Chinese social media platform TikTok is being used by ISIS to recruit followers to carry out terrorist attacks in the West. An investigation by The Sun found “dozens of accounts on the social network, which is popular with children, posting ISIS propaganda and inciting hatred against non-Muslims.” Content included in the videos included calls urging supporters to carry out mass-casualty terrorist attacks over Christmas. One of the videos posted this week urged supporters to launch mass-casualty terrorist attacks in the West during the Christmas holidays. The video features moody background sounds and starts by describing Christmas as “the celebration of the
Hillhouse Capital – a private equity firm funded by America’s top universities and is invested in companies including Zoom and Apple – struck a $1.5 billion deal with a Chinese Communist Party-owned investment fund. Hillhouse Capital partnered with the “wholly state-owned” Hangzhou Capitol on a billion-dollar fund “to invest in sectors including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and new energy vehicles,” according to Chinese state-run media outlet China Global Television Network (CGTN). Hillhouse Capital, which was funded with $20 million in seed capital from the Yale University Endowment, is reported to be backed by America’s most prestigious universities. Following a Stanford University
One of Joe Biden’s State Department’s first tasks was to scrap the bureau that was set to handle the evacuation of American’s from crisis zones around the world. Natalie Winters and Raheem Kassam discuss this blockbuster scoop and more. Make sure you’re subscribed (it’s free!) on a podcast app and leave us a review!
Business records reveal the Chinese Communist Party has retained a stake and a new board seat in TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, which in turn funds Facebook’s fact-checking partner ‘Lead Stories’. A Reuters report describes how the Chinese technology firm sold a one percent stake to WangTouZhongWen (Beijing) Technology, owned by three state-run entities, on April 30th. “The deal also allowed the Chinese government to appoint a board director at Beijing ByteDance,” the outlet added. The news will cause further consternation over the TikTok app and its data. Such threats – including to national security and data privacy – prompted the
State health departments are using the Chinese Communist Party-linked social media platform TikTok to encourage children as young as 12 to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In West Michigan, Kalamazoo County’s Health and Community Services Department is specifically using the app to “better reach people ages 12 to 29 years old.” Lyndi Warner, public information officer for the department, reveals the platform is being used to target the young demographic: “When we look at who’s being vaccinated and where are we wanting to make those strides… the 12- to 29-year-old age group is where we really wanted to try and focus
The director of the artificial intelligence lab run by ByteDance – TikTok’s Chinese Communist Party-linked parent company – is joining the University of California Santa Barbara as a professor. ByteDance’s Li Lei will join the taxpayer-funded university as an assistant professor in the computer science department, tweeting on Saturday that the career change is “very exciting.” Li has worked at ByteDance since 2016 following a two-year stint at another Chinese Communist Party-linked tech giant Baidu. Very exciting to join @ucsbcs. Excited to working with great folks William and Shiyu, and many others! @WilliamWangNLP @CodeTerminator https://t.co/wd6mud3IUJ — Lei Li (@lileics) August
Data protection authorities in the Netherlands fined popular China-tied social media service TikTok €750,000 on Thursday on the grounds that TikTok violated the privacy of young Dutch children. The Netherlands’ Data Protection Authority (DPA) specifically cited the fact that the app installation information, including the privacy statement, for TikTok was in English, making is difficult for young Dutch children to assess the information. “By not offering their privacy statement in Dutch, TikTok failed to provide an adequate explanation of how the app collects, processes and uses personal data,” the DPA said in a statement. “This is an infringement of privacy
Matthew Penarczyk – a top lawyer for Microsoft and Hillary Clinton donor – is joining the Chinese Communist Party-linked TikTok app as its top lawyer. Penarczyk, who worked as a general counsel at Microsoft for nearly two decades, joined the controversial social media platform as its Head of Legal. The position makes him the “top lawyer” at the company and has him overseeing the U.S. and broader Americas region, including South America. Penarczyk new employer, however, has deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party. TikTok’s parent company ByteDance employs former Chinese Communist Party officials, including individuals with military ties, to executive