Disinformation on TikTok is no worse than Fox News – Chicago Tribune

This week, the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to demand that TikTok divest its Chinese stake or face being banned in the US on national security grounds.

Security risks identified by the bill's sponsors include Chinese law that gives Xi Jinping legal access to user data, as well as China's ability to interfere in U.S. elections.

The standard debate over the First Amendment asks: When does one person's right to spread misinformation yield to another person's right not to be harmed by it? But in the context of election security, if Congress interferes with a foreign media platform like TikTok, why should a domestic company like Fox News, also guilty of widespread election misinformation, be spared the same scrutiny?

Online disinformation

In recent years, the most aggressive online disinformation campaigns in the United States have targeted COVID-19 vaccines, climate science and elections. Pew Research now shows that 55% of American adults want the federal government to limit this misinformation.

Misinformation about Covid and climate can be combatted relatively easily since death rates, increasing wildfires and disappearing aquifers cannot lie.

Election disinformation is another story. Of all online disinformation campaigns in any given hour, election lies are the hardest to regulate because political speech enjoys the highest legal protection under the 1st Amendment.

Paradoxically, political disinformation also poses the greatest threat to the 1st Amendment and to civil liberties in general. Donald Trump began claiming the 2020 election was rigged months before the first votes were cast. Since then, an initially resistant Republican has begun to embrace political opportunism by repeating his claims:

Republicans haven't won the popular vote in a presidential election in decades, and it's easier to denounce a stolen election than to adjust policies enough to broaden the party's political appeal.

Republicans' strained relationship with the truth is further complicated by deep-pocketed political donors who demand different results than ordinary voters want and who are willing to fund massive public disinformation campaigns to achieve those results.

As a direct result of widespread election misinformation, 40% of Americans believe Trump won the 2020 election, and 64% of election officials say their job is now more dangerous. Not only does election misinformation weaken national political processes, it has been used by lawmakers to justify new laws aimed at voter suppression in a self-serving, closed-loop flow of information.

If we are truly concerned about the damage to US elections, why should Fox News be spared?

TikTok may be downplaying its interest in US domestic politics, but when it encouraged its users to flood the offices of US representatives with angry calls, TikTok demonstrated both its interest and its ability to influence political outcomes Americans whenever he wants.

It's also clear that TikTok's algorithms are suppressing topics that annoy Chinese leaders. As the New York Times reports, researchers compiled information on popular TikTok videos on topics commonly deleted in China, such as the plight of China's Uyghur population and public protests in Hong Kong, and found that they were underrepresented on TikTok compared to other social networks like Instagram. . The search emerged from TikTok's own creative hub, and after the underrepresentation was flagged, TikTok quietly mastered its own search tool rather than tackle the subterfuge.

As Congress confronts evidence that China is manipulating information, why should domestic manipulation by Fox News be treated any differently? Fox News admitted to peddling massive voter misinformation during the last presidential election, leading Dominion Voting Systems to sue Fox – successfully – for defamation. Explosive documentary evidence showed that top Fox anchors and executives joked about Trump's farcical stolen election claims but told their viewers something entirely different, leading to an unprecedented settlement, of nearly a billion dollars.

As instruments of social and political manipulation, TikTok and Fox News target similar audiences. TikTok attracts hormonal teenagers with addictive local videos, while Fox targets their poorly educated parents and grandparents. Both media outlets manipulate their audiences by selling infotainment.

If the TikTok bill reaches the Senate, it will face tough legal challenges. Under long-standing First Amendment precedent, the government will have to demonstrate a compelling governmental interest, and that a forced divestment from or ban on TikTok represents the least restrictive means of advancing that interest.

Regardless of the legal analysis, there are few concerns more compelling for the federal government than the preservation of free elections and the democratic system. What's sorely missing from the debate over online misinformation, at least so far, is why TikTok's election interference is more dangerous than Fox News' election interference.

Sabrina Haake is a Chicago attorney and Gary resident. She writes the Substack newsletter The Haake socket.