TikTok bill signed into law, an actual app ban could still be years away
A law that could ban TikTok passed both chambers of Congress and received President Joe Biden’s signature on Wednesday, April 24. While a TikTok ban in the U.S. is a potential consequence of the law, an actual ban could be years away in the case that TikTok refuses to comply with the rules.
The law gives TikTok 9-12 months to cut ties with its parent company ByteDance, a Chinese company. The law aims to dissolve TikTok’s ties to America’s greatest adversary, largely over national security concerns.
It’s not just lawmakers in favor of the law either. A CNBC poll found nearly half of Americans also want to see TikTok cut off from China’s reach.
While Americans are worried about losing access to the app that many receive income from, TikTok has a lot to lose out of the deal too. The U.S. is TikTok’s top customer and other countries don’t even come close.
If ByteDance does refuse to sell its stake in TikTok, a TikTok ban is still likely years away, if at all.
House’s $95 billion foreign aid package, including TikTok bill, heads to Senate
The House passed a foreign aid package on Saturday, April 20, a victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., as he managed dissent within his own party and turned to Democratic colleagues for support. The $95 billion package, divided across four bills, supports Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, replenishes U.S. arms, and includes measures to seize Russian assets and regulate TikTok.
The legislation directs $60 billion to aid Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, including military support efforts against Russian aggression.
“I think this support will really strengthen the armed forces, I pray, and we will have a chance at victory if Ukraine really gets the weapons system, which we need so much, which thousands of soldiers need so much,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Zelenskyy has been urgently requesting weapons and supplies for weeks to continue defending Ukraine against Russian attacks.
“We really need to get this to the final point. We need to get approved by the Senate,” Zelenskyy said. “Then we want to help get things as fast as possible so that we get some tangible assistance for the soldiers on the front line as soon as possible — not in another six months — so that they would be able to move ahead.”
The package includes $26 billion for Israel, with significant funding for missile defense systems and other military operations to counter threats from Iran.
In the Indo-Pacific, the proposal dedicates about $8 billion to strengthen U.S. and allied military capabilities, highlighting concerns over potential Chinese actions against Taiwan.
The fourth bill includes policies for Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok, stretching the deadline from six months to a year from a previous bill, busing Russian assets to fund Ukraine aid and increasing sanctions against international drug trafficking. The package, combined into one bill, now heads to the Senate.
Johnson faces criticism for not adding border-security measures sought by some GOP members to curb migrant influxes from Mexico. Other Republicans oppose the freeze on new U.S. liquefied natural gas export plants under the Biden administration.
Jury to hear opening statements in Trump’s first criminal trial
The 12-person jury is set to hear opening statements in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial. Learn more about what is in the $95 billion foreign aid package passed by the House. These stories and more highlight The Morning Rundown for Monday, April 22, 2024.
Jury to hear opening statements in Trump’s first criminal trial
Monday, April 22, marks the first time in U.S. history that opening statements will be delivered in a criminal trial against a former American president. Prosecutors will present their case to the 12-person jury in a Manhattan courtroom, accusing former President Donald Trump of engaging in an “illegal conspiracy” intended to “conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information” from voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
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Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments given to adult film star Stormy Daniels by Trump’s then-attorney, Michael Cohen. Prosecutors allege that when Trump repaid Cohen, he covered up the payments in his company’s records. Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers have argued the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.
Both Cohen and Daniels are expected to testify in the trial, which is estimated to last six weeks. Trump also said he would be willing testify.
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, will give the opening statement for the defense, where he is expected to argue that both Cohen and Daniels are unreliable witnesses with biases against the former president.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker is expected to take the stand as the first witness for the prosecution.
If convicted, Trump could face up to four years in prison for each count.
Homeless encampment case heads to the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Monday, April 22, in a case questioning whether cities can fine and jail the homeless for sleeping on public property or if such actions constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.”
However, a federal appeals court ruled that the ban violates the Eighth Amendment, as it punishes individuals who have no other living options and the city does not provide adequate housing. Grants Pass contends that fines and short-term jail sentences are not cruel and unusual, seeking a definitive ruling from the Supreme Court.
The decision could significantly influence how cities nationwide manage homeless encampments.
House passes $95 billion foreign aid package, including bill on TikTok
The House passed a foreign aid package over the weekend, a victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., as he managed dissent within his own party and turned to Democratic colleagues for support. The $95 billion package supports Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, replenishes U.S. arms, and includes measures to seize Russian assets and regulate TikTok, divided across four bills.
The legislation directs $60 billion to aid Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, including military support efforts against Russian aggression.
The package includes $26 billion for Israel, with significant funding for missile defense systems and other military operations to counter threats from Iran.
In the Indo-Pacific, the proposal dedicates about $8 billion to strengthen U.S. and allied military capabilities, highlighting concerns over potential Chinese actions against Taiwan.
The fourth bill includes policies for selling TikTok, using Russian assets to fund Ukraine aid and increasing sanctions against international drug trafficking. This bill now heads to the Senate.
Israeli military intelligence chief resigns over Oct. 7 warning failure
This marks the first resignation of a senior figure following Hamas’ terror attack and the ongoing war. Haliva has previously stated that he failed to warn of Hamas’ assault on Oct. 7 and takes full responsibility. In his resignation letter, he expressed that he will forever carry the burden of that “black day” and the pain of the war.
Haliva served with the Israeli Defense Forces for 38 years.
U.S. journalist, held hostage nearly seven years in Lebanon, dead at 76
Anderson was kidnapped in Lebanon in 1985 and held captive for nearly seven years by Islamic militants. After his release in 1991, he wrote the best-selling memoir “Den of Lions,” detailing his harrowing experience. Anderson passed away at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York.
He spent his later years on a small horse farm in Virginia, enjoying a peaceful life despite ongoing struggles with PTSD. He was 76.
Mary J. Blige, Cher, Foreigner among Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees
The inductees include Mary J. Blige, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool and the Gang, Ozzy Osbourne and A Tribe Called Quest. Additionally, the late Jimmy Buffett will be honored with the Musical Excellence Award.
Drivers report Cybertruck accelerator problem amid other Tesla issues
Recent reports from Tesla Cybertruck drivers have raised concerns about accelerator malfunctions, which could potentially pose serious safety risks. Several drivers have shared videos and testimonies depicting instances where the accelerator pedal became stuck, a dangerous possibility for a vehicle that can accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in under three seconds.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has confirmed that it is in contact with Tesla to gather more information regarding the incidents. Amid these reports, Tesla has postponed some Cybertruck deliveries in recent days, although the automaker has not explicitly attributed these delays to the accelerator issue.
While an official investigation into the matter has yet to be initiated, the emergence of these reports coincides with ongoing challenges facing Elon Musk’s automotive brand. On April 8, Tesla settled a lawsuit with the family of a man who lost his life in a crash while using the company’s Autopilot semi-autonomous driving software.
Meanwhile, slower sales at the beginning of this year prompted Tesla to announce significant layoffs in April, resulting in a 10% reduction of its global workforce.
These issues have come amid the company’s stock declining by nearly a third since 2023.
Native nations take on Big Tech in name of teen mental health
Two U.S. tribal nations are taking on Big Tech. The Spirit Lake Tribe in Los Angeles and Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Google and YouTube. The plaintiffs claim that these platforms are preying on their youth, contributing to high suicide rates among Native American teens.
The tribes said that Big Tech purposefully hooks teens and keeps them glued to their screens with addictive design mechanisms. Advocates said that Native American teens are especially vulnerable to the negative health effects of these platforms. These habits, the tribes claim, led to an increase in teen suicide.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Native American teen youth have a markedly higher rate of suicide in their communities, up to four times the youth suicide rates as other demographics.
Spirit Lake’s chairperson said “endless scrolling” is “rewiring the brains of our teenagers.”
The plaintiffs argue that these social media platforms are dumping a massive burden on tribal communities, already dealing with scarce mental health care access and historical traumas.
The lawsuit aims to force platforms to change the design choices, particularly those which contribute to addictive behaviors in teens. The plaintiffs also want great accountability from social media companies to safeguard the mental well-being of Native American youth.
According to the Pew Research Center, virtually all U.S. teens use social media. Around one-sixth of teens report their social media use to be “almost constant.”
It’s not just tribes taking action, a growing number of U.S. school districts, states and cities are pursuing lawsuits against Big Tech. In Congress, a bipartisan group of senators is pushing the Kids Online Safety Act, requiring platform design changes to prevent harm to children’s mental health. The tech industry opposes the bill and the American Civil Liberties Union has raised censorship concerns.
Google responded to the lawsuit by the two tribes, stating that the allegations “are simply not true.”
War for social media superiority: TikTok to launch rival app to Instagram
The fight to win over more users is on between TikTok and Instagram. In March, it was uncovered that TikTok was working on a rival to Instagram, and now it has a name: TikTok Notes.
The new name started to pop up as some users received notifications announcing photo posts would be shown on TikTok Notes. The notification states users can opt out, according to images shared on social media.
No release date has been announced for TikTok Notes yet, but TikTok did confirm the existence of TikTok Notes to TechCrunch in a statement.
According to the statement, TikTok is “exploring ways to empower our community to create and share their creativity with photos and text in dedicated space for those formats.”
TikTok’s expected launch of its new app follows Instagram recently launched “Reels,” a short-form video feature, similar to TikTok’s scrolling feed.
Meta and ByteDance — the parent companies of Instagram and TikTok, respectively — are in a battle for users.
TikTok is still seeing growth despite efforts in Congress to ban the platform. The Pew Research Center also found that a third of American adults use TikTok, and although Instagram has more users, those on TikTok spend more time on the platform.
Congress wants to curtail secret warrants for Americans’ data
The debate over TikTok in Congress has brought data collection and storage to the forefront of the national conversation. Lawmakers expressed serious concern that the Chinese government could access Americans’ data.
However, the U.S. government does something similar during criminal investigations and it’s common for the target of the warrant to not know. So a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill to rein in the practice to make sure it isn’t abused.
Here’s how it works:
The government can obtain a warrant requiring electronic communications service providers like Verizon and AT&T to hand over their customers’ personal records. If the government believes notifying the customer may jeopardize its investigation, it can also get a non-disclosure order (NDO), which prohibits the company from informing the customer.
While the move is legal, NDOs were originally intended to be used in limited circumstances when investigations require secrecy. However, now the orders are used thousands of times per year.
“In the 21st century, federal prosecutors no longer need to show up to your office,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., who sponsored the bill in the House. “They just need to raid your virtual office. They just need to go to the cloud.”
The bill already passed the House unanimously, and it just got introduced in the Senate by Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Chris Coons, D-Del.
“The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures, but individuals can only assert their rights if they are aware that their electronic records have been collected,” Coons said in a statement. “The current bar for granting non-disclosure orders is too low.”
The bill would raise the current standard of proof to get an NDO from “reason to believe” to “more likely than not,” which would require the government to show that a denial of the NDO request would have a specific, adverse result.
The bill would also require the government to state in the NDO application whether the target is aware of the investigation and whether the target is suspected of committing the crime that is being investigated.
“This bill strikes the right balance between protecting Americans’ privacy and providing needed transparency while allowing judges to grant non-disclosure orders when necessary to protect others from harm or preserve an ongoing investigation,” Lee stated.
The bill passed the House unanimously in just 10 days, but the Senate is likely to act much slower. As an example, the bill requiring TikTok to be sold by its Chinese parent company or be banned in the U.S. passed the House in eight days but currently has no clear path forward in the Senate.
Instagram limits political content as US presidential election nears
Instagram has changed its rules regarding the presence of political content. The default setting is now limiting posts, reels and accounts that are deemed to be political in nature for users, according to the company.
The new limits on political content come just months before the 2024 presidential election, and some users are criticizing Instagram for the move. However, the social media company is far from the first platform to try and deviate from political content.
Instagram users will still see political posts from accounts they choose to follow, and users have the option to opt out of the limitations on political content. However, they will have to go through a series of settings changes to turn political content back on.
Posts or reels believed to be political in nature applies to anything that discusses elections, campaigns, laws, or social issues like immigration or abortion, according to Instagram’s Help Center page.
Instagram said that the reason behind the decision to limit political posts is to create a “great experience for everyone.” However, while users will still see posts from any accounts they follow, the platform won’t be recommending political content from any accounts that the individual is not using.
Instagram will also refrain from showing users random reels or recommended posts as well. The same control on political content will also roll out on Facebook at later date, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Facebook has a history of trying other means to keep politics out of news feeds. The company has faced criticism over the years for promoting and demoting certain political views and content on its platform. A Facebook spokesperson told the Journal that users want to see less politics overall.
According to the spokesperson, Facebook “tested various approaches” and “ultimately implemented changes that reduces politics.”
Political Facebook posts reportedly account for “less than 3% of total content views in users’ newsfeeds.”
According to Reuters, TikTok also has stipulations when it comes to posting political videos. Users are not allowed to fundraise for a politician or political cause. They are also not allowed to promote videos that are political in nature and touch on sensitive social issues, like immigration and abortion, according to the company.
According to CBS News, any sort of “content controls” social media companies wish to implement on its users are completely up to them. However, a U.S. Supreme Court case set to be decided on later this year could change that, if the majority of justices rule that such controls actually violate a user’s First Amendment rights.
Sen. Thom Tillis receives death threat over TikTok bill
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., released a threatening voicemail he received from someone who wanted him to vote against a bill that would force the sale of TikTok. The caller left the voicemail with the senator’s office and stated, “I’ll shoot you and find you and cut you into pieces.”
Tillis said he reported the call to police but does not feel threatened. The caller’s age could determine the consequences. If they are a minor, Tillis wants their parents to talk to them. If they are an adult, Tillis said they will probably regret they called.
“If you rise to that level in my office, you will be reported to police and I will move forward with prosecution,” Tillis said. “Done it, there are people in prison right now for having done that. You don’t play that kind of game with me.”
The voicemail was left by a laughing, young girl and other voices laughing in the background could be heard.
“If you ban TikTok I will find you and shoot you,” the caller said. “That’s people’s jobs and that’s my only entertainment. And people make money off there too, you know, I’m trying to get rich like that.”
While the bill to force parent company ByteDance to either sell TikTok or be banned in the United States moved through the House, the company sent a message through the app to all users.
“Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO,” the message stated.
The message even included a button for people to call their representatives.
“Having that little girl, or young girl, call my office and threaten to shoot me and cut me, I’m not worried about that,” Tillis said. “I’m not trying to act like a victim. But what I’m trying to point to is a really bad practice and a bad decision on TikTok’s part and it really just provides more weight to the case to move forward with the bill.”
Tillis blames TikTok for the flood of phone calls that Congress has received. He said the company’s government relations team chose the wrong tactic.
“Their behavior and their all call to congressmen, they ought to rethink,” Tillis told reporters. “Anybody that works in their government relations organization should be fired, they should rethink their public outreach initiatives.”
“I mean, they’re really building the case that we have to do something more broadly with social media platforms,” Tillis added. “With a simple tweet, you can mislead these kids and get them to mobilize and make those sorts of statements to a U.S. senator and congressman.”
The bill was approved in the House but is stalled in the Senate. The chamber is still trying to determine whether it will pass the House bill with amendments or write an entirely new bill. Either way, it will be a time consuming process that will require the House to reapprove it before the president can sign the bill into law.
Senate effort to pass TikTok bill likely to take until summer
The TikTok bill that passed the House of Representatives in a 352-65 vote in just eight days is stalled in the Senate with no clear path forward. After a classified briefing Wednesday, March 20, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said it’s yet to be determined whether the Senate will take that bill up or write something entirely new.
“We don’t know yet what the Senate will do in terms of whether it will be the same bill, a different bill, alterations of the bill or not,” Casey said. “But that’s yet to be determined by both parties in the Senate.”
The House-passed bill requires TikTok to be sold off by its parent company ByteDance or be banned in the United States. Lawmakers explained that because ByteDance is based in China, the Chinese Communist Party can use the app to collect data on Americans and spread disinformation.
If the Senate makes just one amendment to the bill, it will need to go back to the House to be reapproved before it can be signed by the president.
“It’s likely because obviously the House has a proposal, the Senate is going to be able to take a look at its own solutions as well and to be able to determine what’s the best way to resolve this,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said. “No one wants to take away the ability of Americans to be able to share cat videos with each other, that’s not a big deal. But the ability for a communist government to be able to reach into the homes and lives of individuals here in the United States.”
Not taking into account how slowly the Senate works, passing a TikTok bill in the chamber will take a minimum of one month based on the legislative schedule. However, the effort is more likely to go into the summer.
Congress has three weeks off between March and the end of April, and senators want to hold a yet-to-be scheduled public hearing before they take action.
On March 20, senators received a classified briefing from the FBI and director of National Intelligence on TikTok’s ability to surveil and distribute Chinese government disinformation.
Mark Warner, D-Va., the chairman of the Intelligence Committee told reporters he wants to make some of that information public.
Opponents of the bill contend that this is big government singling out an individual company and that it should really be curbing all social media companies. Lankford was in the classified briefing and said he didn’t hear anything to address those concerns.
“I’ve been tracking this for a while to be able to see how China is using the data of Americans, how they’re harvesting American’s data and then the potential they have to be able to influence that,” Lankford said. “We’ve seen not just that they could do it, that they are doing it. We’ve also seen in other countries how they’ve actually engaged to be able to influence, whether it be the public policy, whether it be elections.”
If the House bill becomes law, ByteDance will have six months to sell TikTok before a ban takes effect. There are already American investors seeking to buy the company. The Financial Times puts its forced sale value at $88 billion.