The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app TikTok if its China-based owner doesn't sell, as lawmakers acted on concerns that the company's current ownership structure is a national security threat. The bill, passed by a vote of 352-65, now goes to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear. TikTok, which has more than 150 million American users, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd. The lawmakers contend that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government, which could demand access to the data of TikTok's consumers in the US any time it wants. The worry stems from a set of Chinese national security laws that compel organisations to assist with intelligence gathering. We have given TikTok a clear choice, said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party), and remain operational in the United States, o
Tiktok CEO Shou Zi Chew will visit Capitol Hill on Wednesday on a previously scheduled trip to talk to senators, a source briefed on the matter said
Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he still believes TikTok poses a national security risk but is opposed to banning the hugely popular app because doing so would help its rival, Facebook, which he continues to lambast over his 2020 election loss. Trump, in a call-in interview with CNBC's Squawk Box, was asked about his comments last week that seemed to voice opposition to a bill being advanced by Congress that would effectively ban TikTok and other ByteDance apps from the Apple and Google app stores as well as US web hosting services. Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it, Trump told the hosts. There's a lot of good and there's a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don't like is that without TikTok you're going to make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media. When I look at it, I'm not looking to make Facebook double
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is one of the most comprehensive regulatory actions to rein in so-called "Big Tech" and is expected to reshape the global technology industry after decades of unfettered
"Applications like TikTok that are controlled by foreign adversaries pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security," the lawmakers said in a fact sheet
Describing Chinese-owned app TikTok as dangerous, Republican presidential aspirant Nikki Haley has said that when countries like India and Nepal have banned this social media platform, the US cannot be the last nation to do the same. What everybody needs to know is China is controlling all of that, Haley, the Indian-American former US Ambassador to the UN, said during a Fox News town hall. If you want to know how it affects you, just imagine by having that app on your phone, China can now see your finances, they can now see who your contacts are. They can see what you click on, why you click on it and how it affects you. They can impact what you see. And they can impact what you hear. That is the dangerous part of TikTok, Haley, 52, said on Sunday. And India has banned it. You had Nepal just banned it because it was causing social disruption. America can't be the last country to ban TikTok. Let's end it now and stop it so it doesn't hurt our children any further, Haley said in ...
The company worked with news checkers to produce educational videos about the electoral process and misinformation via the election centres during national elections in previous years
President Joe Biden's 2024 campaign is now on TikTok, even though he has expressed national security concerns over the platform and banned it on federal devices. Biden isn't expected to personally join the platform, aides said, nor the others in his administration. The account will be run entirely by the campaign team in an effort to reach voters in an ever-fragmented American population, particularly as younger voters gravitate away from traditional platforms. The inaugural post featured the president being quizzed on the Super Bowl and included a reference to the latest political conspiracy theory centering on music superstar Taylor Swift. Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that TikTok owner ByteDance could share user data such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers with China's authoritarian government. Biden in 2022 banned the use of TikTok by the federal government's nearly 4 million employees on devices owned by its agencies,
ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok took the European Commission to court on Feb. 6 and Meta filed its challenge a day earlier, filings show
YouTubeTV subscriptions over eight million; paid over $70 billion to creators, artists over three years
A US man bought a foldable home from Amazon costing $26,000. Jeffrey Bryant shared a video which is viral on TikTok and was also shared on Twitter
Facebook was co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, entrepreneurs Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin and launched on February 4, 2004
"These companies must be reined in, or the worst is yet to come," Senator Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the committee, said
The grilling was held at a dramatic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing of the CEOs of major tech companies, who faced intense scrutiny over the potential harms of their platforms on teens
Senator Amy Klobuchar on Wednesday questioned what she said was inaction in the tech industry, comparing it to the response shown when a panel blew out of a Boeing plane earlier this month
It's Chew's second time testifying before Congress. Last year, he was called to a hearing in the House focused on the potential national security threats stemming from its Chinese ownership
ByteDance is often seen as the world's leading company on algorithms because its flagship apps such as TikTok, Douyin and Toutiao are powered by commanding recommendation engines
Sexual predators. Addictive features. Self-harm and eating disorders. Unrealistic beauty standards. Bullying. These are just some of the issues young people are dealing with on social media - and children's advocates and lawmakers say companies are not doing enough to protect them. On Wednesday, the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies are testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about child exploitation on their platforms, as lawmakers, families and advocates are growing increasingly concerned about the effects of social media on young people's lives. While Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a veteran of congressional hearings since his first one over the Cambridge Analytica privacy debacle in 2018, it will only be the second time for TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and the first for Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Discord CEO Jason Citron are also scheduled to testify. We understand that they are companies and they have to make profit. But whe
Tiktok, in a statement to Reuters, referred to UMG's narrative as "false" and said UMG's actions were not in the best interests of artists, songwriters and fans
The company aims to hire 100 full-time content moderators at the new location, according to Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X