[wheaties]

National security has always beaten First Amendment (and many other rights.) I love watching TikTok but even i know how this will shake out.

Now the question will be, who will rush to fill in this void? Will Bliesky release short form videos, too?

[hangonhn]

The campaign against TikTok has been driven heavily by Meta/Facebook: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/faceboo... (or https://archive.is/fffia)

My guess is that Meta will capitalize on the ban and is in a good position to given their AI prowess and ubiquity on most people's devices.

[logicchains]

Meta's Reels is much less engaging than TikTok (as measured by user numbers and anecdotal user experience), and if competition from TikTok is removed they'll have even less reason to improve it.

[logicchains]

>National security has always beaten First Amendment (and many other rights.)

This is absolutely not the case, as evidenced by the fact we all have access to encryption, which the security establishment tried to ban in the '90s. The First Amendment is the reason why secure encryption isn't restricted to government and military usage only.

[BeefWellington]

It was export restricted for ages. If you were an American company as late as the late 2000's (at least) you had to get permission to export strong encryption.

The right to communicate math ended at the US border. It's entirely feasible given the laws for that kind of walling off of content to be legal.

There's also the chilling effect of the government doing it anyways, even if they will eventually lose that legal battle in court.

[andrewla]

I would dare to say that National Security should beat the First Amendment.

But the argument that TikTok bears any relationship to "national security" is ludicrous on the face of it. They're not posting nuclear secrets, they're posting short videos.

[axus]

National Security Through Obscurity? When has the freedom of religion, speech, press, or assembly ever been bad for the United States? The government can make agreements with its agents to limit those, and can control its own information, but not other peoples'.

[chasil]

As I understand it, TikTok is only being removed from the Apple & Google app stores, and existing installations will not be touched.

For Google, sideloading TikTok remains an option, both for new installs and updates. This is not an option for Apple.

Is there a point where the installed app itself becomes illegal?

[monocasa]

If they have a ban, they can force ISPs to block it. The app does nothing without server access.

[drpossum]

What's the first amendment right being violated in this case?

[Miner49er]

It's mentioned in the article, Lamont v. Postmaster General found that Americans have the right to receive speech/information even foreign propaganda.

[valbaca]

Instagram has already completely become a clone of TikTok