The executive orders relating to WeChat and its parent company Tencent, as well as TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, issued by U.S. President Donald Trump have sparked controversy and debate. Two of us, Times Wang and Jianli Yang, have previously expressed concern about First Amendment issues and other worries about the WeChat order, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation has done the same with respect to TikTok. Others have opined in favor of the orders, apparently concluding the risk of a First Amendment violation is low.
China’s internet policies offer real security and ideological challenges to the United States. But there are more constitutionally and strategically sound approaches than some of the crude tools the U.S. government may end up using.
