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☆ U.S. Threatens to Ban TikTok if Chinese Founder Doesn’t Sell Ownership Stake
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TikTok, which has an office in Culver City, Calif., says its $1.5 billion security plan would essentially wall off its U.S. operations, with all data being stored in the U.S.WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is demanding that TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their stakes in the video-sharing app or face a possible U.S. ban of the app, according to people familiar with the matter. The move represents a major shift in policy on the part of the administration, which has been under fire from some Republicans who say it hasn’t taken a tough enough stance to address the perceived security threat from TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd.

☆ U.S. Threatens Ban if TikTok’s Chinese Owners Don’t Sell Stakes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is demanding that TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their stakes in the video-sharing app or face a possible U.S. ban of the app, according to people familiar with the matter. The move represents a major shift in policy on the part of the administration, which has been under fire from some Republicans who say it hasn’t taken a tough enough stance to address the perceived security threat from TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd.

☆ Biden’s TikTok Dilemma: A Ban Could Hurt Democrats More Than Republicans
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Many Republicans and some Democrats are clamoring for action to address a perceived security risk from Chinese-owned TikTok, but one political leader has been largely silent: President Biden. Mr. Biden and his aides have demurred when asked about potential actions to restrict TikTok, saying they are awaiting recommendations from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or Cfius.

☆ TikTok Faces More Scrutiny in New Senate Bill
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—A bipartisan group of senators is introducing a bill on Tuesday to address threats posed by technology based in adversary countries, including the popular TikTok video-sharing app. The bill would set up new government processes for reviewing and mitigating risks from foreign technology, according to a fact sheet. It would require the Commerce Department to establish procedures to “identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit and mitigate” risks from foreign technology, according to the fact sheet.

☆ TikTok Ban Clears Congressional Test, but Faces Senate Hurdle
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—A bill aimed at banning TikTok in the U.S. was approved by a Republican-led House committee Wednesday, but the legislation faces hurdles ahead. The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the measure 24 to 16 vote along party lines. The bill, known as the DATA Act (for “Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries”), would effectively block U.S. interactions with the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app.

☆ TikTok Ban Set to Be Taken Up by House Lawmakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—A House committee is set to take up legislation Tuesday that would effectively ban TikTok, but hurdles likely lie ahead for the measure, even if it wins preliminary approval. The bill would effectively block U.S. interactions with the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app, according to a draft version viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

☆ TikTok Ban Debated by House Lawmakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—A House committee on Tuesday took up legislation that would effectively ban TikTok in the U.S., but postponed a vote on the measure until Wednesday. The bill would effectively block U.S. interactions with the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app.

☆ Google Case Heads to Supreme Court With Powerful Internet Shield Law at Stake
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Beatrice Gonzalez and Jose Hernandez, the mother and stepfather of Nohemi Gonzalez, are suing Google. WASHINGTON— Google goes before the U.S. Supreme Court this week to defend what is widely regarded as a pillar of the online economy—and one that is also being blamed for a proliferation of harmful content. The law at issue, known as Section 230, gives internet platforms legal immunity for almost all third-party content hosted on their sites. A decision to limit that immunity could scramble the business models of the internet’s biggest companies—especially social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Google’s YouTube that rely heavily on recommendation algorithms.

☆ TikTok Dealt Another Hit as Democratic Senator Joins Calls for Banning the App
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Another prominent Democrat has joined Republicans seeking to hobble TikTok, with Sen. Michael Bennet (D., Colo.) calling on Apple Inc. and Google to bar the Chinese-owned video platform from their app stores. Republicans have been the most outspoken critics of TikTok, but in recent weeks, Democrat Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois joined with Republicans to sponsor legislation to ban TikTok outright.

☆ TikTok’s Chief to Testify Before Congress in March
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TikTok’s chief executive has agreed to appear before a congressional committee in March, as House Republican lawmakers step up scrutiny of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app. Shou Zi Chew will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23, a committee spokesman said, in what would be the first appearance of a TikTok CEO before a congressional panel.

☆ TikTok Ban Faces Obscure Hurdle: The Berman Amendments
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—As lawmakers push to ban or restrict Chinese-owned TikTok, one of the many hurdles they face is a pair of measures passed by Congress decades ago to let films, books and music flow freely between the U.S. and hostile foreign countries. The measures, known as the Berman amendments, date to the last years of the Cold War. They took away the president’s authority to regulate or ban imports of “informational materials” from adversarial nations such as Cuba, and shielded those who produced such works—and their U.S. distributors—from penalties for violating economic sanctions.

☆ Google Didn’t Show Bias in Filtering Campaign-Ad Pitches, FEC Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An academic article said that nearly 70% of emails from Republican candidates were sent to spam on Gmail between 2019 and 2020 versus fewer than 1 in 10 from Democratic candidates. WASHINGTON—The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint from Republicans that Google’s Gmail app aided Democratic candidates by sending GOP fundraising emails to spam at a far higher rate than Democratic solicitations. The Republican National Committee and others contended that the alleged benefit amounted to unreported campaign contributions to Democrats. But in a letter to Google last week, the FEC said it “found no reason to believe” that Google made prohibited in-kind corporate contributions, and that any skewed results from its spam filter algorithms were inadvertent.

☆ Google Says Supreme Court Ruling Could Potentially Upend the Internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Google says YouTube ‘abhors terrorism and over the years has taken increasingly effective actions to remove terrorist and other potentially harmful content.’WASHINGTON—A case before the Supreme Court challenging the liability shield protecting websites such as YouTube and Facebook could “upend the internet,” resulting in both widespread censorship and a proliferation of offensive content, Google said in a court filing Thursday. In a new brief filed with the high court, Google said that scaling back liability protections could lead internet giants to block more potentially offensive content—including controversial political speech—while also leading smaller websites to drop their filters to avoid liability that can arise from efforts to screen content.

☆ GOP-Led House to Probe Alleged White House Collusion With Tech Giants
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | Ryan Tracy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Republicans in the House plan to scrutinize communications between the Biden administration and big technology and social-media companies to probe whether they amounted to the censorship of legitimate viewpoints on issues such as Covid-19 that ran counter to White House policy. House Republicans are expected as soon as Tuesday to launch the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The panel is expected to seek to illuminate what some Republicans say have been efforts by the Biden administration to influence content hosted by companies such as Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc., owner of YouTube and Google.

☆ Omnibus Bill Expands TikTok Ban on Government Smartphones
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—The omnibus spending bill unveiled by lawmakers Tuesday expands a ban on Chinese-owned TikTok on federal smartphones, but tough new measures targeting the tech industry didn’t make the cut. The tech industry lobbied heavily to head off measures to establish online privacy protections, impose legal liability on social-media companies for their content and toughen antitrust rules. The industry also spent more than $100 million since the beginning of 2021 on ads opposing the legislation, much of that targeted in congressional districts.

☆ Republicans Press Biden Officials for Answers on TikTok Security Concerns
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Tech Companies Make Final Push to Head Off Tougher Regulation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | Chad Day | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Companies such as Apple, led by Tim Cook, have successfully blocked major legislation in Washington. WASHINGTON—Supporters of tougher tech regulation are making a final push to eke out a few wins before Congress adjourns—and big technology companies are responding with a fresh advertising blitz. Tech companies have built a perfect record so far in blocking major legislation in Congress that could impede their business interests, with the help of prodigious spending on Beltway lobbying and grass-roots politicking.

☆ Bill to Ban TikTok on Government Devices Faces Uncertain Future in House
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | Dustin Volz | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TikTok has said it safeguards the data of its users and wouldn’t share it with the Chinese government. WASHINGTON—The Senate’s move to expand a ban on TikTok being downloaded on government-issued smartphones and other devices faces a doubtful future in the House, despite widening concerns over the Chinese-owned video app’s security risks. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2020, and the legislation stalled out in the House. With just days left in the current session, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) was noncommittal Thursday when asked whether the bill would receive a House vote before adjournment.

☆ Peru Ousts President Pedro Castillo, Swears In New Leader as Protests Erupt
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Clock Is Ticking for TikTok to Reach Security Deal With WashingtonFor years U.S. officials have warned that TikTok poses a national-security risk because of its owner, China-based ByteDance. The social-media app and the Biden administration have been working to reach a deal that would protect U.S. users’ data from Beijing and allow TikTok to keep operating here. But the deal keeps hitting delays. WSJ reporter John D. McKinnon joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss the stumbling blocks and the risks of not getting a deal done soon. Photo: Thiago Prudencio/Zuma Press

WASHINGTON—A potential deal between the Biden administration and TikTok—once expected around year-end—has run into more delays, according to people familiar with the situation, as worry grows over national-security concerns that U.S. officials say the popular app poses. The review has dragged on amid a range of concerns, including how TikTok might share information related to the algorithm it uses to determine what videos to show users, and the level of trust Washington would need to place in the company, these people said. U.S. officials haven’t returned to TikTok with additional demands to address the recent concerns, some of the people said, leaving the path forward unclear.

☆ Google, iHeartMedia Pay $9 Million to Settle Deceptive Endorsement Claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Google and iHeartMedia Inc. agreed Monday to pay $9.4 million to settle allegations by state and federal authorities that the companies used deceptive endorsements by radio personalities to promote Google’s Pixel 4 phones. The settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and seven state attorneys general also bars radio broadcaster iHeartMedia and Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., from making similar misrepresentations.

☆ Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Triggers Partisan Clash on Government’s Role
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Elon Musk‘s takeover of Twitter Inc. is fueling a partisan clash in Washington, as Democrats raise concerns about the platform’s security and Republicans counter that the criticism is a thinly veiled attempt to stamp out conservative voices on the site. Democrats including President Biden have pointed to Mr. Musk’s ownership of Twitter, most recently over staff cutbacks that some Democrats say could potentially compromise the platform’s ability to secure the personal data of its users.

☆ GOP House Majority Could Shield Industries From New Taxes, Regulations
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Brody Mullins | John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Republican control of the House bodes well for business sectors that have allies among the representatives. WASHINGTON—Republican wins at the ballot box have long translated into gains for the business lobby in Washington. This election is likely to be no exception, despite the party’s increasingly populist slant. The GOP takeover of the House will give Republicans the power to block efforts by Democrats to approve new regulations or taxes on the fossil-fuel industry, private-equity funds, tobacco makers and drug manufacturers.

☆ Google Reaches $391.5 Million Settlement With States Over Location Tracking Practices
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Google uses the data it collects on consumers to develop user profiles and target ads to them. WASHINGTON—Forty state attorneys general on Monday announced a $391.5 million settlement with Google over its location tracking practices for mobile and other devices. The attorneys general found that Alphabet Inc.’s Google violated state consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about its location-data practices, tracking consumers even when their location history setting was turned off.

☆ Federal Trade Commission to Expand Use of Law Against Anticompetitive Practices
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | Dave Michaels | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Federal Trade Commission’s plan to expand its use of a 1914 statute is likely to be criticized by big businesses. WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday that it plans to expand its use of a century-old statute that could allow the agency to bring more lawsuits against what it sees as anticompetitive corporate behavior. The move—broadening its interpretation of the 1914 law that created the FTC—opens the door to more legal challenges against businesses engaging in alleged coercive or deceptive conduct that undermines competition, Chairwoman Lina Khan said in a briefing with reporters.

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