720-891-1663
This is an election year so there is no telling what Congress might do.
Today the House passed a ban on TikTok.
When Trump was in office he signed an Executive Order banning TikTok. The courts struck it down as unconstitutional.
The FBI has been warning of the security concerns around TikTok and its relationship to the Chinese government. While that is a legitimate concern and the Chinese government does have strong influence over TikTok and the content that it pushes, it is probably not a lot worse than say, Facebook, Twitter or Truth Social.
After all, China and other governments have already created and continue to create accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Truth Social and other media platforms and promote the same content on those platforms. They also collect data from thousands of apps on both iPhones and Android phones, so while a ban might have limited positive effect, the effect is just that – limited.
Since the courts ruled that Trump’s EO banning TikTok was an unconstitutional ban on free speech, the House (which is the part of Congress that has passed the ban) tried to construct this bill with a fig leaf pretending this is something other than government suppression of free speech. They said that if TikTok’s parent sold the company to a non Chinese company then the application would not be banned.
Assuming that TikTok’s parent does not sell TikTok in five months, it would become illegal for Google and Apple to distribute the app on their app stores. To the tune of $5,000 fine per user of the app or a total of $850 billion each.
It is unclear if the government could force those companies to reach into your phone and delete the apps from your phone, but that has happened before, so it is not out of the question.
In an election year it is not clear that it is smart to ban an app that is used by 170 million Americans and 7 million American businesses and would definitely be viewed as an overreach of government power by some.
TikTok is also a smart company and it is urging its users to call their Congress-critters. And they have been doing just that. Even when they don’t even understand why they should do that. Congress people are saying that they are getting a LOT of phone calls.
The Senate still needs to approve it and it is not clear that it will pass it. In fact, it is not clear that the Senate will even take the bill up. The Senate is much more deliberative than the House is.
The White House said the President would sign the bill if it makes it that far. Likely, that is because ex-President Trump all of a sudden has had a change of heart from when he signed the EO banning them. He says that would give Facebook and others more dominance. While that is true, it is likely more politically motivated in that he probably wants to use TikTok’s presence as a campaign item against Biden. The White House saying Biden would sign it is also politically motivated so that he looks strong on national security.
Any bill that passes in an election cycle always has political overtones.
The wild card is what the Supreme Court will do. Assuming it passes and the President signs it, it is almost sure to make it to the Supremes. Given the justices that Trump promoted to the court and their view of the Constitution and the First Amendment, I would suggest that the court would be inclined to say that the fig leaf that the House came up with to justify banning TikTok is just that and the Constitution trumps fig leaves, so to speak.
Of course, we have no clue.
What would be Constitutional and what Congress almost guaranteed will not do, is to pass a STRONG national privacy law covering the collection, use and sale of consumers’ data. Why not? Because the sale of your data is a multi-billion dollar industry with deep pockets who can hire lobbyists to water down any bill. After all, the House and Senate are coin-operated and if you give one of them a few hundred thousand dollar bribe (you can call it a campaign donation because that sound more legal), you will, pretty much, get them to vote however you want them to vote. Anyone who votes against the TikTok ban will not get any Christmas cards (or anything else) from those same lobbyists. Among those who have lobbyists on their speed dial are Facebook, Truth Social and other social media platforms
So, Congress will try the legally sketchy route rather than risking those campaign donations and doing what many countries around the world have done and pass a strong privacy law.
Politics is interesting, but this is far from over. Credit: CNN and NY1