What If Free Speech Means Banning TikTok?
A federal court is floating a new framework for thinking about the First Amendment in the age of social media.
So, Free Speech, so long as it's speech the government is OK with. Yup, that seems to square perfectly with the First Amendment, no contradictions there. /s
Honestly, I see the whole line of reasoning "we make speech free by restricting speech" as complete bullshit. Claiming that a prior restraint on speech increases freedom requires some amazing mental gymnastics. This doesn't mean that ByteDance shouldn't be forced to divest from TikTok. It seems completely reasonable to look at TikTok and realize that it is being used as an arm of the PRC for propaganda, influence and data collection. Based on that realization the Federal Government has a valid, compelling interest in limiting the reach of ByteDance. And a law forcing the divestiture of TikTok by ByteDance is limited in scope and works to resolve the issue, without overly burdening Free Speech.
But, claiming that setting the Government makes speech freer by restricting speech is just Orwellian Double Speak.
***> âwe make speech free by restricting speechâ ***
I agree. This is obviously contradictory. But we see it throughout all social media always along the lines of , "we need to censor the opinions that you have that conflict with our's to protect free speech"
What a privately owned site does isn't really a matter of free speech, online whining about it be damned. This is about government restrictions on speech. The whole point of the First Amendment was that the government should not get to the be arbiter of what speech is allowed and what is not. This has it's limits (all rights do), and people can be held to account for the repercussions their speech has (libel, calls to violence, etc.). But, the government should not be in the position of deciding what speech is acceptable and what isn't unless there is a very compelling reason. Stop and ask yourself, do you really want the incoming administration to get to decide what speech is OK and what isn't?
some speech is speech-ier than others
directly proportional to the amount of money representing the speech in question
What, you mean an app engineered to turn information into an addictive drug that tries to keep users hooked regardless of whether that is any good for them or not, in the interest of maximized revenues, might not be an exercise of genuinely "free" speech?
Huh, weird.
Yes, but that describes all social media with engagement algorithms.
The only discernible difference between TikTok and Reels is foreign ownership, and the article is truncated before it substantiates its claim about the ban protecting free speech.
Yes, but that describes all social media with engagement algorithms.
Hmmmmmmm
The shorts format specifically is extra dangerous, it's sort of the fentanyl to youtube's heroin. Their specific algorithm is also unusually effective.
It's true that any other social media that successfully copies tiktok's methods would become just as bad from a health perspective.
What if pigs fly?
As usual, techdirt.com got it right: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/06/dc-circuit-upholds-tiktok-ban-in-alarming-ruling-claiming-it-actually-enhances-free-speech/
Foreign governments don't have a first-amendment right to manipulate American public opinion, but Americans have a first-amendment right to consume foreign propaganda. The fact that TikTok is operated by a Chinese company isn't a secret, and neither is the fact that the Chinese government has a great deal of influence over Chinese companies and can use that influence to further goals that it perceives as contrary to US interests. Americans who choose to use TikTok anyway have the right to make that choice, because "I don't care that my social media is being manipulated by a hostile foreign power" is an ideology which, while perhaps foolish, is still in the same category as any other political ideology.
Banning the publication of the Communist Manifesto during the Red Scare would have been a first-amendment violation despite the (valid, IMO) argument that preventing communists from gaining control of the USA would, in the long term, protect free speech. So is banning TikTok.
"Free Speech" isn't owned by TikTok. Ban away.
Need to speek freely? Do so! Need TikTok to do it? HA.
It's not about any opinion in particular.
It's not about how that opinion is expressed, or to whom.
This is a business. It's owned by a foreign state. Other sites offered the same kind of platform before it, and plenty more offer it right now.