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Comment on TikTok sues U.S. government, saying potential ban violates First Amendment

As much as I get what you are saying, the United States has continually expanded the rights of corporations to essentially be… people. So on that they seem to have some legal standing?

Afaik, the Citizens United case - which gave corporations First Amendment rights - was won based on the idea that the government can’t stop a corporation from publishing books. It’ll be interesting to see how this ruling goes when it’s not about books, but about an online media platform.

That said, I agree that the national security aspect will definitely come into play here. As a non-American, I’m curious to see how it goes.

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Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

the Citizens United case - which gave corporations First Amendment rights

SCOTUS has generally defended the idea that corporations have first amendment rights since Grosjean v. American Press Co. in 1936 - a case where a Senator pushed for a tax designed to target papers critical of him and tax them into submission.

To quote Wikipedia on the case:

The case is often cited because it defined corporations as “persons” for purposes of analysis under the Equal Protection clause.

The Citizens United case was that a corporate entity or nonprofit distributing political messaging about a candidate is not considered a campaign contribution (even when it costs them to do so) so long as the entity in question is not attached to or coordinating with the campaign.

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