On and after the date that is 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall exercise all the powers granted to the President under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et. seq.) to the extent necessary to block and prohibit all transactions in all property and interests in property of a social media company described in subsection (b) if such property and interests in property—
(1) are in the United States or come within the United States; or
(2) to the extent necessary to prevent commercial operation of the social media company in the United States, are or come within the possession or control of a United States person.
How on earth does this pass constitutional muster?
As much as Tik Tok needs to be eradicated from the planet, I don’t see how this would be constitutional. Seems like a clear violation of the 1st amendment.
The first amendment in relation to modern tech needs more examining. We were supposed to be outraged at anonymous posts by Russia in 2016, but now an application that could give China the power to amplify or block political messages during our elections is clear first amendment? The FBI trying to influence tech companies what posts, though legal, should be banned is ok? A federal government that thought it was ok to set up an office of misinformation and feed tech companies with their opinions on moderation Is no problem?
Clearly we are in a mixed up period of the relationship of big tech and the first amendment.
This fake outrage by Republicans at Tik Tok is pandering. They want to show their base how tough they are on China.
Tik Tok and other platforms will only vanish when they lose their user base which is not going to happen anytime soon.
My wife has a friend who makes a crap ton of money on Tik Tok and other platforms by just posting videos of her legs. Got to love capitalism and crowdfunding LOL.
Is it a first amendment right to let a Chinese controlled company transmit information including amplifying or blocking what they chose through an app, but interference in our elections for Russia to make tweets?
It might be fake outrage at the GOP because TikTok is populated mostly by users that are not part of the GOP constituency, but…
…the national security concerns are, as far as I can see, very real.
TikTok swears it doesn’t respond to China’s moderation and data requests…but in July it was revealed that people in China did have access to the data TikTok collects in the US.
And…we should be concerned about our own government using such data, since THEY have access to it as well.
I don’t understand TikTok’s appeal…except it seems people’s attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter. We used to be able to listen to Chatauquas that went on for hours or read long essays…now a 15-30 second video seems to stretch the limits of our endurance.
How long until we get nothing but two second flashes?
I just assume nothing I do online is private. Not sure what data China can collect that makes Tik Tok a national security threat.
Reducing attention spans is for me a bigger problem. Social Media and the internet has definitely contributed to that but that impacts all generations who are online.
I agree- but man- TikTok is a massive hit with youngsters and my guess without looking is it is the most used social media app by them.
I would want to see some hard evidence that the Chinese government is using the data for nefarious purposes before blocking it. Data mining has long been a thing associated with social media and most users essentially shrug their shoulders. Its the main reason I’m not on any social media.
