Source: The Atlantic
by Evelyn Douek
“Last week, a federal court upheld the extraordinary use of government power against TikTok, the social-media platform that an estimated 170 million Americans use to dance, sing, talk about politics, and engage in a lot of other First Amendment–protected expression. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously dismissed TikTok’s challenge to a law requiring that the app — currently a subsidiary of the Chinese tech company ByteDance — be sold to new owners by January 19 or be shut down in the United States. This is a stunning holding in a country proud of its free-speech tradition. Shutting down a whole speech forum is generally associated with repressive countries such as Russia and China. And the decision is all the more remarkable because the court acknowledged that the law was motivated by concerns about what Americans might be convinced to believe by using the app.” (12/12/24)