[Cookingboy]

>Deliberately misinforming people, especially under a foreign state payroll, is illegal.

First of all if you have any evidence of TikTok engaging in it, you should present it since even our government have said there is no such evidence and that possibility remains hypothetical.

Secondly no, it's not illegal to spread misinformation, no matter the motive. The First Amendment absolutely guarantees that right.

[shlant]

> Secondly no, it's not illegal to spread misinformation, no matter the motive. The First Amendment absolutely guarantees that right.

Again, does NOBODY know what the first amendment covers???

If you yell FIRE in a crowded theatre (misinformation) that is not covered by the 1st amendment[1]. Please stop talking confidently about something you don't understand.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenck_v._United_States

Edit: Schenck v. United States was largely overturned by Brandenburg v. Ohio but not completely, only limiting the scope. There are also many other examples that could be used to show that spreading misinformation is not blanket covered by 1a (defamation for example).

[Cookingboy]

If you do understand First Amendment then you should also understand that foreign propaganda is protected speech, and is not treated as yelling fire in a crowded theater:

https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/lamont-v-postmaster-...

[NavinF]

Why did you cite a case that was overturned by https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._Ohio

The new ruling makes it clear that misinformation is legal under 1A

[ltbarcly3]

There are several studies thwt strongly imply TikTok pushes an agenda.

[Cthulhu_]

Which ones? Can you link some or provide the right search queries to find these?

Without substantiating your claim with links / references, this is an empty "appeal to authority" argument, aka weasel words.

[jkaplowitz]

> Secondly no, it's not illegal to spread misinformation, no matter the motive. The First Amendment absolutely guarantees that right.

Not accurate, no, assuming that by misinformation you mean information that the author knows to be false. To name just two quite legally clear examples with no inherent connection to foreign states, US defamation law and US product liability law often create civil liability and occasionally even criminal liability for certain categories of knowingly false statements.

But, sure, spreading misinformation is not always illegal, and a blanket ban on that would indeed violate the First Amendment even though more targeted bans have been upheld as passing the relevant judicial tests for laws affecting First Amendment rights.

[Cookingboy]

>even though more targeted bans have been upheld as passing the relevant judicial tests for laws affecting First Amendment rights.

Such as?

[Cookingboy]

>It is illegal if it is paid for foreign state and undeclared.

Good. Because ByteDance has never tried to hide the fact that it's a Chinese company. So that argument wouldn't matter even if there are evidence of them pushing Chinese propaganda.

[sabbaticaldev]

Facebook, instagram and youtube have been used to manipulate elections way before tiktok, that’s not the reason it’s being banned.