Congress introduces bill to ban TikTok over spying fears

American politicians aren’t just restricting access to TikTok — they now hope to ban it outright. Members of the House and Senate have introduced matching bills that would block transactions from any social media company in or influenced by China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea or Venezuela. The ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act (Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party) is meant to shut down access to TikTok and other apps that could theoretically funnel American user data to oppressive governments, censor news or otherwise manipulate the public.

The rationale echoes what US political leaders have argued for years. While TikTok has taken efforts to distance its international operations from those in China, such as by storing US data domestically, critics have argued that parent company ByteDance is ultimately at the mercy of the Chinese government. TikTok could potentially profile government workers and otherwise surveil Americans, according to the often-repeated claims.

Republican bill co-sponsors Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mike Gallagher tried to draw links between some ByteDance leadership and the Chinese Communist Party in an opinion piece in The Washington Post this November. At the time, 23 directors had previously worked for state-backed media, and “at least” 15 employees still did. The bill is also sponsored by House Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said it was “troubling” that members of Congress were putting forward legislation to ban the app rather than waiting for a national security review to wind down. The bills will “do nothing to advance” national security, according to the company. The firm added that it would “continue to brief” Congress on plans developed under the watch of security officials. The social network has consistently denied plans to track American users or otherwise deliberately assist Chinese surveillance efforts in the country.

TikTok already faces some legal action. The states of Maryland and South Dakota have banned TikTok on government devices over security concerns. Indiana, meanwhile, sued TikTok for allegedly deceiving users about China’s data access and child safety violations. That lawsuit would fine TikTok and demand changes to the service’s info handling and marketing claims.

Whether or not the bills become legislation isn’t certain. President Biden revoked former President Trump’s orders to ban TikTok downloads, and instead required a fresh national security review. He’s not expected to override his own order. And while the bill sponsors characterize the measure as bipartisan, it’s not clear the call for a TikTok ban has enough support to clinch the necessary votes and reach Biden’s desk. To some degree, the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act is more a signal of intent than a practical attempt to block TikTok.

Twitter disbands its Trust and Safety Council of external advisors

Twitter has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council via email and less than an hour before its members’ Zoom meeting with the company’s executives, according to The Washington Post and NPR. The council was reportedly supposed to discuss recent developments and changes on the website under Elon Musk, but the email said that the members’ help is no longer needed. Its members were apparently informed that Twitter is “reevaluating how best to bring external insights” and that the council is no longer “the best structure to do this.”

The company disbanded the group just a few days after three members resigned from their voluntary positions. In their letter, they said the well-being of Twitter’s users is on the decline despite Musk’s claims and that the executive should not be allowed to define digital safety. In a response to the news of their departure, Musk tweeted: “It is a crime that they refused to take action on child exploitation for years!” After that tweet, NPR said some remaining members sent a letter to Twitter demanding the company to stop misrepresenting the council’s role, as attacks against former and current advisors continued to grow worse. 

The Trust and Safety Council members aren’t employees handling moderation on the website, and they have no power to make decisions or to review banned accounts and specific tweets. They’re a group of external advisors from expert and anti-abuse organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, YAKIN (Youth Adult Survivors & Kin in Need), the Samaritans and GLAAD, volunteering their time to help Twitter figure out how to fight hate and harassment. When Twitter formed the council in 2016, it said the group’s purpose is to make the website a less toxic place so that “anyone, anywhere can express themselves safely and confidently.” 

Another member, the Committee to Protect Journalists, has confirmed to Engadget that it received a letter from Twitter announcing the council’s dissolution. Twitter apparently told the committee that it plans to continue engaging with partner organizations through “bilateral or small group meetings” and “regional contacts.” CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg also said: “Mechanisms such as the Trust and Safety Council help platforms like Twitter to understand how to address harm and counter behavior that targets journalists. Safety online can mean survival offline. Today’s decision to dissolve the Trust and Safety Council is cause for grave concern, particularly as it is coupled with increasingly hostile statements by Twitter owner Elon Musk about journalists and the media.”

More members were on the verge of resigning before the group was dissolved, Larry Magid, chief executive of Silicon Valley nonprofit ConnectSafely, told The Post. He said: “By disbanding [the council], we got fired instead of quit. Elon doesn’t want criticism, and he really doesn’t want the kind of advice he would very likely get from a safety advisory council, which would likely tell him to rehire some of the staff he got rid of, and reinstate some of the rules he got rid of, and turn the company in another direction from where he is turning it.”

Musk said in October that he will form a “moderation council” made up of members with “widely diverse viewpoints” before he reinstates banned accounts. But in an interview in November, he admitted that he will still have the final say in making decisions. Twitter has yet to introduce a moderation council, but Musk has already reinstated previously banned accounts’, such as Donald Trump’s and Andrew Anglin’s, the neo-Nazi creator of The Daily Stormer. 

Update 12/13/22 2:52AM ET: Add statement and information from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle will share the Pentagon’s $9 billion cloud contract

Over a year after shutting down its previous attempt at modernizing its IT infrastructure, the Department of Defense (DOD) has picked Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle as its new cloud service providers. The Pentagon has awarded the companies separate contracts for the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) project, and according to Reuters, they will have a shared budget ceiling of $9 billion. This initiative is a successor to DOD’s cancelled Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program that was supposed to connect its different divisions using a single cloud service provider. 

If you’ll recall, the department awarded Microsoft with the $10 billion JEDI contract in 2019. Shortly after that, though, Amazon challenged Microsoft’s victory in court, claiming that the evaluation process had “clear deficiencies, errors and unmistakable bias.” Amazon argued back then that the Pentagon’s decision was based on “egregious errors” and “the result of improper pressure from President Donald J. Trump.” The company accused the former President of launching “repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks” against it in an effort to steer the Pentagon away from giving the JEDI contract to Jeff Bezos, “his perceived political enemy.” 

While the Pentagon’s inspector general office had found no evidence that Trump interfered with the selection process, it also noted that several White House officials did not cooperate with its investigation. In the end, the department chose to cancel the JEDI project because it “no longer meets its needs.” Now, under the JWCC, the Pentagon will work with several vendors for the cloud capabilities and services it needs instead of with just a single one.

The companies’ contracts will run until 2028 and will provide the DOD access to centralized management and distributed control, global accessibility, advanced data analytics and fortified security, among other capabilities. 

Biden signs bill that lets domestic violence survivors remove abusers from phone plans

President Joe Biden has signed H.R. 7132 or Safe Connections Act of 2022 into law, and it could help domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and human trafficking survivors ultimately cut ties with abusers. Under the new law, users can ask mobile service providers to separate their line — as well as their dependents’ — from their abusers’ if they have a shared contract. That would ensure that abusers no longer have access to their phone records and can’t get their service cut. Carriers aren’t allowed to charge fees to grant these requests, which they must do within two days. 

In addition, Safe Connections Act of 2022 will require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create rules that would make it easier for survivors seeking separate mobile plans to enroll in its Lifeline Program for up to six months. This FCC initiative gives qualifying low-income consumers a discount on phone services, so they can remain connected to job opportunities, friends, family and emergency services while they’re working to get back on their feet. The commission also has to establish rules that would prevent calls or texts to hotlines from appearing on call logs, presumably to keep survivors safe. 

In a blog post, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) celebrated the new law but also said that it would have “preferred a bill that did not require survivors to provide paperwork to ‘prove’ their abuse.” For a request to be valid, a user must submit “appropriate documentation” to verify that the person they’re sharing a contract with “committed or allegedly committed an act of domestic violence, trafficking, or a related criminal act against the survivor.”

Having to provide paperwork may not be easy, depending on a person’s circumstances, and it could retraumatize survivors trying to break free from abusive situations. “However, this new law is a critical step in the right direction,” the EFF continued, “and it is encouraging that Congress and the President agreed.”

Democratic lawmakers want Elon Musk to explain China’s role in ‘platform manipulation’ during protests

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