TikTok Bans Deny First Amendment Right to Receive Information
Congress is at it again trying to censor social media and deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights, this time passing a bill that also dramatically expands presidential power.
On March 13, 2024, the US House of Representatives voted 352 to 65, in favor of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The bill prohibits the distribution of or providing web hosting services that enable the distribution of an application owned by a “foreign adversary” unless the foreign adversary sells their share in the app.
The bill explicitly designates TikTok as a “foreign adversary controlled application.” It allows the president to designate other apps as “foreign adversary controlled applications” if they are controlled by foreign adversaries and pose “a significant threat to national security.” In short, not only does the bill create a de facto ban on TikTok, it creates vast new censorship authorities over social media apps for the President of the United States to exercise.
Defending Rights & Dissent has repeatedly opposed attempts to ban TikTok. Our Policy Director, Chip Gibbons, had this comment:
Congress’s de facto ban on TikTok is an unconstitutional assault on Americans’ First Amendment right to receive information.
Outlawing the distribution of a social media app is no different than prohibiting a newsstand from carrying a particular newspaper or barring a bookstore from selling certain books. It is shocking that Congress would even conceive of granting the president such authorities.
There are many legitimate concerns with social media, as well as how corporations and governments invade people’s privacy by collecting data on them. However, these concerns apply to social media writ large, not merely TikTok. Congress can and should pass laws protecting US citizens’ personal information from corporations, the US government, and foreign governments.
Singling out TikTok does nothing to address these concerns. Instead, it further fuels the xenophobia and the drive towards a Cold War with China it is a product of.
While scapegoating TikTok is not new, it is no secret that the movement to ban TikTok has gotten a boost from supporters of Israel’s war against the people of Gaza. Pro-Israel groups, media commentators, and members of Congress have all assailed TikTok for being allegedly anti-Israel. In some extreme instances, popular support for a ceasefire has been chalked up to misinformation from the Chinese government via TikTok.
The idea that movements for peace and justice are the products of foreign influence or the result of foreign propaganda is one the most malicious smears in the McCarthyite playbook. It also raises additional concerns that not only is the TikTok ban an affront to our First Amendment right to receive information rooted in xenophobia and neo-Cold War politics, but an attempt at impermissible viewpoint discrimination.