DENTON: Apple May Soon Have to Choose Between China’s WeChat, and Elon Musk’s Twitter.

Elon Musk recently revealed that Apple had threatened to remove Twitter from its App Store. Two days later, after meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Musk tweeted that the threat was simply a misunderstanding. Musk’s free speech aspirations for Twitter appear to be what put the company in Apple’s crosshairs. While Musk may have dodged a bullet this time, the prospect of a ruinous delisting will loom as long as Apple’s duopoly (alongside Google) over the app market endures. This control has made Apple one of the most powerful gatekeepers of the internet. Abuse of Power. Since Musk’s Twitter acquisition,

wechat

China’s WeChat Admits To Secretly Scanning Users’ Photos

Chinese messaging platform WeChat – which President Trump sought to ban from operating in the United States – has admitted to regularly scanning users’ photos even while the app isn’t in use. WeChat – which saw the Trump-era efforts to ban it halted by Joe Biden’s Commerce Department – confessed to the disturbing and intrusive practice after an exposé by a tech influencer known as “Hacklous”. Owned by Chinese Communist Party-affiliated Tencent – which counts high-profile Biden appointees and Democratic officials as investors – WeChat “scans photo galleries for durations of up to 1 minute each while running in the

Obama’s “Vote Protection Director” Now Lobbies For A Firm The State Department Flagged As a ‘Tool’ Of Chinese Communist Party.

Brian McKeon, Barack Obama’s Deputy Director For Voter Protection, now serves as a lobbyist for Tencent – a tech platform flagged by the U.S. State Department as a “tool” of the Chinese Communist Party. First retained by Tencent in August 2020 to lobby against the Trump administration’s proposed ban on its platform WeChat, McKeon is still registered as an active lobbyist on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party-linked tech firm. In the first three months of 2021, McKeon’s firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, received $200,000 in recorded compensation from Tencent. During that time period, the Biden White House also dropped

wechat

California Judge Blocks WeChat Ban

A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration’s banning the “WeChat” app, a messaging platform identified as providing the Chinese Communist Party backdoor access to its data. Owned by Tencent, a company the U.S. State Department labeled a “tool of the Chinese government,” WeChat was set to be banned along with TikTok. Now, however, a California-based judge “entered an order Sunday for a preliminary injunction blocking the federal ban on U.S. downloads and other functions from going into force as scheduled for 11:59 pm Sunday.” In her 22-page order, Judge Beeler agreed with free-speech arguments raised by the user