I am sure there are reasons to criticize TikTok. TikTok’s parent is a Chinese company but the allegation TikTok is “beholden” directly to the Chinese government itself hasn’t yet been established IMO.
American tech companies can be based in America and not be beholden to the American government. As we saw just recently with the GOP-led congressional hearings for the “Big 4.”
And that is a good thing.
The problem is that TikTok is home to some famous Trump critics whose work has been so successful that it’s been profiled in major newspapers.
If there is any kind of speech that deserves maximal constitutional protection under the First Amendment, it’s speech that criticizes our elected head-of-state.
It’s hard to rule out the possibility of bias in decisions undertaken by the President at the stroke of a pen against media platforms used to criticize him.
And precedents that get established under a Republican president could be utilized later by a Democratic president in ways that you might not like.
I feel like conservatives used to have a better grasp of some of these nuances of free speech issues, but the conversation has kind of devolved into a cesspit of defense of the most hateful kinds of speech against minorities, anti-science propaganda that could get people killed, etc.
If you don’t 100% support the most grotesque, hateful, bigoted, and fact-free speech online, then it seems conservatives aren’t interested in anything else you have to say on this subject anymore.
