I’m very surprised by this. I’d figured ByteDance had a final trick up their sleeve, some unscrupulous billionaire like Bobby Kotick who they could technically “divest” to while maintaining functional independence. Either they’re incredibly confident in their legal team, or they’re betting on popular protest to overturn the government’s decision in the next year. Unfortunately for them, there’s a global crisis currently ongoing that is a liiiittle bit more important to protest, and they might have to wait awhile.
Well, this is several anonymous sources talking about a preference, not an official statement making a hard commit.
What does everyone think about the TikTok ban?
Personally I think it’s absurd. What happened to freedom of speech? Freedom of association? Free market capitalism?
If an American citizen wants to use a Chinese platform, why don’t they have the right to?
I think the data collection stuff is a red herring. Real reason is that war is coming and they’re preparing the online information space so they can more easily manipulate it. Sort of how they did a test run with covid. Banning misinformation and such.
They don’t have such a friendly relationship with TikTok as they do with Google and Facebook, for example. Behind the scenes, the feds work with them to amplify or suppress certain types of speech.
If the sale doesn’t go through, I don’t see how this will eliminate whatever little bit of credibility the federal government has among the younger generations. 18~25 or so
Regarding freedom of speech, banning TikTok is not the government oppressing your rights to say things.
The courts have repeatedly ruled that freedom of speech comes with freedom of association.
Montana tried banning TikTok and a judge blocked it for that reason - it infringes upon free speech. I think Bytedance will likely sue federal government under similar grounds. The government cannot arbritarily control what you want to say, who you want to say it to, or where you want to say it.
The Supreme Court has long held that the First Amendment’s protection of free speech, assembly, and petition logically extends to include a “freedom of association."
It is beyond debate that freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of the ‘liberty’ assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which embraces freedom of speech. Of course, it is immaterial whether the beliefs sought to be advanced by association pertain to political, economic, religious or cultural matters, and state action which may have the effect of curtailing the freedom to associate is subject to the closest scrutiny.
It appears from the Court’s opinions that the right of association is derivative from the First Amendment guarantees of speech, assembly, and petition,2 although it has at times been referred to as an independent freedom protected by the First Amendment.
nice but poor try, wumao.
If an American citizen wants to use a Chinese platform, why don’t they have the right to?
If a Chinese citizen wants to use an American platform, why don’t they have the right to?
I think it’s amusing how you call me wumao, feeling proud of how clever you are, while advocating for the US to emulate China.
Apparently the way TikTok manipulates and influences users is so powerful ByteDance doesn’t want to disclose any of that information.
Even if that means they shut down their business completely in the US. Them considering giving up this big of a market is a very scary indication on how sofisticated and powerful their algorithm.
And ByteDance is basically controlled by the CCP.
It’s an admission that running the business isn’t the point of tiktok. It’s an intelligence asset, if the intelligence asset is no longer viable there is no point operating the business.