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The government says it’s for our own good and we should trust them.
Except we don’t trust them and don’t care about our own good.
I wasn’t going to before, but now that you’ve told me not to I’m definitely going to do a bunch of opiates.
It’s the American Way 🇺🇸 🦅
To be fair they also don’t are about our own good, they just want us to install some good ol home grown American spyware.
They literally don’t care about the data. The entire law is to prevent foreign nations from controlling media narratives. If China wants Americas data all they have to do is buy it.
Who says we don’t care about our own good? Other than the government.
Our voting habits say we don’t.
Just like the “men would do anything but go to therapy” meme, Americans would rather install malware on their phones than get out to vote.
You talk as if your vote means shit.
Oh you’re one of those…
Are you seriously in a communist space advocating a vote for capitalist parties?
Do you really think acceleratioism is not the dumbest fucking idea?
How’s that incrementalism working out for you? Your party implied that small baby steps would march to the left, your party is barely to the left of trump. You were advocating and pushing for your own country’s shift to the right and further and deeper into fascist authoritarianism. Your party has shifted from people that are building houses for the homeless around the world to embracing cops and zionists on their party stage while blowing Republican dog whistles. Hoping to get the Republican vote while welcoming war criminals with open arms into the party
First: not my party
Second, how’s your apathy/voting for a third party in a system where that literally hurts your own goals working for you?
Don’t confuse refusing to vote for a party that does not represent the working class as apathy. That’s like telling a Democrat they’re apathetic because they won’t vote for a Republican
When the options are “capitalist party that will kill more people” and “capitalist party that will kill fewer people,” the answer is obvious
You could not vote, or you could vote third party, but when 97% of the country agrees that one of these two capitalists is gonna win, you have to try and make sure that the less evil one does
That kind of talk is why Trump won.
Democrats is why Trump won.
Lack of resistance is why Trump won. Democrats are part of that, but the blame hardly lies on them alone.
Votes do matter, they’re just not enough on their own.
It’s hard to claim lack of resistance when the entire party was shifting to the hard right trying to attract that hard right vote. They cozied up to war criminals, cops zionists and the right wing while blowing right-wing dog whistles there was no resistance
Play stupid games win stupid prizes
Except it’s genocide
If it wasn’t for Hillary’s pied Piper strategy, Trump never would have been elevated with billions of dollars in free media to become president. If it wasn’t for Kamala Harris embracing right-wing politics and every policy of bidens that the public opposed, we wouldn’t have Trump right now. Democrats are toxic poison and are their own worst enemy
Riiiiight. It’s always something other than what the numbers show.
As a Canadian, I honestly believe your election was rigged and has been since 2000.
Corporations own your country, it’s very obvious. The only way you can influence your government at this point is collective action which will never happen cause you have iPhones to use to get your anger out.
I’m not disputing your theory, in fact I think it’s likely but how do you think they’re actually doing it?
In swing states, yes. But for the majority of americans not in a swing state, their gripes are at least somewhat valid thanks to gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering has been a huge problem for a while, what makes you think this time it played a pivotal role in Trump’s victory? If that was the case, he would have won the electoral vote but not the popular vote, but he won the popular vote, first Rep pres to do so in 20 years apparently. It helped secure past Rep presidencies, but doesn’t to have done so this time around.
That’s why we have trump.
We have Trump because of Democrats, specifically Hillary Clinton and her pied Piper strategy.
So, it had nothing at all to do with the three million people single issue third party voting and the almost ninety million people not voting at all?
See, you are offering an opinion on why. I’m offering facts on why. Big difference.
Either you all have to admit that your single issue protest vote was VERY effective in sending a message that you won’t support someone that you don’t like- thus, helping trump get elected, or….
You have to admit that it failed miserably, and your message fell flat without ever being noticed and your third party vote was wasted- but yet somehow it’s still someone else’s fault trump won.
Which will it be?
Because we all heard all of the threats from the third party protest voters prior to the election. You all were going to send a clear message… so- was it heard, or not?
>never votes because he doesn’t think his vote matters
>awful politician gets elected because he didn’t vote
See guys? Voting doesn’t work!
deleted by creator
Except this was never about “malware” or anything else.
Republicans first wanted to ban it because younger people were getting politically organized on it, and they weren’t voting republican.
Then it was the main platform where news of Gaza was getting out, because American owned media, social media included, have always towed the line with Israel and anything that shows them in a negative light is just automatically considered “antisemitic”.
Because of Gaza, Democrats jumped on trying to ban it with Republicans because neither side liked that information was being spread and they had no power to suppress.
If they actually cared about security or the privacy of citizens they would make regulation that applied to all social media, US included. There is nothing Ticktok does that Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest don’t have a long history of doing. And there was the whole Cambridge Analytica thing where it was found Facebook sold user data and gave access to a foreign group that actively was using Facebook to influence the 2016 election. If China wanted data on US citizens there is nothing stopping them from just buying it from American companies like they already do.
Also, Twitter was specifically doing things to help prop up Trump this last time at the behest of Musk who was not born in the US and pretty much fits the bill of “foreign agent trying to undermine American values”, except that he’s trying to undermine the people and the push for equality and human rights, which most politicians don’t care about.
They really have cut off their nose to spite their face imo. Only way this makes sense to me is that the users want a noble justification for their ignoble habit.
“The data would’ve ended up in China anyway since American apps would’ve sold it.” -Rationalizations of a feed addict fiending
Explain exactly how using a Chinese app will negatively impact the average American. Don’t use vague threats, use evidence based examples. I’ll wait.
I agree with you, but that’s a Meta scandal. If anything it proves that the right move would be to regulate the platforms. Not just ban foreign ones.
Oh yes, I agree! I provided an example of a TikTok campaign in a later comment. It’s not the source that’s the problem, it’s that everyone is trying to manipulate (but the ones controlling the platform have way more feedback and control, of course).
You’ve gotta be more specific than chucking a wiki link to a UK data company, champ.
If you’re not aware by now that social networks are vectors for influencing people’s political opinions, you’re living in the wrong decade, amigo.
Can you provide any evidence that china is influencing political opinions in a way which would be unique to using a Chinese app? Or are you just fear mongering and talking out your ass?
You know what? You’re right. I doubt that a control freak government would try to control anyone.
Is this your way of conceding that you in fact have no evidence and you’re talking out your ass? Because if so, show some grace and humility and just say it, instead of acting like a teenager.
Have you ever been on tiktok? You will lose braincells quicker than drinking gasoline.
It should genuinely be considered self harm to have a tiktok account.
I don’t disagree, but I also feel the same about X and Facebook and neither of them have copped a ban.
Yes, but don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
“Chinese app”? I’m sensing some defensiveness here.
Using any for profit data harvesting app has great financial incentive to negatively impact anyone, evidence based government back-doors or not.
I’m sure there’s some lovely Chinese-made fediverse wrappers or locally hosted communities with good moderation. Idk, I don’t speak Chinese.
Because China bad. Duh.
Wow, so all it took to resurrect McCarthyism was the addition of racism, eh?
Sorry, I assumed the /s was implied.
The real irony being you were actually right the first time, no sarcasm needed.
It allows any pos to spread their garbage misinformed opinions as facts. its full of adult weirdos making softcore porn knowing the platform is full of minors and many intentionally targeting their content towards them. Its full of grifters peddling pseudoscientific supplements, cosmetics, medical advice etc. Its full of rwnj and pseudo progressives from all over the world spreading populist propaganda. It also makes it easy for any anti social pos to get famous.
That’s Twitter too.
which is banned where i live
Sorry, are you describing X or Facebook with your comment?
China controlling the narrative might be a bit worrying. Not sure how much that reflects in the daily life of a single person but for societies it does have some implications.
It’s no more worrying than the misinformation being spread on Facebook and X, in large part by Russian troll farms or Murdoch’s media empire, but somehow it’s China that’s the real problem. I see no reason why anyone should be fear mongering about the dangers of using a Chinese app any more than using X.
I mean imo all sort narrative building and interference is worrying and from a government perspective of course foreign actions and platforms are more worrying. China and Russia being very clearly rivals if not outright enemies of the US, it is more worrying because of that.
And yet this ban does nothing to stop Chinese or Russian troll farms from spreading misinformation and using the outrage algorithm to further fracture the American public on American platforms.
This legislation is not about stopping bad foreign actors, this is purely a way to protect the business interest of American social media companies.
I’d imagine it’s much easier for the US government to control stuff, if it wants to, when it comes to American companies. That probably plays a role.
What makes you think that? They haven’t so far, despite proven Russian troll farms operating on American platorms. I think you’ve inadvertently reversed the order of master and servant there.
How’s it worse for china to have it than American companies. If anything American ones have more access to you to fuck you over. All of them should be banned/heavily regulated for privacy. Not just tiktok.
I didn’t say anything about worse.
shoots self in foot, again
That’ll show em!
Which one is doing the shooting?
A foot for a foot
both feet are shooting in this metaphor
Ha! I am bleeding. Clearly I am the winner.
“We have purposefully trained him wrong, as a joke”
I’m not convinced people are actually moving to Red Note. I think this is another Threads situation.
Honestly, The government isn’t protecting our data anyways so it really doesn’t matter. Amazon has had yet another massive breach but no worries the government is sitting idly by. Not a single action will be taken even though this happens all the time. No penalty means no reason to change.
The language in the law has nothing to do with data. It’s about foreign nations controlling media narratives.
Is this the Amazon breach you’re talking about?
I hadn’t heard of it, and I usually follow this stuff pretty closely. FWIW, in this case, it appears that the data was employee data from a third party vendor’s systems:
The exposed Amazon dataset includes employee work contact information, email addresses, desk phone numbers, and building locations. While Amazon spokesperson Adam Montgomery confirmed the breach, he emphasized in a statement to TechCrunch that core Amazon and Amazon Web Services, or AWS, systems remained secure.
People misconfigure AWS resources all the time, so it is definitely true that data stored by Amazon leaks out from time to time, although they don’t have much culpability in these cases.
Yeah, if the government really cared, they would be pushing privacy laws instead of trying to ban a platform.
Yeah…but it’s much easier to get elected with "ChInA bAd!”
Then “We need a nuanced approach to privacy and social media.”
that platform is being banned because there are very limited privacy laws and the platform doesn’t even comply with those. all theyhad to do is start a US front company with a data center, host all collected user data there and deny all data center access to the foreign parent company.
But… They did do that.
no, they allowed the chinese part of the company full access to all US data and they were found out
The only articles I saw were for headcount data. Literally just confirming the number of users. They embarked on an entire project for it and then the goal posts were taken off the field.
This rivalry with China is so dumb.
I think a handful of influencers found it and just started promoting it. It’s a bandwagon thing, I’m not expecting 95% of the TikTok base to be going to another Chinese app just to stick it to the man. They are going their because the people they follow are going there.
What’s the app?
REDnote on apple/play store
The literal translation is pretty funny given the political situation between the US and China. 小红书 is Little Red Book, which has some funny connotations (in a morbid way).
It’s actually a pretty good app, kinda like a modern Chinese version of Pinterest.
Not that I would recommend using it.
I recommend using it, it’s been a lot of fun so far!
And no doubt they were bribed like motherfuckers to promote it.
RedNote doesn’t offer any incentives or promotions themselves, but there are external opportunities for content promotion. Source
Not saying they weren’t bribed to go over, since Insta and YT pay more apparently, but it would at least pad content Creator’s revenue some.
You think china paid influencers to promote rednote?
Edit: my assumption is that you mean china paid american influencers on tik tok to promote rednote.
Nah, everyone knows influencers don’t get paid to promote stuff. They raise awareness to pressing social issues out of the goodness in their heart.
You think they wouldn’t?
I think they wouldnt
You don’t think our own polarizing politics have paid influences to prop up each side? Why wouldn’t an outsider do the same thing?
Theoretically they could and might. But i dont think they really need to, and the reason why im saying i dont think thats the case is because i feel like i can differentiate between influencers who say anything for views and money versus a broader sentiment that both china and usa just want the data and that security and perception of state spying isnt the primary concern as it has been presented.
But im not an authority on this, which is why this is a lemmy comment and not a published work. However, seeing lemmy comments that demonstrate absolute certainty over the first thought that comes to mind tells me its probably not information worth considering because this is a platform that lives to memeify certain ideologies over thoughtful perception. They could be right, just like i could be right, but im open to learning, and feel like im not being obnoxious.
Of course they did.
You sound really sure
We’re all talking about Rednote now aren’t we? Apps don’t just explode in popularity without money being spent.
You should always assume that an influencer pushing a product is getting paid to do so.
A few days ago, this app had a few dedicated shitposters who really felt like they had a community, then a tidalfuck of Americans came and ruined everything.
Good word, tidalfuck. Gonna remember that one.
I’m too old to be up to date with American internet culture. What app are the cool kids using now?
Vine is gonna get reskinned
Does President Elon even know about Vine?
Maybe it’ll circle back around again like fashion, irc, phpbb, and xmpp messengers becoming the new hip retro protocols.
I’m glad I never uninstalled ICQ
Are you on PowWow?
Uhoh!
This would be on-brand for the Year of the Linux Desktop and De-Googling
FOSS, self-hosting, and peer-to-peer baby, let’s do it
Kiwi works fine for me.
Pixelfed
Loops!
rednote
A bunch of people moved over to 小红书 (xiaohongshu) lit. “little red book” aka RedNote. It’s basically chinese instagram.
What’s the obsession with Chinese social media anyway
They make their apps better than us. Glory to the Chinese communist party!
You see, as long as it’s China radicalizing people through social media delivered propaganda, it’s totally cool and edgy.
Plus, many people have let themselves become so addicted to short form content that they are willing to slob-gobble down all of that propaganda and
sellbeg these companies to take their information without question as long as they get their Mr. Beast fix.Man, I’m starting to feel like a boomer wondering wtf is wrong with the kids these days
A Dennis rage tantrum really sums up their user reaction perfectly.
And it’s understandable. 170 million US citizens are on TikTok. More than 1% has a significant business enterprise that has flourished in that app (not so on the other apps).
The US government, beyond just violating* the free speech of half the population, would be shooting itself in the face by banning the app, considering how much lost tax revenue is likely to occur.
They don’t care about that. Controlling the narrative > tax revenue to them by far.
“Why are all these women so angry about not being able to vote?”
The question might as well be “Why did you vote republican?” and nothing else would change. Not even the people responding.
the democrats did nothing my bills have tripled over the last few years and my pay is not even close to keeping up, republicans will drive civil discourse and there will be riots, that’s the only way anything will change
Accelerationist Theory just means a bunch of people are going to suffer and die. Society might change, but is far more likely to get worse for everyone.
This is exactly how fascism gains power.
In reality, the Biden administration was able to curb inflation significantly, which had a positive effects not just for people in the US.
We should also keep in mind that so many economic factors and developments happen regardless of who is in power.
I see these headlines all the time, and yet my lived experience is that rent and groceries have continued to get more expensive.
Don’t get me wrong, I voted Harris, I’m just tired of hearing how great the economy is doing when everyone I know is struggling more than ever
I despise Biden for a myriad of reasons, but this is horseshit.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_policy_of_the_Joe_Biden_administration
They did do shit. It’s not even the bare fucking minimum, but it is something. And we’re about to get a giant backslide thanks to the GOP/Trump.
And if Biden and Harris had acknowledged that the recovery they managed hadn’t really worked for the working classes and that there was more work to do then they’d likely have won. But they didn’t. They took a victory lap while we have record levels of homelessness and food insecurity. And then they doubled down on that victory lap during the campaign.
You can throw up as many links to bills as you want. The truth is they badly misread the economic situation under the top line data.
Yes, hence why I despise them among other reasons. But it’s utter bullshit to say they did nothing.
Democrats tried to stop price gouging. Republicans blocked it. Democrats tried to raise minimum wage. Republicans blocked it. Democrats tried to forgive school loans much like the PPP loans to rich corporations [and grifters] were forgiven, but Republicans blocked it.
Congrats on blaming the wrong people for things not getting done.
While I agree that Democrats did more that anyone gives them credit for, part of that is they are on average just bad at talking about their wins.
Also, as far as student loans go I’m still mad about that because the way they tried to forgive them seemed designed to get blocked. By means testing it and having a while process rather than just “all government loans from the dept. of ed are forgiven” it gave republicans the ability to stall it and then block.
If he’d just done everything at once with no process then it would be done, or at least too far along for Republicans do do much but draw attention to it. If they succeeded in blocking it then people would be furious.
Instead, only certain circles even knew about the loan forgiveness, but I never expected it to actually go though because of all the means testing, because corporate Democrats do stuff like that all the time. when it comes to the economy, like Biden “reversing” some of the Trump tax cuts on corporations… to way under what it was before Trump got in the first time.
Not trying to defend the democrats, but what did the republicans, the trump presidency, do for you? Did your burden from bills lessen? Did your pay rise? How was the discourse? What changed because of the riots?
I know nothing of you and your struggles, but chances are you gained nothing during that time. Am I wrong?
Yeah, anything but foss apparently.
Sorry for off topic.
Is there a f/loss alternative to tiktok?
Loops appears to be the one for that space but from what I understand they still have a lot of development to do before it’s ready for general users.
Is it good for bullshitting for 10 minutes at a time?
Thanks, I made an account. Let’s see how it goes.
No app is the big killer.
I’m using the app right now. It’s in beta.
Really? Is it for android?
yes, it’s for android and there is an “iOS Testflight” whatever that means: https://loops.video/
Thanks, I’ll check it out!
IIRC there is an app, but it’s only on iPhone.
No, I have it on Android https://loops.video/
Maybe next year™
2026: the year of the foss social media platforms
Linux Desktop foss social media platforms
I’m sad how I’ll just believe this.
(And then be even more sad about it)
If the US government wanted to actually take the high road on this instead of hoping to be able to keep public discourse under the thumb of their own oligarchs, they would push in this direction instead imo
100%, they could even keep their surveillance program in house, just spin up public fediverse servers and share the news to citizens about the “official US” open social media platforms. But they can’t stop licking the oligarchy’s boots
Yes.
Any government actually.
By funding foss projects and living the example.It’s not like it’s not happening, but it’s alloys at such a smol scale.
And not really on social media part (a few govs use Mastodon iirc, but that is about it that I can think of).
I’ve used TikTok since 2021 and really enjoyed the content that it showed me. I learned a lot about fixing things up around the house, things that were going on in other parts of the world, FROM those that live there, and even some of the funniest skits I’ve ever seen off of YouTube. It was a great place.
On every video I’ve seen, for the last two weeks, I have been plugging the Fediverse, Loops especially, for any who care. Some of the content creators did see and like my comments, but I have yet to see a video about anyone talking about it, which is sad.
I unfortunately think a lot of them were just not wanting the money train to disappear, and I can understand that, but to provide only corpo owned media to their fans really disappointed me. Sometimes, money is really not worth selling out. Or, I suppose I must be crazy and insane, because that’s how I feel about it anyway.
I’m not equating this to you personally but here is my experience (I have never used TokTik myself):
my coworker in her just about 50s said the same thing you did - “just how much life hacks” she has learned and immediately proceeded to explain if I knew that if I buy some seeds and put them in some water or moist soil it just “starts to grow” and you can then proceed to plant those “things” in pots and it will eventually grow you “fruits” and you only need to water it “like a (house) plant”.I still have not recovered from this and it’s has been a year. It really shook me to my core.
I’m still speechless about it, I don’t even know how to comment it, where to ever start thinking about it.
Just so much wow.Oh, but I agree with you abut money-train issue, foss communities are still learning how to donate to devs/creators. But it’s a process, a cultural movement & development which I am sure will lead us to a better society.
As stupid as it is, at least she learned something, yeah? You can’t fault her for her education program she attended failing her. That was stuff we learned in elementary school, but I also grew up on a small farm, so maybe I just had real life experience to imprint the memory.
I understand a lot of you, who have never even tried to give TikTok a chance mind you, don’t fully understand that once YOU curate YOUR algorithm, it becomes 90% only what YOU want to see. Trust me, I used to be one of you. I thought it was the dumbest thing to get on an app to watch people do dumb things, or to dance.
I had a partner at the time who would send me TikToks, and one day they sent me something that really impressed me. It was a very well done explanation of an animal, I can’t recall which right now. I was VERY impressed by his explanation of this animal I had never even heard of. So, I made one and followed this person.
I got LOADS of dumb shit thrown my way at first, but I told the algorithm I didn’t want to see these videos, and then… I get 90% of videos targeted towards things I like such as: activism, home improvement tips and tricks, tech related (videos about networking, good alternatives to programs that are ran by shitty people, etc.), skits that I find funny, and others who feel the same way I feel about this world and the way it is currently running. I had always felt like I was one of very very few people who care about these things, but TikTok showed me others who felt the same. People sharing their woes, people actually raising valid points like the Hong Kong protests and even getting millions of views. There is so much more out there than I can type out.
So, while I understand your face palm moment with this person, it is quite funny to always see these arguments of “TikTok bad” when you haven’t even tried to use it, and are only going off of the dumb people who use it and show/like dumb things. Dumb people post on YouTube, but no one talks about how stupid that is. God forbid an app I’ve never used do that too!
No hate, as like I said, I was once someone like you. There’s dumb shit on every platform, even here. You could’ve found out that there were plenty of videos that you would enjoy if you had given it a chance.
And to those who automatically get all patriotic about data and shit, the American social medias are not only worse, but use YOUR data in worse ways than a foreign country can. Not once did TikTok ask me for my location, and only the first time upon opening the app did it request permission for the camera and mic, which I denied, and it never asked again. As far as I know, Facebook/Messenger/Snapchat/Instagram CONSTANTLY want you to give them permissions even if you denied them before.
I don’t expect anyone here to care, because “TikTok bad”, but it is what it is.
I mean both suck and short form & vertical videos are trash, so now it’s your chance to watch better content.
I have likely learned more on TikTok in four years and I had my entire public school education.
That’s on you tbh
Should’ve paid a bit more attention in school, friend
American gov worried about Americans going to Chinese social media to share even more personal information
Chinese gov worried about the influx of Americans inside their Great Firewall
What a clusterfuck. I love it.
You can tell it’s internationalism and not globalism because both governments hate it /s
Would Rednote or whatever it’s called also be covered by the same ban?
no. the ban is not against chinese apps, its against tiktok specifically.
isn’t it unconstitutional to target specific entities with laws?
Idk if the Constitution enters into it when the company in question is not American.
it’s called the law of the land, not the law of the people. if laws don’t cover non-american entities then they can’t commit crimes.
Laws do cover non-american entities, but non-american entities are not afforded the same protections as citizens / corporations, it would appear.
Yup. And the law as passed literally has TikTok written in it. It is 100% unconstitutional.
It’s also a conflict with previous jurisprudence on corporate first amendment rights. Namely that they have them. If Hobby Lobby can have a religion then TikTok can have political speech. Anything less is hypocrisy.
The TikTok ban law doesn’t actually specifically target TikTok in that way, instead it targets applications owned or controlled by a foreign adversary, of which TikTok is the first one enforcement has been turned against. RedNote or RedBook or whatever it’s called almost certainly is also banned under it, and it’s just a matter of the law being enforced.
TikTok could have gotten out of it by selling or splitting in such a way that US TikTok was not under Chinese control.
Yes, but the courts used some bullshit reasoning to uphold it anyway. They said it didn’t constitute a punishment because the law required a sale rather than a confiscation, and because the company could theoretically re-enter the market with a different app (lol).
I suppose it’s similar to eminent domain where the government can force you to sell your house if it’s in the way of something like a rail line, but it’s not considered a punishment since you’re compensated for it (at whatever price they decide is fair). Basically, the government is allowed to fuck with you quite a bit so long as they can provide a justification for why they’re doing it that isn’t personal.
thank you; that was very informative. I tried to look it up but every article seemed to approach it from the first amendment angle and I didn’t find anything about equal protection.
The phrase you’re looking for for a law that targets a specific entity is “Bill of Attainder.”
This was my source for the info, that includes the text of the court ruling.
awesome, thanks!
Not quite. As far as I can tell the US can now play whack-a-mole with any app owned or controlled by a “foreign adversary”, thanks to this precedent. The decision as to which nations are considered a “Foreign Adversary” is made by the U.S. Secretary Of Commerce.
I am not a lawyer or lawmaker, so someone please correct me if I’m wrong. Here’s the full text of the legislation (emphases mine):
DIVISION H-- PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED APPLICATIONS ACT
Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act
(Sec. 2) This division prohibits distributing, maintaining, updating, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (e.g., TikTok). However, the prohibition does not apply to a covered application that executes a qualified divestiture as determined by the President.
Under the division, a foreign adversary controlled application is an application directly or indirectly operated by (1) ByteDance, Ltd., TikTok, their subsidiaries, successors, related entities they control, or entities controlled by a foreign adversary country; or (2) a social media company that is controlled by a foreign adversary country and determined by the President to present a significant threat to national security. (Here, a social media company excludes any website or application primarily used to post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews.)
For the purposes of this division, a foreign adversary country includes North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran.
A qualified divestiture is a transaction that the President has determined (through an interagency process)
- would result in the relevant foreign adversary controlled application no longer being controlled by a foreign adversary, and
- precludes the establishment or maintenance of any operational relationship between the U.S. operations of the relevant application and any formerly affiliated entities that are controlled by a foreign adversary (including any cooperation with respect to the operation of a content recommendation algorithm or a data-sharing agreement).
The prohibition applies 270 days after the date of the division’s enactment. The division authorizes the President to grant a one-time extension of up to 90 days to a covered application when the President has certified to Congress that (1) a path to executing a qualified divestiture of the covered application has been identified, (2) evidence of significant progress toward executing such qualified divestiture of the covered application has been produced, and (3) relevant legal agreements to enable execution of such qualified divestiture during the period of such extension are in place.
Additionally, the division requires a covered foreign adversary controlled application to provide a user with all available account data (including posts, photos, and videos) at the user’s request before the prohibition takes effect. The account data must be provided in a machine-readable format.
The division authorizes the Department of Justice to investigate violations and enforce its provisions. Entities that that violate the division are subject to civil penalties for violations. An entity that violates the prohibition on distributing, maintaining, updating, or providing internet hosting services for a covered application is subject to a maximum penalty of $5,000 multiplied by the number of U.S. users who have accessed, maintained, or updated the application as a result of the violation. An entity that violates the requirement to provide account data to a user upon request is subject to a maximum penalty of $500 multiplied by the number of U.S. users impacted by the violation.
(Sec. 3) The division gives the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia exclusive jurisdiction over any challenge to the division. A challenge to the division must be brought within 165 days after the division’s enactment date. A challenge to any action, finding, or determination under the division must be brought with 90 days of the action, finding, or determination.
DIVISION I–PROTECTING AMERICANS’ DATA FROM FOREIGN ADVERSARIES ACT OF 2024
Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act of 2024
This division makes it unlawful for a data broker to sell, license, rent, trade, transfer, release, disclose, or otherwise make available specified personally identifiable sensitive data of individuals who reside in the United States to North Korea, China, Russia, or Iran or an entity controlled by such a country (e.g., headquartered in or owned by a person in the country).
Sensitive data includes government-issued identifiers (e.g., Social Security numbers), financial account numbers, biometric information, genetic information, precise geolocation information, and private communications (e.g., texts or emails).
A data broker generally includes an entity that sells or otherwise provides data of individuals that the entity did not collect directly from the individuals. A data broker does not include an entity that transmits an individual’s data or communications at the request or direction of the individual or an entity that makes news or information available to the general public.
The division provides for enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission.
