Observing Russia’s Nuclear Warfare with ByteDance and its U.S. Employees: Prospects in the 21st Century

The executive branch, its contractors, and the federal government as a whole will be brought into compliance with a bill passed by the government at the end of last year that requires agencies to dump TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company. It marks the latest effort to clampdown on the app amid renewed security concerns about its US user data and fears that it could find its way to the Chinese government.

Forbes reported in December that employees of ByteDance obtained data from US users. Two reporters had their data viewed by ByteDance employees who were looking into leaks of internal company documents. ByteDance fired all four employees who participated in the scheme and two of them were from China.

As Russia’s war in Ukraine drags on, Ukrainian forces have proved resilient and mounted increasingly intense counterattacks on Kremlin forces. The conflict is entering an ominous phase of drone warfare. Russia has begun launching a series of recent attacks using Iranian “suicide drones” to inflict damage that is difficult to defend against. With Russian president Vladimir Putin escalating his rhetoric about the potential for a nuclear strike, and NATO officials watching closely for any signs of movement, we examine what indicators are available to the global community in assessing whether Russia is actually preparing to use nuclear weapons.

The Secret Life of the Vice Society: How to Lose Passwords, Get Passkey, and Be Safe in Cloud Email Hosts

Researchers raised the alarm that Exchange is not getting the development resources it needs anymore and customers should seriously consider moving to cloud email hosting. There are state-sponsored false information in the online encyclopedia’s entries, according to new research.

If you’re worried about the ongoing threat of ransomware attacks around the world, researchers pointed out this week that middle-of-the-pack groups like the notorious gang Vice Society are maximizing profits and minimizing their exposure by investing very little in technical innovation. They do not target under-funded sectors like health care and education but instead run the most mundane operations. We have a guide on how to get rid of passwords and set up passkey on browsers for personal security.

But wait, there’s more! Each week, we highlight the news we didn’t cover in-depth ourselves. Click on the headlines below to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

The White House Moves Towards an Energy Star for IoT Security Labeling: A Roundup on Cyber-Physical Security in the United States

The data of some potential customers of Microsoft’s cloud services was exposed by a misconfiguration. Researchers from the threat intelligence firm made their leak public to Microsoft on September 24. The exposed information was reported in a report to have spanned from May of last year to this month. The researchers linked the data to more than 65,000 organizations from 111 countries. Microsoft said the exposed details included company names, phone numbers, email addresses, email content, and files sent between potential customers and Microsoft or one of its authorized partners. Cloud misconfigurations are a longstanding security risk that have led to countless exposures and, sometimes, breaches.

There are no easy answers to improve the longstanding security dumpster fire created by cheap, undefended internet of things devices in homes and businesses around the world. After a number of years of problems, Germany and Singapore have decided to add security labels to internet-connected video cameras, printers, and more. The labels give consumers a better understanding of the protections built into different devices, while giving manufacturers an incentive to improve their practices and get a gold seal. This week, the United States took a step in this direction. The White House announced plans for a labeling scheme that would be a sort of EnergyStar for IoT digital security. The administration held a summit with industry organizations and companies this week to discuss standards and guidelines for the labels. The National Security Council said that a labeling program would allow Americans to feel reassured that the technology they are buying in their homes is safe.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-bytedance-americans-data-security-roundup/

A Roundup of Cyber Security Vulnerabilities from the Internet to the World Cup Stadiums: How to Prevent a Cold War in Iran and the United States

Sources told The Washington Post this week that sensitive information related to Iran‘s nuclear program and the United States’ own intelligence operations in China were included in documents seized by the FBI this summer at former President Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Multiple risks are posed by unauthorized disclosures of specific information in the documents. According to the Post, people aiding US intelligence efforts could be at risk. The information could also potentially motivate retaliation by other countries against the US.

Open internet proponents were relieved last month when an American candidate beat a Russian challenger in an election to run the International Telecommunications Union, an important international standards body tasked with cross-boundary communications. The internet infrastructure is vulnerable to some issues and the susceptibility of critical cables was looked at.

The US’s legal climate for abortion access is a sign of a country with a culture of community snooping, like authoritarian states which encourage neighbors and friends to report possible wrongdoing. And surveillance is on the rise in soccer stadiums around the world as well. The stadiums that will be used during the World Cup in Turkey have a lot of cameras to monitor spectators and conduct iris scans.

The more secure, “memory safe” programming language Rust is making inroads across the tech industry, offering hope that a massive swath of common vulnerabilities could eventually be preempted and eliminated. In the meantime, we’ve got a roundup of the most important vulnerabilities that you can—and should!—patch right now.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-eu-privacy-policy-security-roundup/

Financial Crimes and Security: How Russian operatives have hacked their cell phones, or how Dorsey’s Cash App is facilitating sex trafficking in the US and elsewhere

Liz Truss is having a rough time. The Daily Mail on Sunday reported that agents working for Russia had hacked her cell phone when she was foreign minister. Russian operatives could eavesdrop on messages between the Truss and other officials in other countries. The Mail report further claims that former prime minister Boris Johnson and cabinet secretary Simon Case suppressed the breach. The Labor Party still wants an investigation into their Conservative opponents. In the event of a hostile state attacking us, there will be important national security issues raised which will be taken seriously by our intelligence and security agencies. “There are also serious security questions around why and how this information has been leaked or released right now, which must also be urgently investigated.”

Another of Jack Dorsey’s corporate creations is facing new heat this week. According to a Forbes investigation, the Cash App is helping fuel sex trafficking in the US and elsewhere. The investigation found that Cash App was used in sex trafficking and other crimes, based on police records and former employees’ claims. The company, which is owned by Block Inc., maintains that it doesn’t tolerate illegal activity on the Cash App and has dedicated employees working with law enforcement. Meanwhile, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says that although rival payment platforms like PayPal provide the the center with tips about potential child abuse facilitated by their services, Forbes writes, “Block hasn’t provided any tips, ever.”

The US Treasury Department this week said US financial institutions facilitated ransomware payments totaling nearly $1.2 billion in 2021—a 200 percent increase since 2020. The report arrived as the White House hosted an international summit to combat the increase in the number of malicious programs that hold files for a fee. Himamauli Das, acting director of the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, said in a statement that “ransomware—including attacks perpetrated by Russian-linked actors—remain a serious threat to our national and economic security. There is a number that doesn’t take into account costs and other consequences that come with attacks outside of the payment itself.

The State of the Social Media Landscape: State and Local Security Concerns for the TikTok App to Block Foreign Media Transactions in the United States

The lawmakers are using the Chinese government’s image of TikTok. Their electorate sees them taking a firm stance on China because of the way they’ve acted on the app.

The proposed legislation would “block and prohibit all transactions” in the United States by social media companies with at least one million monthly users that are based in, or under the “substantial influence” of, countries that are considered foreign adversaries, including China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.

Since 2020, TikTok has been negotiating with the US government on a possible deal to keep the app running in the United States. It has proven that the talks have failed so far, giving the opportunity for policymakers at the state level and Congress to seek restrictions on TikTok.

The agency that chairs the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) warned that it would not clear any transaction unless there was no unresolved national security.

“The agreement under review by CFIUS will meaningfully address any security concerns that have been raised at both the federal and state level,” Oberwetter said. These plans have been put together by our country’s top national security agencies and are currently being implemented, and we will continue to brief lawmakers on them.

A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.

The Rise and Fall of TikTok in the U.S., and How It Has Been Learned and Used by the Law Enforcement

Government officials are alarmed by its usage across the U.S. In November, FBI Director Christopher Wray made waves by telling lawmakers that the app can be used to control users’ devices.

The Senate bill gave exceptions for law enforcement activities, national security interests and activities and security researchers.

The best argument to date has been drawn on the creator user base of TikTok. The new push might be too little too late for some legislators with security concerns.

The administration is against TikTok because it is a potential tool of foreign influence, though it is in favor of the app because it is a vital conduit to the public. Seemingly overnight, TikTok has managed to remake American culture both low and high, from media and music to memes and celebrity, in its own image. TikTok turned Olivia Rodrigo into a household name and propelled the author Colleen Hoover to the top of the best-seller list, with more copies sold this year than the Bible. TikTok introduced the phrase ‘quiet quitting’, one of the hallmark phrases of 2022, and now it is spreading around pop culture as’seggs’. Corporations and brands, from Goldfish crackers to Prada, have redirected billions of dollars worth of advertising to the platform in recognition of its all-encompassing reach, which can, at seemingly any moment, turn even a decades-old product into a must-have item. Last year, TikTok had more site visits than Google, and more watch minutes in the United States than YouTube. TikTok reached one billion users within five years while Facebook took almost nine years.

The ByteDance App is not an Agent of the Chinese Communist Party, but an Incremental Response to Rodgers’s Questions

Even though the company denies it would ever be used for criminal activity, national security experts say businesses based in China often have to give unfettered access to the regime if they ever want to get information.

So the ban on federal government devices is an incremental restriction: Most drastic measures have not advanced, since the efforts lacked the political will, or courts intervened to stop them.

“I think the concern about TikTok is justified because the app is much more tailored to the needs of the specific user,” said McAuley who is a computer science professor at the University of California San Diego.

According to testimony released by the committee on Tuesday night, ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country.

“While social media companies are certainly harvesting all kinds of data about users, I think it’s usually overblown to what extent they ‘know’ about users on an individual level,” he said.

Responding to Chair Rodgers’s security claims, Oberwetter said Monday, “The Chinese Communist Party has neither direct nor indirect control of ByteDance or TikTok. Moreover, under the proposal we have devised with our country’s top national security agencies through CFIUS, that kind of data sharing—or any other form of foreign influence over the TikTok platform in the United States—would not be possible.”

There is a chance the committee will approve of the steps that TikTok has taken to protect U.S. user data from the Chinese government.

Behind closed doors, the deliberations of CFIUS are notoriously secretive. It is not clear exactly when the committee will finish its work or what it will do next.

Does your smartphone have any geopolitical value? Is your iPhone a spy or a threat to your own security? Commentary on TikTok

All devices in Nebraska have been banned since 2020. So has the Florida Department of Financial Services. Louisiana and West Virginia had partial bans.

ByteDance is not a representation of China or any other country. However… you don’t simply have to take my word on that. Our approach has been to work together with the U.S. government and Oracle to come up with solutions to address TikTok’s heritage.

When it comes to its own citizens, China has prohibited everything from Google to Twitter to this newspaper. We should look at that asymmetrically as symbolic, because America wins when it can show the world that it is an open and democratic country. Not surprisingly, banning TikTok on the grounds that it’s a threat to our security won’t be seen by other nations as much different from the People’s Republic of China’s actions to protect itself. Under the First Amendment, the federal government can’t prohibit access to a significant communications platform or it may be able to control online content to make sure that it’s not being manipulated. There is a question of whether American fans of TikTok will allow it to be taken away from them.

“It would make sense for U.S. soldiers to be told not to download the app because it might share your location information with other entities,” he said. “But that’s also true of the weather app and then lots of other apps that are existing in your phone, whether they’re owned by China or not.”

Ryan Calo is a professor at the University of Washington. He says that, while data privacy in the United States still needs much improvement, the proposed legislation is more about geopolitical tensions and less about TikTok specifically.

If the Chinese intelligence sector wanted to gather information on state employees in the United States, they would not have to use TikTok.

“It’s always easy – and this happens across the world – to say that a foreign government is a threat, and ‘I’m protecting you from that foreign government,’ he says. “And I think we should be a little cautious about how that can be politicized in a way that far exceeds the actual threat in order to achieve political ends.”

Is the U.S. Digital Telephone Industry Going to the Extending Gates? An Analysis of TikTok, Shein and WeChat

According to The Wall Street Journal, Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, said the ban would have a minimal impact because they have very few House-managed phones.

“I think that we’re right in the United States to be finally thinking about the consequences of having so much commercial surveillance taking place of U.S. citizens and residents,” he said. We should address it, but not by posturing, but by passing privacy rules or laws that the Federal Trade Commission will be interested in doing.

But in fast-tracking the bill, Congress can’t help but draw attention to its notable lack of progress on regulating American tech giants more broadly — despite years of reports, hearings and proposed legislation.

The tech industry’s largest players have faced a kitchen sink of allegations in recent years. Big Tech has been made out as one of Washington’s largest villains from hurting children and mental health to spreading hate speech andharassment.

But TikTok isn’t the only Chinese tech company with a huge user base in the US. Shein, the fast- fashion brand, Temu, the online marketplace, and CapCut, a video editing app are owned by ByteDance. And then there’s WeChat, a company that has openly said it sends user data back to China—and one that the US has already tried to ban in the past. If TikTok has its way, Chinese apps could become next in line.

Tech Lobbying Giants: Big Tech, Big Tech or Big Tech? The Case of ByteDance, Amazon, Google, and TikTok

“We think a lot of the concerns are maybe overblown,” Beckerman told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday, “but we do think these problems can be solved” through the ongoing government negotiations.

In 2019, ByteDance had 17 lobbyists and spent $270,000 on lobbying, according to public records gathered by the transparency group OpenSecrets. By the end of last year, its lobbyist count had more than doubled and the company had spent nearly $5.2 million on lobbying.

Meta was the biggest internet industry lobbying giant last year, spending upward of $20 million. Next was Amazon at $19 million, then Google at almost $10 million. The parent of TikTok spent less than $100,000 on lobbying, but they ended up at number four on the list.

One of the bills, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA), would bar Amazon from competing on its own marketplace, in order to prevent other tech platforms from doing the same. That legislation was a product of a 16-month House antitrust investigation into the tech industry that concluded, in 2020, that many of the biggest tech companies were effectively monopolies.

A bill that could have forced internet platforms to give news organizations a larger share of ad revenues was scrapped this month. But the legislation stumbled after Meta warned it could have to drop news content from its platforms altogether if the bill passed.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/22/tech/washington-tiktok-big-tech/index.html

A First Amendment Law to Protect the Silicon Valley from Cybercriminals: State-of-the-Art Comment on a Digital Data Security Law in Mobile Social Media

Time and again, Silicon Valley’s biggest players have maneuvered expertly in Washington, defending their turf from lawmakers keen to knock them down a peg.

There is a question of how the rules government may impose on tech platforms will affect different parts of the economy, such as small businesses or the future of the internet.

Legislation that raises First Amendment issues may be involved in proposed changes to the tech industry’s decades-old content moderation liability shield. Democrats have said Section 230 should be changed because it gives social media companies a pass to leave some hate speech and offensive content unaddressed, while Republicans have called for changes to the law so that platforms can be pressured to remove less content.

There are cross-cutting politics and the technical challenges of regulating an entire sector of technology that make it very difficult for lawmakers to reach an accord.

It’s important to build a Republican brand. The central tenet of what makes Republicans like each other is their stance against China, according to Kousser.

The head of TikTok will testify before Congress in March due to a nationwide effort to ban the social media app because of concerns about its effect on young people’s mental health.

According to the site, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee was considering offering a bill to ban a broader category of applications that could be applied to other apps that pose security risks.

The app, owned by ByteDance, Inc., has been under fire since the Trump administration, when the former president signed an executive order to enforce a nationwide ban of the app, but ByteDance sued and it never went through.

The guidance issued by Shalanda Young states that executive agencies and those that contract with them must remove any application from TikTok within 30 days of the notice. Within 90 days, agencies must include in contracts that the short-form video app cannot be used on devices and must cancel any contracts that necessitate the app’s use.

At last year’s New York Times DealBook summit, the CEO of TikTok spoke about his company’s plan to move data from Virginia and Singapore to a new US server overseen by a subsidiary.

Responding to Monday’s hearing announcement, TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter welcomed “the opportunity to set the record straight.” Oberwetter said TikTok plans to discuss its “comprehensive plans” to protect US user safety during the March 23rd hearing.

Getting Apple to the root of the problem: The Indian blockade that has blocked an internet service provider from accessing the TikTok app

Unlike Google, Apple has a lot to lose regarding its relationship with both the US and China. Much of Cook’s success at Apple can be attributed to his ability to maintain working relationships with the Chinese government and manufacturers.

Observers expect the US to take action. Mira Ricardel, a former national security adviser at the White House, now advises businesses on regulations. “There is a unanimity of view that will lead to doing something.” Here is what that something may look like.

India has a blockade called TikTok. NetBlocks reports that a few small internet service providers allow access. An app he downloaded in the US was used to watch videos during his visit to India. But the ban has forced many Indian users to turn toward rival services, including from Google and Facebook, and has caused turmoil for influencers who built businesses on TikTok.

The app stores would have been barred from selling TikTok and cloud providers from doing any business with the company after Trump issued his order. People or companies caught dodging the order could have faced fines or prison sentences. “We wanted to start at the root, where it comes into the US, and extract it that way,” says Ivan Kanapathy, who was China director for Trump’s National Security Council and is now vice president at policy consultancy Beacon Global Strategies.

The company recently went on a charm offensive, which included rapid-fire meetings in Washington with the head of TikTok, a new transparency tool for the app, and a tour of the Los Angeles area for members of the media.

Adam Segal is a Chinese Technology Policy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It’s a desire to show toughness on China,” he said.

There is a lot of animosity towards social media, and it is easier to take it out on Chinese-owned TikTok right now than it is.

The relationship between TikTok and Oracle began during the Trump administration, when the company was trying to find U.S.-based cloud server as the President tried to stop the app from being used in the US.

Project TX: An Interactive Public Relations Museum for TikTok, a China-based company that isn’t looking for Chinese nationals

USDS is expected to hire 2,500 people who have undergone high-level background checks similar to those used by the U.S. government, TikTok officials said on Tuesday. None of those hired would be Chinese nationals.

Still, aggregate data, like what kind of content is trending on the app or in what regions certain kind of videos are popular, can be analyzed by corporate employees in Beijing who would need to be granted special permission from the U.S. data security team.

The plan addresses many of the major security concerns U.S. officials have, said Jim Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, but that is no guarantee it will be approved.

Lewis said that the plan would work. “This kind of thing is pretty standard.” TikTok has become so emotional, however, that a reasonable solution may not be enough.”

The Chinese government views TikTok’s technology as sensitive, which is why it has taken steps to prevent any sale of the company by its Beijing-based owner.

Segal agreed that the deal resolves the bulk of the data security concerns by allowing the inspection of the algorithm and transferring the U.S user data to Oracle.

The company gave an official overview of Project Texas at Tuesday’s gathering, which was the first time it had done so.

The center felt like an interactive public relations museum, which was why the officials from TikTok led journalists through it on Tuesday.

People were put in the position of a TikTok content moderation, where they would decide if a video broke the rules or not.

The facilities will also feature server rooms where visitors who sign non-disclosure agreements can review TikTok’s entire source code, though journalists are not given an opportunity to do this.

Why Do People Want to Buy a Balloon, or If You’re Going to Fly? Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Sen. Mike Rounds

The content moderation game brought to mind how difficult it is for thousands of people who have to trade-offs every day on endless flood of videos, but according to a tech journalist, it was largely beside the point.

TikTok hopes that sharing details of the comprehensive plans will allow Congress to take a more deliberative approach to the issues at hand.

If you are willing to fly a balloon over the continental airspace and people can see it, what would make you not weaponize data? Or use an app that’s on the phone of 60 million Americans to drive narratives in society that try to influence political debate in this country?” says Senate Intelligence Committee vice chair Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida.

“There’s no question about the fact that they are trying to gather as much data as they can about all aspects of our country, and even the most minuscule, small items can add up to providing them with more data,” says Republican senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota. “There’s a huge amount of data out there, which will never be touched, never be used, but it’s the small pieces that add up. They are working it. They are patient. But they clearly see us as a threat, and they’re collecting data.”

While talking with congressional reporters last week, senator Michael Bennet told them that none of the proposed efforts were relevant to his concerns.

TikTok, the Big Bang, or The Giant Length? The Canadian Privacy Law and Trade-Offs in Mobile Devices

Canada banned all government-owned mobile devices from TikTok on Monday, reflecting growing concerns about the app’s Chinese owners.

Last week, Canada’s federal privacy watchdog and its provincial counterparts in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec announced an investigation into whether the app complies with Canadian privacy legislation.

The opposition parties want a public inquiry into alleged foreign election interference after media reports raised concerns about Chinese interference in Canadian elections.

“It’s not only the fact that you can influence something, but you can also turn off the message as well when you have such a large population of listeners,” Gen. Paul Nakasone said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The facts of the agreement and what we’ve achieved thus far are not taken into account when we debate our status in public. Brooke Oberwetter said that they will continue to deliver a comprehensive national security plan for the American people.

The bill that Warner and Thune are expected to unveil on Tuesday gives the Commerce Department authority to developmitigation measures for foreign-linked technologies, up to and including a ban.

Like the US government push to ban hardware and other gear made by Huawei, another Chinese technology giant, US officials are often short on specifics when asked to show public proof of collusion between the Chinese government and ByteDance.

“People are always looking for the smoking gun in these technologies,” NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce told reporters in December. I think it’s a loaded gun.

TikTok, the fentanyl, and the Silicon Valley: What does it take to protect a child’s mental health?

We also learn that TikTok has 7,000 American employees, which is less than the 10,000 or more that TikTok aimed for in 2020 but a big leap over the 1,400 US headcount that year.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul has called TikTok a “spy balloon in your phone,” and fellow Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher has called TikTok “digital fentanyl.”

Tensions between the U.S. and China have been on the rise in recent years, as federal officials worry about China’s growing technological prowess. Washington also is watching China conduct military displays in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, not to mention China’s surveillance balloon traversing across the U.S.

CNN is hosting a special to investigate the issues of TikTok and its impact on young person’s mental health, as a number of policymakers raise national security concerns about the app’s ties to China. Watch “CNN Primetime: Is time up for TikTok?” There is a show on Thursday, March 23, at 9p.m.

At a Harvard Business Review conference, where executives, professors and artists appeared for talks on corporate leadership and emotional intelligence, the CEO of his company attempted to save his company.

In interviews, Chew has described himself as a a 40-year-old father of two who likes to golf and read books on theoretical physics. TikTok likes to highlight his national origin.

Why is TikTok Important for America? A Reply to Kanapathy and Chinese Leaders Concerned About China’s Reach over Social Media

A press conference is planned for Wednesday with dozens of social media creators on the steps of the Capitol, some of whom have been flown out there by TikTok. The company is paying for a blitz of advertisements for a Beltway audience. And last week it put out a docuseries highlighting American small business owners who rely on the platform for their livelihoods.

Kanapathy said that he doesn’t think it’s enough for Washington, and also offered some comfort to lawmakers concerned about China’s reach over TikTok. “For now, I don’t think it makes much of a difference because at the end of the day, he still answers to ByteDance, and so there’s only so much he can do.”

TikTok recently set a default one-hour daily screen time limit on every account for users under 18 in one of the most aggressive moves yet by a social media company to prevent teens from endlessly scrolling. It introduced a feature that would give more information to users regarding why it recommends certain videos. And the company pledged more transparency to researchers.

The series spotlighted inspiring stories of American small business owners and creators. The first 60-second clip features a Mississippi soap maker with a deep Southern accent who built her company from scratch on the app, and the second clip features an education consultant who quit his job so he could use TikTok to teach toddlers how to read.

A disabled Asian American creator is using her platform to combat ableism, a small business owner from South Carolina started a greeting card company and an Ohio chef built his bakery business using the app. Some of the creators have hundreds of thousand or even millions of followers on TikTok.

On China’s need for advanced technologies, and why China might be reluctant to let it go, says a U.S. Marshall Fund senior fellow

Sherman expressed skepticism about how effective the PR push will be because of how divided Washington is.

By and large, TikTok’s lobbying efforts so far have been pretty ineffectual, said Lindsay Gorman, senior fellow for emerging technologies at the German Marshall Fund.

“It’s gotten a lot more attention, so there’s just more awareness of the problem,” says Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the top Democrat on the new House Select Committee on China.

The Chinese government considers some advanced technology, including content recommendation algorithms, to be critical to its national interest. Chinese officials made a proposal in December that would make it harder to sell technology to foreign buyers.

“It also seems extremely unlikely that Beijing will accept any deal that removes TikTok’s algorithm[s] from its direct control and regulatory authority,” he said.

The success of TikTok can be attributed to its algorithm, which keeps users hooked on the app. The videos they want to watch can be pushed by the algorithms because they are based on users’ behavior.

Back then, Chinese state media published a commentary by a professor of trade at the University of International Business and Economics who said the updated rules meant ByteDance would need a license from Beijing to sell its technology.

Cui Fan told IANS that some cutting-edge technologies might impact national security and public welfare.

The China’s largest media regulator: ByteDance, the ‘Golden’ stake, and the security of users’ data

A senior official from the Chinese media regulators visited Bytedance last week. He urged the company to improve the use of “recommendation algorithms” to spread “positive energy” and strengthen the review of online content, according to a statement from the regulator posted on its website.

In April 2021, a Chinese government entity picked up a ‘golden share’ of 1% in a Beijing subsidiary of ByteDance. The subsidiary controls operating licenses for Douyin, TikTok’s sister app in China, and Toutiao, a news aggregation app.

At the beginning of 2023, rules governing “deep synthesis algorithms” also took effect. They will prohibit the use of software powered by computer vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Such technologies underpin popular apps such as ChatGPT.

“A change of TikTok’s ownership solves nothing,” he said. The main issue is data security and who will have access to that data, regardless of legal ownership.

The true test, he said, is whether user data can be ring-fenced, and security can be achieved through data segregation and other means.

Silvers predicts both sides will try to make a compromise, but Beijing still retains control over TikTok.

Why is Singapore bringing you here? The case of Vanessa Pappas, CEO of ByteDance, a video app sponsored by TikTok

TikTok has fully penetrated U.S. culture. Take for instance a trip to grocery chain Trader Joe’s, which features an “as seen on TikTok” section promoting foods made popular by TikTok. There are tables dedicated to #BookTok in Barnes & Noble stores. And, of course, TikTok has perhaps had the most obvious influence on the music industry; trending songs on TikTok find commercial success and land at the top of the charts.

When TikTok was the title sponsor last summer for Vidcon, an annual convention for the creators and brands that make up a key part of the short-form video app’s audience and business, it was Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas who got on stage for the industry keynote event.

But he added that ByteDance is “organized the way you would expect an internet company to be organized,” featuring global investors and a board of shareholder and employee representatives. I have to be responsible to the board and the shareholders, but I am responsible for the decisions at TikTok.

The TikTok CEO had a brief tenure before stepping down. When TikTok needed someone to head up the global operations, they turned to Pappas, a Los Angeles based Australian who had worked at other tech platforms in the US.

Ivan Kanapathy, a former director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the White House’s National Security Council and current senior associate, believes Singapore brought him in because he is not a Chinese national. “And they’re quite good at it, geopolitically.”

After completing mandatory military service in Singapore, Chew attended university in London and graduated from the Harvard Business School with a degree in economics. He was exposed to Silicon Valley while he was an undergrad at Harvard, and he put it in an alumni spotlight.

It can be a refreshing break from the people in the US tech industry who can’t seem to keep up with their social media usage. But it might also stem from cultural differences that come from leading a massive tech company with a Chinese parent company, according to Matthew Quint, the director of the center on global brand leadership at Columbia Business School. Chinese tech companies and leaders that have drawn too much attention to themselves have been in trouble with the government.

The U.S. TikTok-Ceo Hearing: “It’s Too Late to Stop Me,” Rep. Gus Bilirakis, and the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee

The five-hour hearing began with a lawmaker’s call to ban the app in the U.S. The company was battling to improve relations with Washington and it showed in the bipartisan push to crack down on the popular app.

The chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a Republican named McMorris Rodgers, began the hearing by telling the person who spoke to them that their platform should be banned.

Much of Chew’s attempts to stress that his company is not an arm of the Chinese government appeared to fall on deaf ears. The chief executive’s testimony was stopped by members of Congress as they said they didn’t believe him.

“I have looked in — and I have seen no evidence of this happening,” Chew responded. To be stored on American soil, their data will be handled by an American company and overseen by American personnel. The chance of the government going to an American company asking for data is similar.

“We are committed to be very transparent with our users about what we collect,” Chew said. I don’t believe what we collect is much more than other players.

Citing examples of harmful content served to children, he said, “it is unacceptable, sir, that even after knowing all these dangers, you still claim that TikTok is something grand to behold.”

A Republican congressman accused TikTok of promoting a video on the “blackout challenge” that later resulted in the death of a young girl, who tried to mimic the video.

Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Florida also said there is a lack of adequate content moderation, which leaves room for kids to be exposed to content that promotes self harm.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/23/tech/tiktok-ceo-hearing/index.html

Rep. Tony Cárdenas: People who unite, don’t listen’: Rep. T. Chew on CNN

Rep. Tony Cárdenas, a Democrat from California, blasted what he saw as Chew’s indirect responses and compared him to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who in his own testimonies in the past has also frustrated some members of Congress.

Crdenas told Chew that you were one of the few people to unite the committee. You remind me a lot of Mark Zuckerberg. When he came here, I said to my staff, ‘He reminds me of Fred Astaire — good dancer with words.’ You are doing the same thing. A lot of your answers are a bit nebulous; they’re not yes or no.”

CNN has learned that Chew spent the last week in preparation for his appearance. TikTok personnel have been honing and polishing Chew’s presentation. They have prepared him for hours of relentless interrogation by playing the role of lawmakers with various questioning styles.

Perhaps no exchange summed up Thursday’s hearing like a moment following Rep. Kat Cammack’s lengthy critique of TikTok’s content moderation and links to China.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/23/tech/tiktok-ceo-hearing/index.html

What Can We Say About China and How Should WeChat Be Used to Prevent Data Loss? A Remark on China’s Wechat

“Broadly speaking, some transactions can present data security risks — including providing a foreign person or government with access to troves of Americans’ sensitive personal data as well as access to intellectual property, source code, or other potentially sensitive information,” a Department spokesperson said. The protection of national security, which includes the misuse of data through espionage, tracking, and other means that threaten national security, should be assured byCFIUS, on a case by case basis.

A lot of risks are theoretical, according to Chew. I have not seen any evidence. I am eagerly awaiting discussions where we can talk about evidence and then we can address the concerns that are being raised.”

Zhou, 38, works in project management and mobile app development, and says he’s conflicted about using the app, which is heavily censored and monitored in China. Wechat users outside of China received notifications last year that their personal data would be sent back to the People’s Republic. Zhou is willing to tradeoff privacy with being connected to his parents. “For my generation, it’s easy enough for us to move on to another app,” he says. It will be difficult for those who are not tech savvy to move to another application.

WeChat is often referred to as a messaging app, but it’s far more than that. It makes it relatively easy to build businesses and communities through the use of social media and other features. People in Asian diasporas, and those who work and live in the US, use the app to make connections, read news updates, and post updates in their friend feed.