Black is white, up is down, short is long, and, according to the US Supreme Court, mass government censorship of TikTok is protecting free speech.
For a period of time, the United States had what was known as the OWL party. OWL, of course, stood for “Out With Logic, On With Lunacy”. As time goes on, it seems that the slogan is becoming more and more relevant to describing the state of affairs in the US.
That lunacy was on full display during the entire TikTok saga. TikTok, of course, is a social media platform that is used by an estimated 120.5 million American’s. For mainstream media, however, this represents a major problem. The more people are spending time watching TikTok, the less time they are watching, well, mainstream media. Sure, they could restore the trust among the audience that they lost by going back to the tried and true methods of fact based journalism and reporting things factually, but their business model hinges on exploiting their readers rather than actually, you know, informing them, so that’s about the last thing they want to do.
So, naturally, the mainstream media starts pushing fabricated conspiracy theories about how Tiktok is a Chinese government mind controlling device designed to hypnotize and brainwash American viewers into supporting the communist Chinese government through manipulating the algorithm by suggesting random funny cat video’s and non-political dance video’s. I… wish I was making that up. Obviously, there is no evidence that this is even happening, but thanks to living in a post truth society, facts, data, and the truth are for losers anyway. Throw in a little lobbying of the government and a good healthy dose of straight up xenophobia and just watch the system get to work destroying the platforms presence in the country so that people will come flocking back to their television to watch their “news” casts.
For the most part, the government and mainstream media’s scheme worked. Legislation was passed banning Tiktok, TikTok, of course, challenged it for obvious free speech violations, and the case worked it’s way all the way up to the US Supreme Court. Today, we are learning that the anti-free speech crowd has scored a major victory. Apparently, the US Supreme Court has ruled that mass government censorship of a platform does not violate the free speech of the organization being censored. I kid you not. From TechDirt:
It seemed pretty obvious from the way the Supreme Court’s oral arguments went regarding the TikTok ban that this would be the outcome: a 9-0 per curiam decision saying “eh, it’s fine to ban TikTok.”
There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community. But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.
The ruling is fundamentally problematic on a number of different levels, but it’s the new reality. This decision sets a dangerous precedent that could enable further government overreach and censorship, under the guise of national security concerns. We’ll have another post exploring the amount of absolute censorial fuckery that this ruling will create, if not in practice, at least among the eager-to-censor political class who will view this as an instruction manual.
To summarize: this was a grave national security threat because China could get access to all sorts of secret data (which they already have access to because we don’t have any comprehensive data privacy law) or maybe it was because they could manipulate the minds of children (which every other form of media also can legally do) or because “THIS IS DIFFERENT IT’S CHINA YOU DUM DUM” as people on social media keep trying to tell me. The lack of a clear, consistent justification for singling out TikTok, while other apps and platforms engage in similar data collection practices, reveals the arbitrary and capricious nature of this ban.
Indeed, it was such a grave threat that the Supreme Court felt they had to rush the briefing way out of line with normal briefing schedules, because it was just so so important to block this app that the kids like.
This is probably the worst Supreme Court ruling I’ve seen since the ruling that said that all crime is legal as long as it is an official act done by a president. It basically says that if you scream “NASHUNAL SHEKURITEE”, the US Constitution will no longer apply and America can get to the business of erecting the Great Firewall of America and censor whatever the government damned well feels like on a whim. It’s a terrible precedent that can only further backfire on everyone involved.
While this is legally the end of the road for TikTok, I do see TikTok still having options. After all, they do have about a third of the US population using the platform in the first place. On the 19th, they could very easily just shut down in the US and put up a notice saying that, due to a US Supreme Court ruling, the platform can no longer function in their country. When politician’s piss off a third of the population, there’s going to be some politicians who are suddenly going to listen. After all, there’s hundreds of thousands of jobs that are suddenly vanishing overnight in the process, so it goes way beyond just random video’s to watch.
If you think that this is too much to hope for, keep in mind that convicted felon, Donald Trump, is already moving to fight the ban as it is. He’s going to be president in a few days. How far he’ll take the fight remains to be seen, but he’s no longer hell bent on banning the app like he previously was.
At any rate, this is a dark day for America. No question about it. This ruling is more than an effort to ban TikTok. It is a green light to inflict mass government censorship on the internet. Just say “national security” and watch free speech magically disappear. The internet censorship doesn’t get much more blatant than that. At least we can point to this case when we say that freedom of expression is dead on the US as proof of that.
The TikTok ban is said to take effect on the 19th.
