Tag: ByteDance

Judges Rule Against TikTok Citing ‘Grave Threat to National Security’

Daily Caller News Foundation
iPhone with TikTok app logo

A federal appeals court ruled Friday to uphold a law that will force TikTok’s Chinese parent company to sell the platform or have it banned in the U.S.

A panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled unanimously that the law forcing ByteDance, TikTok’s parent firm, to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company or face a U.S. ban is legal, clearing the way for the law to take effect on Jan. 19, 2025. In their ruling, the judges characterized TikTok as a national security risk because the Chinese government is able to manipulate the app to its advantage and stated that the April divest-or-ban law does not run afoul of the First Amendment, as some of the law’s critics have contended.

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Lawmakers Press Google, Meta, Others on Addressing Deepfake Pornography

The Center Square
Google

A bipartisan group of 26 U.S. lawmakers have sent letters to seven major tech companies requesting updates on how the platforms plan to counter the growing prevalence of pornographic “deepfakes” on social media.

The number of artificially generated, sexually explicit impersonations of nonconsenting individuals increased by 550% from 2019 to 2023, with deepfake pornography now making up 98% of all deepfake videos online, the lawmakers cited in each of the seven letters addressed to Google, Apple, X, ByteDance, Snapchat, Microsoft and Meta.

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TikTok Bans Pro-Life Students for Life Same Day It Begged Court to Overturn Its Pending U.S. Ban

Just the News

Students for Life of America said TikTok banned the pro-life group Monday night, hours after the Chinese-owned platform begged a federal appeals court to overturn a law that forces ByteDance to sell the company or face a U.S. ban.

“Couldn’t find this account,” is all SFLA’s TikTok page says as of 10:30 p.m. Monday. The last archive Just the News could find is Aug. 22, which said the page had 94,000 followers.

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Study Finds TikTok Manipulates Content to Favorably Promote Chinese Government

Just the News
TikTok

TikTok uses an algorithm to promote content that puts the Chinese government in a favorable light in order to sway users’ views, according to a new study from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI).

The study builds off a previous report from December that found the social media site likely promotes pro-China content, as the app faces bipartisan criticism over national security concerns. The app is already facing a potential ban in the United States if the Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest its shares of the platform on time.

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Chinese Companies are Reportedly Camouflaging Themselves as U.S. Brands to Dodge Government Blacklist

South Carolina Sun Staff
Hesai Headquarters

A number of blacklisted Chinese companies have reportedly disguised themselves as American to operate inside the U.S. and evade penalties, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The U.S. government has taken several steps to crack down on Chinese firms that have been linked to the Chinese Communist Party and identified as potential threats to national security. But companies of concern, including Hesai Group, SZ DJI Technologies, BGI Group, Huawaei and ByteDance have operated or worked with American-based companies to sell products and services inside the U.S. without penalty, according to the WSJ.

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TikTok Sues U.S. Government over New Law Banning App

South Carolina Sun Staff
TikTok User

On Tuesday, the Chinese social media app TikTok and its parent company filed a lawsuit against the federal government of the United States over a new law threatening to ban the app if it is not sold to another company by next year.

ABC News reports that the lawsuit, filed by TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance, claims the new law is a violation of the First Amendment rights of TikTok’s users. The bill was signed into law by Joe Biden last month, with the TikTok ban being one provision of a larger $95 billion foreign aid package. The law requires ByteDance to sell TikTok within 9 months, or else the app will be banned from use in the United States.

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Biden Campaign Says It Will Stay on TikTok Despite Foreign Aid Package That Could Ban It

Just the News
President Biden in front of TikTok logo (composite image)

Supporters of the legislation claim that the app poses a national security risk because it is owned by a Chinese company, and thereby could expose sensitive U.S. data to the Chinese government.

President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign said on Wednesday that it still plans to stay on the controversial app TikTok, despite the president’s signing a foreign aid package that could eventually ban it in the United States.

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Fresh Revelations About TikTok Come as Senate Considers the Divestment Bill

Just the News
TikTok app in front of Chinese flag

Pressure is mounting in Washington to finally pass a bill requiring TikTok’s China-based parent company to divest of the popular social media app amid new revelations that the company is much closer to the Chinese government than it has previously claimed.

Now, the House has passed a comprehensive foreign aid package which included a revised TikTok divestment bill. This makes it more likely to become law sooner rather than later as the Senate is set to consider the legislation.

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China Lobbying Congress amid TikTok Ban Efforts

South Carolina Sun Staff
iPhone with TikTok app logo

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been secretly attempting to lobby members of Congress over recent proposals to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok.

As reported by Breitbart, employees of the Chinese Embassy have been meeting with congressional staffers to try to persuade members to vote against the bill that would force the Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok, or else face an indefinite ban on the app’s use in the United States. The bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in March with bipartisan support, and is now being reviewed by the Senate.

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Senate Intel Chair: ‘There May Need to be Certain Changes Made’ to House-Passed TikTok Bill

Just the News
Senator Mark Warner

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, expects the House-passed bill that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the U.S. might need to be amended in the Senate

Warner told reporters last week the changes could involve the timeline that it requires Bytedance to divest in the popular smartphone app.

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