Biden signs TikTok ban into law, setting up First Amendment fight

Biden signs TikTok ban into law, setting up First Amendment fight.

FTC moves to ban noncompete agreements for most jobs.

Today, President Biden signed a package of bills into law, pledging $95 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and forcing the sale of online video sharing platform TikTok. TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance has 9 months to either sell the platform to a non-Chinese company or face a ban in the US. Over 170 million Americans use the TikTok app to share and view short videos. Millions of Americans also use TikTok to promote businesses and earn an income.

TikTok’s Singaporean CEO Shou Chew has vowed to fight the ban in court on First Amendment grounds. The platform has previously won legal victories in US courts which thwarted attempts by former President Trump and some individual states from banning the app.

Supporters of the effort to ban TikTok or force its sale have argued that the fact that TikTok’s Chinese ownership means that Americans are willingly sharing their data on an app which the Chinese Communist Party could theoretically access. ByteDance has taken privacy and data protection measures in hopes of allaying fears (more stringent policies than those used by Google or Facebook parent Meta). However, these measures have failed to persuade the app’s critics.

Curiously, a bill proposed two years ago that would force all social media companies to protect users’ data has never even come to the floor for a vote. Furthermore, if the primary impetus for the ban was protecting Americans’ data from the CCP, it is surprising that there is no talk of banning the Chinese-owned shopping apps Temu and Shein, which are also wildly popular in the US.

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Further reading: A moral panic over TikTok

FTC moves to ban noncompete agreements for most jobs

The Federal Trade Commission has voted to ban noncompete agreements for most workers in the US. Employment contracts at many companies contain noncompete clauses that can apply to workers at every level. These clauses bar the worker from seeking work at rival companies in the even they leave their current employer.

Businesses argue that using these clauses helps to protect the company’s proprietary knowledge and prevents rival companies from taking advantage of it. However, labor advocates say noncompetes are overused and vulnerable to abuse.

FTC Chair Lina Khan says noncompetes also stifle competition in many industries. “Noncompete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism,” Khan said, “including from the more than 8,500 new startups that would be created a year once noncompetes are banned”.

According to the FTC, 1 in 5 American workers, from minimum wage workers to executives, are currently subject to such restrictions. A worker with specialized knowledge and skills may be barred from working in their field for years. Workers with noncompetes are also discouraged from leaving one job to seek better compensated work elsewhere.

The rule change is set to go into effect in 120 days, but legal challenges from business groups are likely to delay implementation.

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Further reading: A major sandwich chain once banned their workers from taking other sandwich-making jobs.