Comment Re:Free speech for corporations (Score 1) 99
The justification for the ban is "to protect residents from alleged intelligence gathering by China". I.e., a government standing up for privacy rights. User data is being transferred to Chinese servers. This is no different, really, than the EU demands that data on EU citizens not be stored on US servers.
There is actually quite a bit of difference between the US banning TikTok and the GDPR. Notably, the EU also imposes heavy regulation on how it's own domestic companies can store and use people's data. The US government's behaviour has done nothing to convince me that it actually gives any shits about the privacy of its citizens. Like, do you think any American politicians would kick up a fuss if the Chinese government simply bought user data from an American company?
I have no love for TikTok, and I don't particularly care if it gets banned, but I don't believe the justification being offered.