Its filing comes as Justice Department argues the law is meant to cut the popular short-video app’s ties to the Chinese government.

“The DoJ further said ‘no one disputes’ China’s goal of undermining US interests by collecting sensitive data about Americans through ‘ostensibly private companies subject to its control’ and by positioning assets stateside to be used at strategically advantageous moments.”

Categorically untrue. Many people doubt this.

Thanks @gnu2@gnusocial.jp for the link

  • spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.orgEnglish
    6·
    4 days ago

    here’s the same news, from a source less likely to be (or appear to be) biased (SCOTUS Blog): Parties file final briefs before Supreme Court hears TikTok case

    and for my fellow primary source nerds, you can also read all the filings in this case. the particular filing that this story is based on is “Reply of petitioners TikTok Inc. and ByteDance Ltd” from Jan 3rd.

    directly from the 31 page PDF:

    The Government begins by claiming the Act’s TikTok-specific provision is subject to no First Amendment scrutiny at all—a position rejected by all three judges below. It argues ByteDance Ltd. has no rights because it is foreign, and TikTok Inc. has no rights because it has no authority over the algorithm and recommendation engine used on the U.S. platform.

    as I’ve posted previously - news articles about this do a very poor job of explaining that the law applies primarily to Apple and Google. it requires them to remove the TikTok app from their respective app stores, with a fine of $5000 per user if they don’t comply. so “it only applies to foreign companies and they have no rights” is complete bullshit.

    the DOJ’s position that this isn’t a 1st Amendment issue is laughable. they’re trying to ban force Apple and Google not to distribute the TikTok app, because they dislike the content published via the app. there’s a specific legal term for this - viewpoint discrimination - and it’s one of the clearest examples of speech restrictions that are forbidden by the 1st Amendment.