TikTok on Thursday pushed back against U.S. government arguments that the popular social media platform is not shielded by the First Amendment, comparing its platform to prominent American media organizations owned by foreign entities.
Last month, the Justice Department argued in a legal brief filed in a Washington federal appeals court that neither TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, nor the platform’s global and U.S. arms — TikTok Ltd. and TikTok Inc. — were entitled to First Amendment protections because they are “foreign organizations operating abroad” or owned by one.
TikTok attorneys have made the First Amendment a key part of their legal challenge to the federal law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to an approved buyer or face a ban.
I’m pretty ambivalent about the TikTok ban, but I will point out that TikTok is not allowed to be used inside China, which does kind of re-enforce the idea that it’s for pushing propaganda on the West.
It’s because of China’s censorship laws that are too strict for Tiktok, the same company offers a similar platforms that conforms with their laws. It doesn’t really exonerate it though.
I’m on the fence as well. Most social media is propaganda to an extent imo, Tiktok is definitely not the exception. It is also foreign owned and banning or restricting it makes a lot of sense.
But I’d rather more consumer protection and less wild west behavior in the data sector ultimately.
I agree! We should look to what is acceptable in China to learn what we should deem acceptable in the US. We should do this despite everything we know and have learned about China. Who needs to actually understand what young people like about the app anyway? We should just make sure only the oldest and most decrepit among us weigh in on this issue
Bring back the comics code authority! Don’t ever talk your kids about the media they consume! And for sure never learn from your history (granted, comics were an American thing, but Americans legit couldn’t simply ask their kids what theyr were reading about and basically still can’t)
/s (sorry I struggle with communication and sarcasm was easier)