ByteDance, the owners of TikTok, are of course, suing the U.S. government over the potential ban of TikTok – but there was something at the very bottom of an Al Jazeera article.
For its part, China has taken similar actions against US-based companies like Meta, whose WhatsApp and Threads platforms were recently ordered to be removed from Chinese-based app stores over questions of national security.
“TikTok owner ByteDance files lawsuit against US law forcing app’s sale“, AlJazeera, 7 May 20241
That’s a pretty important point. Without ties to ByteDance, there would be no reason to ratchet things up – and the ratchet is largely symbolic given the Great Firewall of China.
The 1st Amendment issue the U.S. Government is being taken to task for – and with fair reason – allows rights for TikTok itself to have the 1st Amendment Right. The 1st Amendment Rights of U.S. users serve to mist the issue, but these things are separate. ByteDance is defending it’s right, not the right of users.
That China doesn’t have an equivalent of the First Amendment seems to be constantly absent in the media coverage of this, as people are concerned about their First Amendment rights… even as they themselves don’t understand the algorithms, or the cost that they incur on a centralized platform they have no control over. Like any platform these days, aside from the Fediverse.
Better informed users might make better informed decisions. The Fediverse awaits.
- Al Jazeera just gave an example of being even-handed by adding that, on the heels of being banned in Israel. ↩︎