>Are you saying that CPC gets to ban Google, Facebook, Twitter & a ton of other non-Chinese online companies but the US government does not get to ban Chinese o

>Are you saying that CPC gets to ban Google, Facebook, Twitter & a ton of other non-Chinese online companies but the US government does not get to ban Chinese online companies, even in the name of fairness both in terms of trade and information flow? Yes I am. My concerns center the precedent of banning software. If banning software to further the interests of national security is established as a precedent, it is reasonable to assume this will be weaponized against end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal. This would erode a strong, hard fought for precedent that code is speech. The Bernstein v. Department of Justice decision ended Export Control of encryption on the basis of software as speech. [1] Courts affirmed this right again in a ruling against a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors, as it infringed on the speech of video game companies. [2] Since you brought up China's policies, they also happen to ban end-to-end encrypted apps as there is a strong precedent for doing so in the interests of national security. [3] These simply aren't policies worth emulating. [1] https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/04/21-40 https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/04/21-40 [2] https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-1448.ZS.html https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-1448.ZS.html [3] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/business/china-whatsapp-blocked.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/business/china-whatsapp-b...