Donald Trump–TikTok controversy

Financial disclosures show that members of Congress who voted for the so-called “TikTok ban” last week may own between $29 million and $126 million worth of stock in competing tech companies, according to data from Quiver Quantitative, a company that tracks congressional investments. Among the 352 members of the House of Representatives who voted “yes” on the bill, 44 reported they own shares of companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snap—all corporations that could stand to benefit if TikTok is forced…

The U.S. House passed a bill that would ban third-party data brokers from selling the user data of Americans to geopolitical adversaries like China and Russia. And while it still needs to pass the Senate to become law, it’s a step in the right direction as recent headlines mostly focus on a potential ban on TikTok in the U.S.Mourning the Loss of Addison Rae’s Debut Album | The Meme MachineThe Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, H.R. 7520, passed unanimously on Wednesday, 414-0, and would ban data…

Congressman Jeff Jackson’s latest TikTok video starts simply: “I apologize.” Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill that could ultimately ban TikTok from the US. For many, it turned Jackson into enemy number one. The North Carolina Democrat spent the last year amassing 2.3 million followers on TikTok, leveraging the app to turn himself from a no-name first-term congressman to a downright internet celebrity. But Jackson joined 352 other House members in support of the so-called TikTok “ban,” sparking…

Donald Trump called into CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday where he talked about crypto, tried to defend his complete 180 on a TikTok ban, and promoted his new sneakers. The former president also railed against Facebook, calling it the “enemy of the people.” But there’s one thing Trump didn’t mention about Facebook: He’s still buying ads on the social media platform.Meta's Apparent Firing Goof“I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media,” Trump said on the show MondayTrump is still spending…

Donald Trump appeared to come out in defense of TikTok, the social media platform facing a potential ban by Congress, in a flurry of posts late Thursday on his social media platform Truth Social. The platform, it should be noted, experienced a widespread outage as the former president attempted to live-tweet President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech.Mourning the Loss of Addison Rae’s Debut Album | The Meme Machine“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook,…

TikTok sent a push notification to United States users on Thursday morning asking them to call their local representative to “Stop a TikTok shutdown.” The app refers to a bipartisan bill gaining momentum in Congress this week which could ban TikTok altogether.Mourning the Loss of Addison Rae’s Debut Album | The Meme Machine“Congress is planning a total ban of TikTok,” said the push notification to TikTok users, seen by Gizmodo. “Speak up now – before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional…

The University of Texas at Austin.Image: f11photo (Shutterstock)After Republican Governor Greg Abott announced a sweeping ban of TikTok on state devices this past winter, a group representing university professors is challenging him with a new lawsuit. The complaint, filed Thursday, claims that the prohibitioninfringes on First Amendment rights.The New York Times reports that the lawsuit was filed in Western District of Texas federal court by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University on behalf of a…

Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP (Getty Images)TikTok executives are attempting to assuage Republican officials that U.S. data is safe and sound in company hands, but their best attempts are unlikely to make any of these GOP lawmakers stray from the warpath against the popular social app.The New York Times first reported that TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew istrying to explain the company’s data policies to antagonistic lawmakers. Chew’s letter was in response to nine Republican senators who were calling on the company to answer to…