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Tag: social media
May 8, 2024
Jack Montgomery
TECH

TikTok Sues America.

China’s TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have responded with legal action against the U.S. legislation recently signed by Joe Biden, which orders ByteDance to divest from TikTok within nine months or face a ban on the app in the U.S.

“Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok,” the petition to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland complains, although the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act could impact several other apps.

“Banning TikTok is so obviously unconstitutional, in fact, that even the Act’s sponsors recognized that reality, and therefore have tried mightily to depict the law not as a ban at all, but merely a regulation of TikTok’s ownership,” the petition alleges, demanding Garland “review the constitutionality” of the legislation.

A TikTok ban cannot come into force until 2025, so it will likely influence the November presidential election, whether or not it is eventually prohibited. The Biden campaign has established a presence on TikTok, and Democratic political action committees (PACs) have invested heavily in influencers on the platform.

Most Americans believe China uses TikTok to manipulate users’ opinions, and research suggests few users buck the app’s algorithm.

While ByteDance claims to be independent of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the government holds “golden shares” in the business, and a CCP official wields a veto on its board. The Chinese Embassy also directly lobbied against the TikTok legislation in Congress, indicating Beijing regards Chinese control over the app as being in the Chinese national interest.

ByteDance has said it would rather see TikTok shut down in the U.S. than divest from it.

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China's TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have responded with legal action against the U.S. legislation recently signed by Joe Biden, which orders ByteDance to divest from TikTok within nine months or face a ban on the app in the U.S. show more
May 1, 2024
Jack Montgomery
NatSec
TECH

DATA: Majority Admit China Uses TikTok to ‘Influence American Public Opinion.’

A clear majority of Americans believe TikTok is an influence tool for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with 58 percent of respondents to a Reuters/Ipsos poll agreeing the app is used to “influence American public opinion.” Only 13 percent of respondents disagreed.

A plurality, if not an outright majority, of Americans support banning TikTok, with 50 percent in favor versus 32 percent opposed. Notably, the pollsters only surveyed U.S. adults, not the under-18s, who account for a significant share of the app’s user base.

Reuters/Ipsos found a generational divide on the issue, with around six in 10 Americans over 40 supporting a ban but only four in 10 Americans aged 18 to 39.

Forty-six percent of Americans also believe the CCP uses TikTok to “spy on everyday Americans.”

Sixty percent said they did not believe U.S. political candidates should use TikTok to promote their campaigns. Joe Biden has refused to exit the platform, despite signing a bill that could ban the app — but only after the presidential election in November.

While TikTok is headquartered outside China, its parent company, ByteDance, is headquartered in Beijing. The CCP denies controlling ByteDance, but the Chinese Embassy directly lobbied Congress against the aforementioned bill, which requires ByteDance to divest from TikTok or else it will be blocked in the U.S.

In fact, the Chinese state owns “golden shares” in ByteDance, and a CCP official wields veto power on its board. The app strongly influences its users, with only 14 percent bucking its ‘For You’ content algorithm.

China recently forced Apple to remove several applications from its app store, including WhatsApp and Threads.

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A clear majority of Americans believe TikTok is an influence tool for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with 58 percent of respondents to a Reuters/Ipsos poll agreeing the app is used to "influence American public opinion." Only 13 percent of respondents disagreed. show more
April 29, 2024
William Upton
Politics
TECH

West Wing Creator Aaron Sorkin Is Working on a Jan 6 Movie.

Aaron Sorkin — creator of liberal television and film mainstays, The West Wing, The Newsroom, and The Social Network — is claiming Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook bear responsibility for the January 6 Capitol riots. During a recent appearance on “The Town with Matthew Belloni” podcast, Sorkin explained how he believes Facebook’s algorithm promotes increasingly extreme content, ultimately radicalizing its more politically engaged users.

“Facebook has been, among other things, tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible,” Sorkin said. He added: “Because that is what will increase engagement and because that is what will get you to, what they call inside the hallways of Facebook, the infinite scroll.”

Sorkin’s comments echo a similar concern raised by Representative Clay Higgins (R-LA). The National Pulse previously reported that Higgins, through his own investigation, uncovered evidence that federal law enforcement infiltrated online social networks — including Facebook — where American veterans groups would communicate.

Higgins said it was through interactions with veterans in these groups that the FBI appears to have created agents provocateurs. According to the Louisiana Republican: “The original seeds of riotous or illegal or occupation-type behavior amongst these groups were planted by the FBI agents embedded in those groups.”

The comments by Sorkin may also appear intended to stoke interest in his new film project — an untitled movie about the January 6 Capitol riots. He would not confirm whether the project will be a direct sequel to his Oscar-winning screenplay for the 2010 film The Social Network.

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Aaron Sorkin — creator of liberal television and film mainstays, The West Wing, The Newsroom, and The Social Network — is claiming Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook bear responsibility for the January 6 Capitol riots. During a recent appearance on "The Town with Matthew Belloni" podcast, Sorkin explained how he believes Facebook's algorithm promotes increasingly extreme content, ultimately radicalizing its more politically engaged users. show more
April 23, 2024
NatSec
World

Regulators Launch Probe Into TikTok’s ‘Addictive’ Features.

European Union (EU) regulators are proceeding with an investigation into the TikTok app regarding its age-verification process and addictive features. The investigation comes as the EU warned TikTok on Monday that it would face fines over what they allege are addictive features used by a version of the social media giant’s app called TikTok Lite. Regulators accuse TikTok’s Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, of failing to carry out risk assessments on the new features added to TikTok Lite, including a rewards program that allows users to win gift cards for watching videos.

According to EU regulators, the gift card program may breach European laws as it creates a financial incentive for users to spend more extended periods on the TikTok app and could facilitate social media addiction in children. Additionally, European lawmakers are concerned that the social media app could be exacerbating mental health issues among its population.

The social media company — deemed noncompliant with the EU’s Digital Services Act — will have until April 23 to provide the European Commission with its risk assessment. Additional supplementary documents are due by May 3. If TikTok fails to comply with the regulatory request, it faces penalties of up to 1 percent of its annual income and a rolling penalty of up to 5 percent of its average daily income.

TikTok and ByteDance are also facing renewed scrutiny in the United States. The U.S. Senate will soon consider a broad package of foreign aid and regulatory provisions, a subset of which addresses concerns over TikTok’s Chinese ownership. The provision will require the Chinese technology conglomerate ByteDance to either divest itself from the ownership of the TikTok app or face its ban in the U.S.

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European Union (EU) regulators are proceeding with an investigation into the TikTok app regarding its age-verification process and addictive features. The investigation comes as the EU warned TikTok on Monday that it would face fines over what they allege are addictive features used by a version of the social media giant's app called TikTok Lite. Regulators accuse TikTok's Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, of failing to carry out risk assessments on the new features added to TikTok Lite, including a rewards program that allows users to win gift cards for watching videos. show more
April 18, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Politics
TECH

China’s DC Embassy is Directly Lobbying for TikTok.

The Chinese Embassy is directly lobbying congressional staff to oppose a bill forcing ByteDance to sell its TikTok app or be banned in the U.S., despite the Chinese government claiming it does not control the company.

The House of Representatives has already passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications bill with broad bipartisan support. It must still pass the Senate, however, where it is opposed by lawmakers such as Rand Paul, who has received multi-million-dollar donations from ByteDance investor Jeff Yass.

It is not only Yass lobbying against the bill’s passage but also the Chinese government itself. At least three congressional aides, two from the Senate and one from the House, have held meetings or been invited to hold discussions with the Chinese Embassy, initiated by the Chinese.

Revealingly, Chinese diplomats suggested at the meetings that TikTok was being mistreated because it is Chinese, despite the company officially disclaiming links to China and stressing that it is registered in Singapore and the U.S.

China hawks argue that the embassy’s lobbying efforts prove TikTok is viewed as an essential tool of influence by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), underscoring the need for a ban.

“By lobbying congressional staff to protect TikTok’s relationship with ByteDance, [People’s Republic of China] officials are revealing how valuable TikTok is to the Chinese Communist Party. Losing control of the app would neuter Beijing’s most potent weapon against Americans,” argued American Foreign Policy Council fellow Michael Sobolik.

The embassy, however, argues it “tries to tell the truth about the TikTok issue to people from all walks of life in the U.S.” and insists its actions are “not about lobbying for a single company but about whether all Chinese companies can be treated fairly.”

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The Chinese Embassy is directly lobbying congressional staff to oppose a bill forcing ByteDance to sell its TikTok app or be banned in the U.S., despite the Chinese government claiming it does not control the company. show more
April 5, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Politics
TECH
World

EU Mobilizes Online Censorship Plan for Upcoming Elections.

The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), initiated in late August, could severely curtail free speech in Europe and even worldwide ahead of the European Parliament elections in June.

To comply with the DSA, so-called Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Search Engines (VLSEs) with over 45 million monthly users in the EU are required to monitor and censor content deemed harmful by EU officials.

This can include so-called hate speech, supposed disinformation and misinformation, and content alleged to cause harm to people’s physical or mental well-being.

If platforms refuse to adhere to DSA diktats, they face severe economic penalties, including fines of up to six percent of their global revenue. Even the ostensibly pro-free speech Elon Musk seems to be complying to avoid these heavy fines for content posted to his X platform, formerly Twitter.

The European Commission, an unelected body that initiates most EU-level legislation and serves as the bloc’s executive, previously launched formal proceedings against Musk under the DSA.

This followed Commissioner Thierry Breton having expressed his displeasure at the South African tech mogul for dropping a supposedly voluntary EU code of conduct, which required Twitter to boost “authoritative sources” and “empower the fact-checking community.”

Social media firms have also been pressured into censoring users on the other side of the Atlantic, with the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) having people censored for questioning mail-in voting.

Joe Biden’s White House also pressured Facebook to take down posts containing accurate information about COVID-19 vaccine side effects or suggesting COVID-19 was made in or leaked from a Chinese laboratory.

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The European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), initiated in late August, could severely curtail free speech in Europe and even worldwide ahead of the European Parliament elections in June. show more
April 1, 2024
Election 2024
NatSec

‘SPAMOUFLAGE’ – Chinese Bots Posing as Trump Backers to Help Biden Win 2024.

The Chinese government has harnessed a massive network of social media accounts to influence the November U.S. presidential election. Independent researchers and government officials say they’ve identified numerous accounts controlled by China, most of which are currently posing as supporters of former President Donald Trump. These accounts often amplify conspiratorial content, such as claims that President Joe Biden is a “Satanist pedophile,” in an effort to spread discord and discredit the MAGA movement.

According to Elise Thomas, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the network of Chinese government-controlled accounts is likely part of a long-standing Communist Party program called ‘Spamouflage.’ However, the volume of content being pushed by fake social media accounts is unprecedented. “I’ve never seen anything along those lines at all before,” Thomas said in a recent interview. She also noted that several accounts had previously posted exclusively in Mandarin Chinese before being retooled to appear as though the user is American.

These actions underscore a potential change in Beijing’s approach to impacting U.S. politics, with an increased willingness to undermine individual candidates and parties. Unlike past efforts, it appears an actual human controls each account. Previously, the Chinese government utilized bot networks to run thousands of social media accounts and push pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda.

Despite pledges from Meta to address the fake Chinese-controlled accounts on Facebook and Instagram, the CCP propaganda operation appears to continue unabated. An investigation by The Foundation for Defense of Democracies found that at least 3,000 accounts linked to a Facebook page called War of Somethings are part of the Chinese influence and propaganda operation. Max Lesser, a senior analyst with the foundation, told the New York Times: “What we’re seeing is the campaign just continues, undeterred.”

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The Chinese government has harnessed a massive network of social media accounts to influence the November U.S. presidential election. Independent researchers and government officials say they've identified numerous accounts controlled by China, most of which are currently posing as supporters of former President Donald Trump. These accounts often amplify conspiratorial content, such as claims that President Joe Biden is a "Satanist pedophile," in an effort to spread discord and discredit the MAGA movement. show more
March 26, 2024
William Upton
TECH

DeSantis Bans Kids Under 14 From Social Media Without Parental Consent.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed H.B. 3 into law on Monday, giving parents enhanced control over their under-16 children’s use of social media and requiring age verification for several websites. The new law mandates that social media platforms block Floridians under 14 from creating new accounts and delete any current accounts. Additionally, parent or guardian consent is now necessary for 14 and 15-year-olds wanting to access a social media platform.

The new law allows for legal action by parents or guardians if social media companies fail to delete the underage accounts, with a potential liability of $10,000 in damages for each case. A knowing and reckless violation could lead to an unfair or deceptive trade charge, with civil penalties of up to $50,000 for each violation.

Furthermore, the law stipulates commercial apps and sites must verify user ages but can offer an anonymous age verification option for privacy reasons. Websites with substantial material potentially harmful to minors will receive extra scrutiny and must ensure users are 18. Violators could face a civil penalty of up to $50,000.

The new law has faced pushback from tech industry groups, including the trade association NetChoice, which represents the major social media platforms. They contend the new law “will impose an ‘I.D. for the Internet’ on any Floridian who wants to use an online service—regardless of their age.”

Gov. DeSantis emphasized that he was guided by his role as a governor and father when he signed the bill into law on Monday. He noted that many Florida parents are concerned about the impact the internet is having on their children. The new law will go into effect on January 1, 2025.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed H.B. 3 into law on Monday, giving parents enhanced control over their under-16 children’s use of social media and requiring age verification for several websites. The new law mandates that social media platforms block Floridians under 14 from creating new accounts and delete any current accounts. Additionally, parent or guardian consent is now necessary for 14 and 15-year-olds wanting to access a social media platform. show more
March 21, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Media

WATCH: Kassam Says ‘MeidasTouch’ Is Eating Media Matters’ Lunch.

MeidasTouch, the former Democrat super PAC responsible for the “bloodbath” hoax, has rendered David Brock, Media Matters, and the old guard of the online left redundant, says Raheem Kassam, Editor-in-Chief of The National Pulse.

Speaking on Steve Bannon’s “War Room,” Kassam said “Media Matters and David Brock and all of these guys” are “old hat.” He described them as “yesterday’s man and yesterday’s way of doing” things.

“MeidasTouch is for the TikTok generation,” Kassam explained. He noted they are “quite open” about their underhanded way of doing things, urging people to read their quotes, as reported by The National Pulse on Wednesday.

“They don’t say, ‘Oh, we’re news reporters. We’re trying to be journalists. We’re trying to expose the truth.’ They say, ‘Hey, we’re clipping Donald Trump out of context three, four, five times a day, and these things are getting 25 million views,’” Kassam explained.

“Media Matters is slow, it takes them six hours to get a story up,” he continued. “This is not the way to reach people anymore. Sorry, Brocksters, you’re done. MeidasTouch has eaten your lunch. That’s what’s happening here, and that’s why these guys are so dangerous.”

Kassam stressed that MeidasTouch was “invited to a preview screening of the State of the Union inside the White House.” He described this as “collusion between the Biden White House and this Hollywood-funded, Reid Hoffman-funded, hit job institution.”

WATCH:

On the links to Hoffman, a major early donor to MeidasTouch, Kassam noted that the LinkedIn billionaire — and visitor to Epstein island — is “under the mattresses” of many operations against Donald Trump. These include E. Jean Carroll, Russia hoaxsters FusionGPS, and Nimarata ‘Nikki’ Haley.

“Reid Hoffman really is the lynchpin of Never Trumpism right now,” Kassam said.

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MeidasTouch, the former Democrat super PAC responsible for the “bloodbath” hoax, has rendered David Brock, Media Matters, and the old guard of the online left redundant, says Raheem Kassam, Editor-in-Chief of The National Pulse. show more
March 21, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Lawfare
TECH

Truth Social Stock Climbs as Trump Backers Buy to Aid President.

Stock in Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform has soared, valuing the company at around $6 billion as supporters rally behind the firm, expected to go public in the coming days.

Trump launched Truth Social as an alternative to Twitter — now X — after the platform banned him during his final days as President in a coordinated action with other Big Tech platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

Now, with Democrat judges including Arthur Engoron and Lewis Kaplan hammering Tump with hundreds of millions of dollars in payouts and penalties as part of an ongoing lawfare campaign, the former president may be in line for a $3.5 billion cut when Truth goes public, as early as next week.

“There seems to be an unwritten agreement between tens of thousands of traders that the more political momentum Trump has, the more the stock should trade higher,” commented fund manager Julian Klymochko.

Trump continues to lead Joe Biden in America’s key “swing states” ahead of the November elections.

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Stock in Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform has soared, valuing the company at around $6 billion as supporters rally behind the firm, expected to go public in the coming days. show more