While more aggressive than most, TikTok’s extensive lobbying campaign is the latest attempt by the tech industry to head off any new legislation — and it's a fight the industry usually wins.

The young voices in the messages left for North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis were laughing, but the words were ominous.

“OK, listen, if you ban TikTok I will find you and shoot you,” one said, giggling and talking over other young voices in the background. “I’ll shoot you and find you and cut you into pieces.” Another threatened to kill Tillis, and then take their own life.

Tillis’s office says it has received around 1,000 calls about TikTok since the House passed legislation this month that would ban the popular app if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake. TikTok has been urging its users — many of whom are young — to call their representatives, even providing an easy link to the phone numbers. “The government will take away the community that you and millions of other Americans love,” read one pop-up message from the company when users opened the app.

Cool zoomers to US congress and senate members : were-gonna-kill-you

  • HexbearGPT [comrade/them]
    ·
    8 months ago

    Is also blatantly anti-free speech. It’s massive government censorship, the equivalent of the cops storming into a newspaper’s offices and seizing the presses to stop publishing.

    It’s wild.

    • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      8 months ago

      I agree with you if the obvious law was followed

      however there are still anti BDS laws (blatant first amendment violation) as well as the entirety of the NSA and patriot act (blatant 4th amendment violators)

      the courts pick and choose and if something has a sliver of plausible pro-cop or pro-“national security” value (defined by the same agencies violating rights eg DHS, FBI, NSA…) it could very well be upheld by courts.

      of course the idea that TikTok is a national security risk while facebook or twitter or the NSA somehow ARENT is based in racism, delusions and fairytales Americans keep telling. those are things hogs love…and judges are just overeducated hogs usually, so, my faith in them is nearly zero.

    • D61 [any]
      ·
      8 months ago

      Well.. in a roundabout way maybe, but the US Congress is getting around a direct Free Speech conflict by only demanding that any Chinese interests divest from the company. If they sell (which they probably won't) then Congress technically gets a "win" and TikTok will continue to exist as is.