Trump’s TikTok Ban Temporarily Blocked by US Judge

Forbes reports that TikTok “cannot be shut down in the United States next month, a U.S. District Court judge ruled Friday afternoon, the latest setback in President Donald Trump’s push to force the Chinese-owned app to be transferred to American ownership.” In an August executive order that labeled TikTok a national security threat, Trump required Beijing-based tech company ByteDance to sell…

FCC Will Move To Regulate Social Media After Censorship Outcry

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: On Thursday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said that the agency will seek to regulate social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter at the behest of the Trump administration’s executive order signed earlier this year. “Members of all three branches of the federal government have expressed serious concerns about the prevailing…

FCC To Move on Trump Plan To Weaken Social Media Legal Shield

U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency will consider President Donald Trump’s request to weaken legal protections for social media companies such as Twitter. From a report: The FCC will begin a rulemaking to “clarify” the meaning of a law that gives broad legal immunity to social media companies for their handling of users’ posts, Pai said in…

WeChat Users Won’t Be Targeted By Trump’s Order, US Says

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: WeChat users who download the Chinese app for personal or business communications won’t be targeted by President Donald Trump’s executive order that will prohibit using the app for some transactions, the U.S. said. The U.S. Commerce Department plans to clarify by Sept. 20 which transactions will be prohibited. But it doesn’t intend to…

TikTok CEO Mayer Quits After Three Months, Just as Firm Challenges US Ban

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has left the Chinese-owned video app firm just three months since joining, and only days since the company sued the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over an executive order effectively banning it in the United States. He will be replaced by U.S. General Manager Vanessa Pappas on an interim basis, TikTok said in a statement. From…

Microsoft’s TikTok Deal Reportedly Ballooned After Trump Intervened

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Microsoft’s acquisition talks with TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance “ballooned” this summer after President Donald Trump intervened, according to a report from The New York Times, citing people familiar with the situation. ByteDance is being forced to sell TikTok’s U.S. business by the Trump administration, which says the app’s current ties…

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Stoked Washington’s Fears About TikTok

Facebook spent more money on lobbying than any single company in the first half of 2020, That’s according to figures cited by the Wall Street Journal from the Center for Responsive Politics. But that’s not all they did. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also began personally delivering a message last fall that TikTok “doesn’t share Facebook’s commitment to freedom of expression, and…

TikTok’s US Employees Plan To Sue Trump Administration Over Executive Order

TikTok’s US employees are planning to file a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration executive order they say would make it illegal for their employer to pay them. From a report: Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order barring any US transactions with ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, and its subsidiaries. The language of the order is broad,…

Is the US about to Split the Internet?

The BBC reports:
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he wants a “clean” internet. What he means by that is he wants to remove Chinese influence, and Chinese companies, from the internet in the U.S. But critics believe this will bolster a worrying movement towards the breaking up of the global internet. The so called “splinternet” is generally used when talking…

TikTok Ban: Trump Will Prohibit Transactions With ByteDance Beginning September 20

According to The Verge, “President Trump has signed a new executive order which will block all transactions with Bytedance, TikTok’s parent corporation, in an effort to ‘address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain.'” From the report: The move comes after months of escalating tensions, which saw Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others at…