Title asks it all. “Banning” TikTok – is that at all possible? I understand they can make it hard for folks to get the TikTok app by coercing companies to remove the app from the app stores, but that’s simply a minor inconvenience I would think – I can’t imagine anything can be removed from the internet, access prohibited, etc. What am I missing here?
In: Technology
In a very real sense Congress *can’t* ban TikTok specifically. There are clauses in the Constitution that prohibit Congress from stopping Business XYZ from operating. Congress *can* block entire types of business from operating in the US, but if they try to do that by narrowly defining the type then TikTok goes to the SCOTUS and says “violation of Constitution!” just like if Congress called them out by name.
And that doesn’t even BEGIN to look at either the 1ST Amendment or Commerce Clauses of the Constitution. Congress can’t stop TikTok, and it’s just a big bunch of nothing-burger when they say they will, pandering to their (generally Republican) constituents.
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