government Over a Potential Ban?

TikTok isn’t the one occasion asking the Supreme Court docket to overturn the federal legislation that might see the app bought or banned later this month. A gaggle of eight TikTok creators additionally sued the federal government over the legislation, saying it violated their First Modification rights.

The creators have argued that they haven’t discovered the identical success on platforms like Instagram or YouTube. They embody Brian Firebaugh, a first-generation rancher in Texas, and Paul Tran, who runs a skincare model together with his spouse. Different plaintiffs embody Christopher Townsend, a hip-hop artist who shares biblical quizzes together with his followers, and Kiera Spann, an advocate for sexual-assault survivors.

Mr. Firebaugh, who has greater than 400,000 TikTok followers, “would want to get a special job and pay for day care as an alternative of elevating his son at house” with out earnings from TikTok’s fund for standard creators and gross sales of ranch merchandise supplied via the app, legal professionals for creators wrote in a submitting final yr. Mr. Townsend, who has 2.6 million followers, “faces dropping the platform on which he is ready to categorical his beliefs and share his spirituality and music with the world,” the grievance mentioned.

TikTok is paying the authorized charges for the creators’ lawsuit. TikTok has pursued an identical authorized technique at the least twice: as soon as, in 2020, when a gaggle of creators efficiently challenged a federal ban, and once more in Montana in 2023, when creators sued the state after it tried to ban the app.