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☆ Montana lawmakers vote to completely ban TikTok in the state
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Washington CNN —Montana became the first US state on Friday to pass legislation banning TikTok on all personal devices, sending a bill to Gov. Greg Gianforte prohibiting TikTok from operating within state lines and barring app stores from offering TikTok for downloads. The legislation marks the furthest step yet by a state government to restrict TikTok over perceived security concerns and comes as some federal lawmakers have called for a national ban of TikTok. Individual users of TikTok, meanwhile, would not be penalized for accessing TikTok. In December, Gianforte banned TikTok from state government devices and the following month urged the Montana University System to follow suit, which it did.

☆ Montana's legislature has passed a statewide ban on TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The bill bans TikTok on nearly all personal devices and also bars app stores from offering TikTok. The bill is pending a signature from Montana's governor, Greg Gianforte, but would go into effect in 2024. On Friday, Montana legislators voted in favor of a bill to ban TikTok within state lines. The bill is now pending approval from Montana's governor Greg Gianforte. Other groups like the American Civil Liberties Union are also protesting Montana's bill.

☆ Man who threatened to bomb Merriam-Webster offices over gender identity definitions sentenced to year in prison
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A California man got a year in prison over threats to Merriam-Webster and other businesses. Jeremy Hanson made threats related to gender, including some related to the definition of "female". Hanson used an anonymous account to post threatening responses to new definitions added to words like "female" on Merriam-Webster's website. "It is absolutely sickening that Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda," Hanson wrote. "You [sic] headquarters should be shot up and bombed," Hanson wrote in a message on the site's Contact Us page.

☆ Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Shows Abortion Continues to Sway Voters
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Laura Kusisto | Shannon Najmabadi | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Judge Janet Protasiewicz touted her support for reproductive rights during the campaign. For the first time in recent memory, liberals have gained a majority of seats on Wisconsin’s highest court, the latest in a string of electoral victories for Democrats in politically mixed states in which abortion rights have played a central role. Judge Janet Protasiewicz, a candidate with strong backing from the Democratic Party who openly touted her support for reproductive rights, won the seat in a swing state by 11 percentage points in Tuesday’s vote. It was the most expensive state supreme court race in U.S. history, in which money poured in from wealthy donors and national groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

☆ Even Putin's media stooges are mocking Trump's arrest, joking that he may have to seek asylum in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian state media personalities took jabs at Trump following his Tuesday arrest and arraignment. In one broadcast, AI images of Trump wearing orange jumpsuits appeared to dance to "Jailhouse Rock." Top editors give you the stories you want — delivered right to your inbox each weekday. The Russian state media response to Trump's indictment was first reported on by The Daily Beast and columnist Julia Davis, who created the Russian Media Monitor to combat Russian propaganda. Co-host Olga Skabeeva gleefully acknowledged in Russian that "Trump may change into an orange prison suit," adding: "We're getting lots of popcorn and waiting."

☆ Republican Senator Rand Paul blocks bid to ban Chinese-owned TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul on Wednesday blocked a bid to fast-track a ban of popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, which more than 150 million Americans use, citing concerns about free speech and uneven treatment of social media companies. Republican Senator Josh Hawley had sought unanimous consent for a TikTok ban bill. We're going to be just like China and ban speech we're afraid of?" Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a TikTok video on Friday opposed a TikTok ban, calling it "unprecedented" and said Congress has not gotten classified TikTok briefings. Then President Donald Trump's attempts in 2020 to ban TikTok were blocked by U.S. courts.

☆ Republican Senator Rand Paul opposes TikTok ban push in Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - Republican Senator Rand Paul on Wednesday opposed efforts in Congress to ban popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, which is used by more than 150 million Americans. Republican Senator Josh Hawley said this week he hoped to get unanimous consent for a TikTok ban bill. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew appeared before Congress last week and faced tough questions about national security concerns over the ByteDance-owned app. Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a TikTok video Friday opposed a TikTok ban, calling it "unprecedented" and said Congress has not gotten classified TikTok briefings. Last week, three Democrats in the House of Representatives opposed a TikTok ban, as do free speech groups like the American Civil Liberties Union.

☆ Kentucky lawmakers override governor's veto of transgender bill
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Andrew Hay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 29 (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday overturned the governor's veto of a bill to ban transgender youths from gender-affirming healthcare and restrict which toilets they use in public schools, voting in line with a national conservative-led movement. Supporters of the bill said they passed the legislation to protect children from undergoing gender-affirming treatments they would regret later in life. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky promised legal action to stop medical sections of the bill taking effect in about three months. Measures include bans on discussion of gender identity in schools, clampdowns on drag shows and blocking transgender participation in sports. West Virginia on Wednesday passed a law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth after about 10 other states approved laws restricting or outlawing medical treatments for transgender minors.

☆ US lawmakers make new push to bar convicted violent passengers from flights
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday will make a new push for legislation to bar passengers fined or convicted of serious physical violence from commercial flights after a series of recent high-profile incidents. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union opposed creating a no-fly list for unruly passengers, saying the U.S. government "has a terrible record of treating people fairly with regard to the existing no-fly list and other watch lists that are aimed at alleged terrorists." Despite the end of the airplane mask mandate in April 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigated 831 unruly passenger incidents in 2022, up from 146 in 2019, but down from 1,099 in 2021, the lawmakers noted. The FAA received 2,456 unruly passenger reports in 2022 and proposed $8.4 million in fines, down from 5,981 reports in 2021, which included 4,290 mask-related incidents. In February 2022, Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) CEO Ed Bastian urged the U.S. government to place passengers convicted of on-board disruptions on a national no-fly list that would bar them from future travel on any commercial airline.

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared inclined to uphold a federal law that made it a crime to encourage illegal immigration, signaling agreement with President Joe Biden's administration that the measure does not violate constitutional free speech protections. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Hansen's conviction for violating the provision, which bars inducing or encouraging noncitizens "to come to, enter or reside" in the United States illegally, including for financial gain. The 9th Circuit upheld Hansen's convictions on mail and wire fraud charges. The 9th Circuit decision applies in the group of western states over which it has jurisdiction including Arizona and California, which border Mexico. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction of a group of other states, also ruled against the law in a separate case.

☆ Kentucky governor vetoes bill targeting transgender youth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Andrew Hay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 24 (Reuters) - Kentucky's Democratic governor on Friday vetoed a Republican bill to ban transgender youths from gender-affirming healthcare and restrict public toilets they use, bucking a national Republican-led movement. Governor Andy Beshear, running in November for a second-term in Republican-leaning Kentucky, said the bill would increase youth suicides and permit excessive government interference in personal healthcare decisions. Supporters of the bill said they were trying to protect children from undergoing gender-affirming treatments they would regret later in life. The Kentucky bill would let teachers refuse to refer to transgender students by their chosen pronouns, outlaw gender reassignment surgery for minors, stop use of puberty blockers and prohibit gender-affirming hospital services. In Kentucky, Beshear said in a statement that the bill would turn teachers into "investigators" prying into students' lives.

☆ Nebraska hasn't passed a single bill this year because one lawmaker keeps filibustering in protest of an anti-trans bill: 'I will burn this session to the ground'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Azmi Haroun | Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Nebraska state senator has filibustered every bill in this year's legislative session. State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh is doing so in opposition to an anti-trans bill, The Washington Post reported. "This bill legislates hate and targets trans youth," Cavanaugh told The Post. "I will burn this session to the ground over this bill," Cavanaugh told her colleagues in a February session, according to the Post. "The dream would be for the bill to die and for us to move forward with the work of the state," Cavanaugh told the Post.

☆ A proposed law that would require people blogging about Ron DeSantis to register with the state is a 'clear violation of the First Amendment:' ACLU
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

1316 would require all bloggers writing about DeSantis to register with the state. Two organizations told Insider the proposed legislation is a clear violation of the First Amendment. Organizations like the ACLU tell Insider that the proposed law violates the right to free speech. The proposed law would require any blogger who writes about DeSantis or other elected officials — and is paid for their work — to register with the state. It's unclear if DeSantis personally supports Brodeur's proposed law.

☆ Tennessee governor will sign bills restricting drag, transgender youth treatment
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Feb 28 (Reuters) - Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said he would sign into law bills that passed the legislature last week banning gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth and restricting drag performances in public. Lee said the drag bill, which comes into effect April 1, would protect children from being "potentially exposed to sexualized entertainment, to obscenity." Modern drag performances, which have long flourished in LGBT venues before becoming a more mainstream entertainment in recent years, typically do not involve nudity. One of the bills Lee will sign bans doctors from providing gender-affirming medical treatment, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery, for transgender minors. The Tennessee bills are part of an upswing in recent months in Republican efforts to regulate the conduct of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.

☆ US House Democrat opposes giving Biden power to ban TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said on Tuesday he opposes a Republican bill that would give President Joe Biden the power to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and other apps. TikTok and CFIUS have been negotiating for more than two years on data security requirements. "We need to address TikTok," Meeks said. The American Civil Liberties Union urged Congress not to ban TikTok, saying it would violate the free speech rights of millions of Americans. This month, Biden said he was not sure if Washington would ban TikTok.

☆ House panel to vote on bill empowering Biden to ban TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The legislation — introduced Friday and fast-tracked by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul — would empower the Biden administration to impose a nationwide TikTok ban under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Legal experts and even some TikTok creators have cited the Berman Amendment as a potential barrier to a nationwide TikTok ban because it may violate the Berman Amendment’s protections for electronic information. US officials have said that the data could benefit China by facilitating targeted misinformation campaigns or by providing it with intelligence targets. In seeking to restrict access to a specific social media platform, the bill risks violating Americans’ First Amendment rights to free expression, the ACLU said. “Would an entity be under the influence of China if the CEO’s sister had moved there, or married a Chinese person?

☆ ACLU urges US lawmakers not to ban TikTok, citing free speech
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A TikTok ban would "limit Americans’ political discussion, artistic expression, free exchange of ideas — and even prevent people from posting cute animal videos and memes," the ACLU said in a letter to lawmakers. Earlier this month, Biden said he was not sure if Washington would ban TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Representative Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a statement on Monday, said the legislation "empowers the administration to ban TikTok or any software applications that threaten U.S. national security. TikTok, he said, "allows (China) to manipulate and monitor its users while it gobbles up Americans' data to be used for their malign activities." TikTok officials have been on Capitol Hill this month trying to convince lawmakers of its efforts to protect data security.

☆ Exclusive: White House sets deadline for purging TikTok from federal devices
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The White House on Monday gave government agencies 30 days to ensure they do not have Chinese-owned app TikTok on federal devices and systems. TikTok did not immediately comment on the White House memo. Many government agencies including the White House, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department had banned TikTok from government devices before the vote. "My bill empowers the administration to ban TikTok or any software applications that threaten U.S. national security," Representative Mike McCaul, the committee chair, said. The White House memo said within 90 days, agencies must address any use of TikTok by IT vendors through contracts and with 120 days agencies will include a new prohibition on TikTok in all new solicitations.

☆ Atlanta ‘Cop City’ Cases Test Use of Domestic-Terrorism Charges Against Protesters
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Mariah Timms | Cameron Mcwhirter | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ATLANTA—Georgia prosecutors have deployed a unique strategy against a group of mostly out-of-town protesters who opposed a new police and fire training center here, using a state domestic-terrorism law to charge more than a dozen people in recent months. It is the first time the law has been used in this manner, according to legal experts and the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and it is being watched closely by state and city governments, legal scholars and protest groups across the country.

☆ U.S. abortion rights groups and law firms launch legal defense network
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Gabriella Borter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 22 (Reuters) - Major abortion rights organizations and private law firms have teamed up to provide legal counsel to patients and providers navigating the complicated patchwork of U.S. abortion laws, the groups said on Wednesday. The Supreme Court's June 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a nearly 50-year-old precedent that established federal abortion rights, has resulted in a dozen states banning abortion almost entirely. The group's launch comes a day after 20 Democratic governors announced they had formed an alliance to protect abortion rights and access within their states. Abortion rights supporters have been largely dissatisfied with the Democratic-led administration's response to the elimination of abortion access in large swaths of the country. Abortion providers and those supporting abortion patients can seek counsel through the network, while patients will be referred to a helpline already run by If/When/How, one of the network's advocacy partners.

☆ Supreme Court Turns Away Challenge to Warrantless Surveillance Program
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Jan Wolfe | Dustin Volz | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The surveillance program permits the National Security Agency to collect intelligence from international phone calls, emails and other digital content. WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court declined to hear a constitutional challenge to a secretive government surveillance program, dealing a setback to privacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union ahead of a looming debate in Congress over whether to renew the law that authorizes the intelligence tool. In a brief order issued on Tuesday, the high court said it wouldn’t hear arguments challenging the legality of the National Security Agency program known as “Upstream,” in which the intelligence agency collects and monitors internet communications without obtaining search warrants. Classified details about the program were among those exposed a decade ago by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has been charged with theft of government property and violating espionage laws and lives in Russia.

[1/2] A man is silhouetted near logos of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and Wikipedia in this photo illustration taken in Sarajevo March 11, 2015. REUTERS/Dado RuvicWASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a bid by the operator of the popular Wikipedia internet encyclopedia to resurrect its lawsuit against the National Security Agency challenging mass online surveillance. The NSA, part of the Defense Department, is the agency responsible for U.S. cryptographic and communications intelligence and security. The U.S. government has said the NSA's surveillance targeting is authorized by a 2008 amendment to a federal law called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Wikimedia compared the interception by the NSA of its communications to the "seizing and searching the patron records of the largest library in the world."

☆ Biden and Republican senators join forces in attack on Big Tech at Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Lawrence Hurley | David Ingram | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

A person walks in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building during rainy weather, in Washington, U.S. January 17, 2023. WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and some of his most prominent Republican adversaries in Congress have become allies, of sorts, in an upcoming Supreme Court showdown between Big Tech and its critics. Biden took a shot at tech companies in his State of the Union address earlier this month, although he did not mention Section 230. "I think this is an opportunity for the Supreme Court to disentangle some of the knots that the courts themselves have woven here into the law," he said in an interview. "The rhetoric is that these are bad powerful tech companies that are harming ordinary people and causing a lot of harm and injustice," Rathi said.

The Justice Department, in a Feb. 7 filing, told the Supreme Court: "The anticipated end of the public health emergency on May 11, and the resulting expiration of the operative Title 42 order, would render this case moot." The Supreme Court in December left in place the Title 42 policy, granting in a 5-4 vote the request by Republican state attorneys general to put on hold U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan's November decision invalidating the emergency public health order. Title 42 was first implemented in March 2020 under Trump, a Republican, when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Biden, a Democrat, kept Title 42 in place after taking office in January 2021 despite fierce criticism from within his own party. Biden's administration sought to lift the policy after U.S. health authorities said last year it was no longer needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

☆ ChatGPT created a lesson plan on the American Civil War, but educators who looked at it warned the subject might be more than AI can handle
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Jordan Hart | Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insider asked ChatGPT to create a high school-level history lesson to test the accuracy of OpenAI's anti-cheating tool. The tool failed to detect the lesson plan created by AI, so we asked an education expert for his opinion. We asked ChatGPT to write a 45-minute lesson plan for high school students on the American Civil War. But even though Insider asked for a 45-minute lesson, ChatGPT provided a total of 55 minutes. "This exact lesson plan could be taught very differently depending on the teacher, so I am curious how a more robust lesson plan would look."

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