Getting this court to agree 9-0 on a politically sensitive case is pretty fuckin' impressive. You want to regulate commerce with a foreign-owned entity for professed national security reasons, then you pass a law in Congress. That's the way the US government is actually meant to function, and it's sort of facepalmingly hilarious that they did something so stupid so well. If no one wants the law anymore, then it should be fairly simple to extend the deadline or repeal the law, riiiight? You own this mess now, Republicans. You own all the messes.
I'm honestly shocked the SC took up the case. Congress clearly has the authority to regulate businesses doing interstate commerce (like tiktok). I think the law is dumb china hawkery, but I also think there's nothing unconstitutional about it. Congress could shutdown nearly any tech business they like for whatever reason they like.
Yeah, if not for all the people raising hell, I think this is normally one where they just agree to silently let the lower court ruling stand.
As for the law, it's stupid. I am willing to consider that there may be some concerns that are unique to a Chinese-owned social media app becoming so popular in the US, but we were nowhere near the tipping point where we needed specific TikTok legislation, and even if it were warranted then something much more narrowly tailored could have worked. It was a boomer kneejerk to come down so hard, and especially to do so without considering the potential for backlash among voters that both parties want to court. It also isn't a good look that this all goes down while the mask is coming off of our homegrown social media, and it's becoming more blatantly obvious that their interests are not particularly aligned with an average American's either.
It's not even a national security issue... If it was the government would actually dig into the app and see if there was anything malicious in there. It's a profit thing. They're all mad that American companies aren't getting a cut.
What national security issue is there with China having data about our location and not the same issue with American companies that poorly secure that data if at all and willingly sell it to anyone, probably even other Chinese companies?
As long as this country is going down the tubes, we should at least make some good TV out of it. Trump should hold a live fundraising event where "Pro-Tiktok Gratuity" and "Anti-Tiktok Gratuity" NFTs are marketed in real time. We can show the needle going back and forth, just like the NY Times does for elections. Whichever side wins gets to decide what happens to TikTok in the US. All gratuities (win or lose) go directly into the President's own tip jar.
Direct democracy in action! One Dollar, One Vote, just like the Founders intended.
While I could not give less of a shit about TikTok except as a possible personal source of revenue for people who want to hire me to make videos for them, I'm a hell of a lot more worried about the influence of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter now that you're allowed to do things like call queer people mentally ill pedophiles and immigrants are dirty criminals.
Both sides can be bad, with TikTok the problem is that it is controlled by an adversary, a nation that doesn't have good relationship with the US and wants it to collapse.
Frankly if I had power I would go after Twitter and Meta as well.