The news just broke that ByteDance just rejected Microsoft's offer to buy TikTok*.
This is big news, with profound First Amendment implications. Trump has threatened to ban TikTok in the United States. Were it owned by Microsoft, an American corporation, banning any of its media would be an obvious, ipso facto, violation of the First Amendment, and its provision that "Congress [i.e, the Federal government] shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press".
But what about TikTok, now owned by the Chinese company ByteDance? Some would argue that the First Amendment pertains only to American media. I (and others) would argue otherwise. The First Amendment is designed to protect the public's right to know -- Congress is prohibited from banning or restricting media because that seriously interferes with everyone's right to know what's going on. How else can a democracy function?
I'm glad that ByteDance said no to Microsoft. I have nothing at all against Microsoft -- in fact, I defended Microsoft against our government's foolish threats to break up their alleged monopoly back in the 1990s -- but I'm glad that ByteDance's action will put Trump's blustering to a legal test. If that happens, if he doesn't back down, it will ultimately be up to the U. S. Supreme Court to determine whether the First Amendment protects the public's right to have access to international media, which is becoming increasingly important in our interconnected world.
You never know for sure about any Supreme Court decision before it's rendered, but I'm always glad to see an issue like this, which gets at the First Amendment and its foundation of our democracy, put to the judicial test.
*PS: And news just came through that ByteDance decided to make Oracle, a U. S. firm, as its partner for Tikok. Will that qualify for TikTok as being an American firm?
