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[ONLINE] – Free Speech Project: Unpacking the WeChat/TikTok Bans

A Win for National Security or a Loss for Free Speech?

  • Virtual
  • 12PM 鈥 1PM EDT
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Within the last month, two highly popular Chinese-owned social media apps鈥擳ikTok and WeChat鈥攚ere put on the Trump administration鈥檚 chopping block. In twin August 6 executive orders, President Trump set in motion a 45-day process expected to lead to their ban from U.S.-accessed app stores鈥攂ased on an assertion of an 鈥渦nusual and extraordinary鈥 national security threat. Over the weekend, the president indicated the TikTok threat has been averted by a deal that will transfer a 20% ownership stake in the company to Oracle and Walmart (yet leaving China-based owners in significant control), while a federal judge enjoined the WeChat order, based largely on First Amendment grounds.

Join Future Tense's Free Speech Project (our collaboration with the Tech, Law & Security program at American University's Washington College of Law) to consider whether the administration's move against these platforms was an undue intrusion on free speech or a legitimate action on national security grounds, as well as its broader implications for the U.S-China relationship.

Speakers:

David Gossett,
Partner, Technology, Privacy & Security Group, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
(litigator in the WeChat lawsuit)

Jennifer Daskal,
Professor and Faculty Director, Tech, Law, & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law

James Mulvenon,
Director of Intelligence Integration, SOS International

Moderator:

Samm Sacks,
Cyber Policy Fellow, 麻豆果冻传媒
Senior Fellow, Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center

Follow the conversation online using and by following . The Free Speech Project is in partnership with the Tech, Law & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law:

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