Mornin’ Politocadoes!
President “Diamond Joe” Biden signed legislation demanding that TikTok parent company, the Chinese firm ByteDance, divest itself of the service in one year’s time. The app has long been scrutinized since Chinese law requires that Chinese companies share information with the government, putting US citizens data at risk. To which, a cynical person might say, “Wait, but don’t Facebook and Twitter share information with the US government and it’s agencies? Isn’t ByteDance just doing what US social media are doing but for China with the extra step of punishment if they don’t? ” Well, maybe?
For it’s part, ByteDance has maintained that through an agreement with Oracle that it has firewalled all U.S.-based data from the Chinese government. How true that is remains to be scene, yet the stink of jingoism is hard to ignore. Particularly considering that this was original spearheaded by the Trump administration. The fact that the bill had little-to-no difficulty sailing through both the House and the Senate speaks to the bipartisan support the bill has.
The new law gives ByteDance a year to divest the application, during it will still be very much operating as normal. The law requires ByteDance to find a new buyer in 9 months, while a 90 day deadline can be extended if it appears that the company has been making a good faith effort to find a buyer. If it fails to do so, then the application will be banned from app stores
There’s a very real possibility that there will be a US where Tiktok is banned, but you could still download BitChute, Rumble, Telegram, or TruthSocial but not TikTok. TikTok, the app my fiancee uses to look at cute dog and cat videos.
TikTok is not taking this lying down. CEO Shou Chow vowed to fight the law on First Amendment grounds. The application also has the advantage of this being an election year, and given Trump’s sudden pivot on a ban TikTok might wait until November to see how things shake out. Alternatively, they could just agree to the sale but exclude their algorithm from the sale, effectively hobbling the newly independent form of the app and leaving it very different from what it is today.
The forced sale could set a new global precedent that disrupts the US media ecosystem. Other countries might see this and decide to do the same to American-owned firms and have them either sell their local operations or give them to a foreign company.
Welcome to Thursday! Please be excellent to each other in the comments. The Mayor McSquirrel Rule remains in effect. Something to keep in mind! Police are using digital data to prosecute abortion seekers, and Facebook and Google are helping them! Even if they are not legally required to do so, the tech giants will aid them in this since it’s technically *against the law*. Please be careful when looking for abortion providers or helping someone who is looking for that assistance.
The Covid-19 pandemic continues even if the emergencies end, continue to vaccinate using the latest version of the FDA approved vaccines by Phizer and Moderna. Even if you are vaccinated, please continue to maintain social distancing measures, wear masks in public areas in accordance with CDC guidelines in regard to your own vaccination status.
Also, according to recent polls approximately 50% of adults are not planning on getting their Covid-19 boosters. So please get them and older adults should also look to be vaccinated for RSV! It’s been difficult to get adults onboard with getting the RSV shots as it is. Remember that getting these shots could potentially keep thousands of Americans who do not have to be there out of the ICU this winter.