Hoxhaism

• The president can extend the deadline by three months, and TikTok has indicated that it plans to challenge the law in court.
• If the law stands and the company fails to sell the app, TikTok will be blocked from any U.S. app store or web-hosting service.
• The main arguments against TikTok under ByteDance’s ownership include that it enables foreign influence of U.S. public opinion, promotes harmful behaviors among minors, and undermines Americans’ data privacy.
• However, none of these concerns are new or unique to TikTok among social media platforms.

Foreign influence and propaganda

• Lawmakers have expressed concern that the Chinese government could influence U.S. public opinion, and thereby politics, by exerting control over what content TikTok users see.
• Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) referred to TikTok’s role in challenging ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil drilling project in Alaska as a possible Chinese influence operation meant to undermine U.S. energy dominance.
• But U.S-based social media platforms have been and continue to be exploited by a range of foreign governments, including China, and their proxies who use them to attempt to influence U.S. public opinion.
• These influence campaigns create and maintain coordinated cross-platform networks.

Hazardous to minors

• Some lawmakers also caution that TikTok feeds children content linked to dangerous behaviors, like eating disorders and self-harm.
• However, all social media may pose these threats.
• Currently, 41 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have filed lawsuits against Meta for the damage allegedly done to minors.

Data security and privacy

• Proponents of the TikTok sale-or-ban law also claim that the app constitutes an unacceptable threat to data privacy.
• Rep. Gallagher asserted that the Chinese government could use TikTok for espionage to “find Americans, exfiltrate data and track the location of journalists.” Yet, there is little reason to believe Americans’ data is safer with U.S.-based companies.
• Meta has had a wide range of data privacy scandals.
• Much of this data can be purchased, completely legally, from commercial data brokers, regardless of who owns it.

The need for regulation

• Each threat posed by TikTok has also been posed by U.S.-based social media for over a decade.
• I believe that lawmakers should take action to address harms caused by U.S. companies seeking profit as well as by foreign companies perpetrating espionage.
• To truly protect their constituents, lawmakers would need to enact broad, far-reaching regulation.

Sarah Florini currently receives research funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

• Both measures prohibit the sale of certain types of factory farmed pork products in these states.
• “We applaud Rep. McGovern for shining light on Smithfield’s infiltration of American agriculture and the multinational conglomerate’s efforts to overturn state laws like Massachusetts’ Question 3,” said Marty Irby, president and CEO at Competitive Markets Action and board secretary at the Organization for Competitive Markets.
• To date, 226 bipartisan Members of Congress, including McGovern, have vocalized their opposition to the nullification of Question 3 and Prop 12.
• 171 bipartisan Members of the House sent a letter to Thompson and Scott in August of 2023 and 31 U.S.

• In a new public opinion poll by MITRE and The Harris Poll, the U.S. public agrees, almost universally, that protecting our critical infrastructure is essential to our daily lives, national security, and having a global advantage.
• With temporary failures of critical infrastructure on the rise in the recent years, 8-in-10 U.S. residents (81%) are worried about how secure critical infrastructure may be.
• In collaboration with public and private operators, MITRE is working across and with critical infrastructure sectors to test, identify, and remedy their cyber vulnerabilities.
• The general public can prepare for attacks on critical infrastructure much like they do for storms and other natural disasters.

• "China will strive to modernize the industrial system and develop new quality productive forces at a faster pace this year," noted the report, which placed sci-tech innovation high on the government's agenda.
• Currently, the development of new quality productive forces in China is picking up pace.
• In order to promote the development of new quality productive forces in China, analysts said the country should firmly adhere to deepening scientific research and technological innovation.
• Comprised of AI and the manufacturing sector, smart manufacturing is an important part of forming new quality productive forces.