TikTok sues to block prospective US app ban

Wouldn't actual data privacy laws stop this all the same? I can't help but feel this weird song and dance avoiding the privacy argument exists so US companies don't get in the crossfire for doing the same shit with your data.

No way in hell they'd ever argue data privacy.
That's only for apple to pretend to care about while selling your data to brokers.
- Sorry Apple is selling user data to data brokers now?
Yes, but congress just authorized a bunch of new surveillance
No, because it's more about the curation algorithm than it is about the data or privacy.
Regulating curation is a clear violation of free speech laws for citizens, but foreign entity that controls TikTok has no such protections. Giving them this protection could be a dangerous precedent.
A study about TikTok's pro-China tip and algorithm manipulation
An article about the history of US regulation regarding limits on who can broadcast directly to US citizens
- This is still a problem with US based platforms, though.
  I would think people of the fediverse of all places would feel strongly about allowing users to control their own curation rather than allowing private companies to dictate what individual users see.
Affective legislation rather knee jerk reactionary politics? Not in America, buddy.
Remember the golden rule of American thought:
CHINA BAD.
- Both can be true, poor US legislation that protects their buddies (investors), and China’s bad
This is about military bases, bud.
- Then why is it not limited to military personnel?

It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out. In my head this argument is a little shaky, since it seems to be effectively arguing that Americans have the right to access foreign propoganda machines? There is legal precedent here, but the nature of propoganda has massively changed since the 60s.

This is going to be a very interesting court case that has broad reaching implications, but expect no Americans to give a shit because it's not going to feature a trash fire to gawk at.

Lamont v. Postmaster General(1965)
Supreme Court ruled that publishing propaganda in America is free speech. You're not allowed to interfere with an American's access to propaganda
Justice Brennan made explicit what had been implicit in the majority opinion, declaring that “the right to receive publications is . . . a fundamental right,” the protection of which is “necessary to make the express guarantees [of the First Amendment] fully meaningful.”
- I'm aware of the precedent, but there's a pretty massive difference between being able to receive printed media, and being able to have continual access to post and contribute content to a foreign propoganda tool that uses an algorithm to purposefully suppress subjects the CCP disapproves of. I don't believe the precedent is going to be applicable here, but IANAL, and maybe ByteDance's lawyers think this defense will be a slam dunk.
In my head this argument is a little shaky, since it seems to be effectively arguing that Americans have the right to access foreign propoganda machines?
I don't see why that's shaky? There a plenty of books written by members of the CPC (Including Xi Jinping himself) on Amazon, in English, should Americans be banned from accessing that foreign propaganda?
Only Zionist propaganda is allowed in the US
https://truthout.org/articles/romney-and-blinken-admit-tiktok-ban-sought-to-censor-gaza-news/
- I wouldn't trust any organization that has "truth" in its name. It's like the car salesperson who says "Trust me" way too much.
  And according to Media Bias/Fact Check, they've got a clear bias and are not classified as factual reporting.
- to not would mean someone is controlling the propaganda I.e. all information
- I can agree with that, but it becomes muddier when it's a social media platform where your participation on the platform lends it credibility. As an example, the Hong Kong protests were supressed on TikTok at the behest of the CCP. You could argue that by creating the content that ByteDance's algorithm used to bury the videos being posted on TikTok, regular unwitting Americans were assisting the CCP in covering up the protests.
  It'll be on ByteDance to prove those kinds of concerns invalid, just as it will be the US' job to demonstrate the threat posed by TikTok to Americans.
Especially for real law, you would have to define propaganda which I don't think has really been done.
I have thought about it and I don't see why all information isn't some form of propaganda because you're either bias on purpose by trying to persuade or bias by what you're aware of and know which can't be all information with our tiny human minds.
How do you measure bias without having some objective physical level model of the truth even?
I think the argument against TikTok and other Chinese companies is probably that you wouldn't allow Facebook by Chinese Communist Party and this crosses the line into that. To be fair though, you could probably ultimately make the same argument for US companies. Why is there so much money available for ads for VPNs compared to the financials of that market? Only a few answers to that one...
- Propoganda does have a legal definition though, it's not nearly as nebulous as all biased information. It does need to be purposefully distorting, either by falsifying information or by withholding relevant information. It also needs to be produced by an organized group or government, just making up nonsense about yourself doesn't count.
This is a really good read about how TikTok regulation fits into the historic skew of legal precedence and past regulation https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/tiktok-bill-foreign-influence/677806/

Wasn't Facebook proven to give misleading information that led old people to vote for Trump that was ultimately from Russia propaganda sources? Where's the Meta ban?

Once again, the app isnt going to be banned unless the CCCP refuses to divest from TikTok

#1. The CCCP is Soviet Russia. #2. The requirement is that Bytedance sells tiktok (along with it's proprietary algorithms) to a US based company.
Once again, the app isnt going to be banned unless the CCCP refuses to divest from TikTok
CCCP 😂🤣😂. Fuck me that's hilarious.
Yep its going to get banned.
Also I think you mean CCP
Besides what other people have said, there's virtually no chance of the CCP divesting from TikTok.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

TikTok sued Tuesday to block a US law that could force a nationwide ban of the popular app, following through on legal threats the company issued after President Joe Biden signed the legislation last month.

The court challenge sets up a historic legal battle, one that will determine whether US security concerns about TikTok’s links to China can trump the First Amendment rights of TikTok’s 170 million US users.

If it loses, TikTok could be banned from US app stores unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells the app to a non-Chinese entity by mid-January 2025.

In its petition filed Tuesday at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, TikTok and Bytedance allege the law is unconstitutional because it stifles Americans’ speech and prevents them from accessing lawful information.

The petition claims the US government “has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning” the short-form video app in an unconstitutional exercise of congressional power.

“For the first time in history,” the petition said, “Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide.”

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