05-08-2024, 08:02 PM
This is another follow-on about the TikTok and its - now legislated - impending expulsion from the US market...
If you are completely new to the topic I offer this simplistic explanation. TikTok has become wildly popular, particularly to the younger demographic, within the US. As a platform for communicating it figures among the most frequented internet "locations" in which they engage in social media use. TikTok is not American-owned. The US market is important, but has been reported that the US government is alarmed by the relationship it shares with the Chinese government... a known "Foreign Adversary." The US issued an ultimatum, "Transfer TikTok to a non-Chinese owner, or don't do business here." Senators, and Congressional member sent this ultimatum in the form U.S. Legislation (H.R.7521 - Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act) which I expand upon in the thread "Recent legislation "banning" TikTok might not survive."
As should have been expected, our legislators crafted the wording of the new "law" in a troublingly ignorant way. And now TikTok is pursuing the matter by suing the government for... well... you'll see.
From ArsTechnica: TikTok and its Chinese owner sue US government over “foreign adversary” law
Subtitled: Law curtails "massive amounts of protected speech," TikTok and ByteDance allege.
TikTok and its owner ByteDance today sued the federal government to block the "Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications" law that would prohibit TikTok in the US if the company isn't sold to a non-Chinese firm. The complaint in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit alleges that the law is unconstitutional and asks for a court order prohibiting enforcement.
TikTok and ByteDance say the law "would allow the government to decide that a company may no longer own and publish the innovative and unique speech platform it created. If Congress can do this, it can circumvent the First Amendment by invoking national security and ordering the publisher of any individual newspaper or website to sell to avoid being shut down."
The law will "silenc[e] the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere," TikTok and ByteDance alleged.
"By banning all online platforms and software applications offered by 'TikTok' and all ByteDance subsidiaries, Congress has made a law curtailing massive amounts of protected speech," the lawsuit said. "Unlike broadcast television and radio stations, which require government licenses to operate because they use the public airwaves, the government cannot, consistent with the First Amendment, dictate the ownership of newspapers, websites, online platforms, and other privately created speech forums."
There's the First Amendment hit we should have expected... and now the Fifth...
TikTok and ByteDance claim the law violates "the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause because it singles Petitioners out for adverse treatment without any reason for doing so" and "effects an unlawful taking of private property without just compensation, in violation of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause." TikTok and ByteDance also say the US law "is an unconstitutional bill of attainder" because it singles out the plaintiffs "for legislative punishment."
The legislators, lawyers most of them, built a legal weapon specifically pointed at TikTok... that's not cool man. They never should have specified TikTok in the legislation, and now we see the fight continuing... at least the lawyers will be well-paid.
I have to wonder if they crafted the legislation wanting to lose this battle... or maybe keep it going.
The US would try to justify the law on national security grounds. US lawmakers have alleged that the Chinese Communist Party can weaponize TikTok to manipulate public opinion and access user data.
Of course, once this goes into the National Security realm... let's just say we won't be privy to all the details anymore.
The show is not over, folks!
If you are completely new to the topic I offer this simplistic explanation. TikTok has become wildly popular, particularly to the younger demographic, within the US. As a platform for communicating it figures among the most frequented internet "locations" in which they engage in social media use. TikTok is not American-owned. The US market is important, but has been reported that the US government is alarmed by the relationship it shares with the Chinese government... a known "Foreign Adversary." The US issued an ultimatum, "Transfer TikTok to a non-Chinese owner, or don't do business here." Senators, and Congressional member sent this ultimatum in the form U.S. Legislation (H.R.7521 - Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act) which I expand upon in the thread "Recent legislation "banning" TikTok might not survive."
As should have been expected, our legislators crafted the wording of the new "law" in a troublingly ignorant way. And now TikTok is pursuing the matter by suing the government for... well... you'll see.
From ArsTechnica: TikTok and its Chinese owner sue US government over “foreign adversary” law
Subtitled: Law curtails "massive amounts of protected speech," TikTok and ByteDance allege.
TikTok and its owner ByteDance today sued the federal government to block the "Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications" law that would prohibit TikTok in the US if the company isn't sold to a non-Chinese firm. The complaint in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit alleges that the law is unconstitutional and asks for a court order prohibiting enforcement.
TikTok and ByteDance say the law "would allow the government to decide that a company may no longer own and publish the innovative and unique speech platform it created. If Congress can do this, it can circumvent the First Amendment by invoking national security and ordering the publisher of any individual newspaper or website to sell to avoid being shut down."
The law will "silenc[e] the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere," TikTok and ByteDance alleged.
"By banning all online platforms and software applications offered by 'TikTok' and all ByteDance subsidiaries, Congress has made a law curtailing massive amounts of protected speech," the lawsuit said. "Unlike broadcast television and radio stations, which require government licenses to operate because they use the public airwaves, the government cannot, consistent with the First Amendment, dictate the ownership of newspapers, websites, online platforms, and other privately created speech forums."
There's the First Amendment hit we should have expected... and now the Fifth...
TikTok and ByteDance claim the law violates "the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause because it singles Petitioners out for adverse treatment without any reason for doing so" and "effects an unlawful taking of private property without just compensation, in violation of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause." TikTok and ByteDance also say the US law "is an unconstitutional bill of attainder" because it singles out the plaintiffs "for legislative punishment."
The legislators, lawyers most of them, built a legal weapon specifically pointed at TikTok... that's not cool man. They never should have specified TikTok in the legislation, and now we see the fight continuing... at least the lawyers will be well-paid.
I have to wonder if they crafted the legislation wanting to lose this battle... or maybe keep it going.
The US would try to justify the law on national security grounds. US lawmakers have alleged that the Chinese Communist Party can weaponize TikTok to manipulate public opinion and access user data.
Of course, once this goes into the National Security realm... let's just say we won't be privy to all the details anymore.
The show is not over, folks!
