POLITICAL POSTURING OR A MOVE TOWARDS “NET NATIONALISM?”: THE LEGALITY OF A TIKTOK BAN AND WHY FOREIGN TECH COMPANIES SHOULD BE PAYING ATTENTION

NCJOLT-Vol.-22.3_527-573_Supak

In July 2020, former President Trump issued an Executive Order attempting to unilaterally ban TikTok, a social media platform used mainly by teenagers to post videos of dances or viral challenges. Banning a social media app is unprecedented in the United States and raises various concerns among a wide variety of interested parties. These concerns range from whether the President could legally take such action to whether First Amendment rights were violated to simply why even target a seemingly nonsensical social media app. This Article attempts to answer these questions and provides guidance to foreign tech companies that wish to continue doing business in a United States that glaringly disapproves of any company with ties to the government of the People’s Republic of China.

Author: Gabrielle Supak

PDF: http://ncjolt.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/04/NCJOLT-Vol.-22.3_527-573_Supak.pdf

Volume 22, Issue 3