Is TikTok doomed? California congressman files Hail Mary bill to temporarily spare the app
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KHANNA CO-FILES BILL TO BUY TIME FOR TIKTOK
On Sunday, time runs out for TikTok, the video-sharing social media app that President Joe Biden, Congress and a likely majority of the U.S. Supreme Court views as a national security threat.
That’s the day when the app must shut down, vanishing from app stores and prohibited from updating, unless ByteDance, the China-based company that owns the platform sells it off to a non-Chinese buyer.
While the company had months to find a buyer, it instead challenged the law — passed last spring — on First Amendment grounds, a challenge which judges and justices alike were skeptical of.
But in the waning days before the app shuts down, three senators and a representative are making a last-ditch, Hail Mary effort to buy TikTok more time.
The Extend the TikTok Deadline Act is co-authored by Sens. Edward J. Markey, D-Massachusetts; Ron Wyden, D-Oregon; and Cory Booker, D-New Jersey; as well as Rep. Ro Khanna, D-San Jose.
The bill would delay the Jan. 19 deadline by 270 days.
“A ban on TikTok violates the free speech of 170 million Americans and hurts the livelihoods of creators and small business owners who use the app,” Khanna said in a statement. “We need laws to protect Americans’ data, but banning TikTok is not the answer.”
The House and Senate are scheduled to leave Thursday and not return until Monday. No votes on the bills are anticipated.
It’s important to note that while TikTok’s parent company is based in Beijing, as Sarah Shugars, associate professor of Communication at Rutgers University, noted, the social media company itself is headquartered in the U.S., specifically in Los Angeles.
Shugars said that “it feels like a game of chicken” between TikTok and the U.S. government.
“It’s impossible to know which side is going to fold first and exactly how it’s going to play out,” they said.
Even if the app does get banned, Shugars said that it’s not like it will just vanish from people’s phones or memories. It may be amount to just a temporary blip, as the company continues to negotiate with the U.S. government to find an amicable solution.
It’s also worth noting that President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office Monday, has championed sparing the app, and has asked the Supreme Court to delay the ban until he can negotiate a deal.
As for the bill from Markey, Wyden, Booker and Khanna, Evan Greer, director of the advocacy group Fight for the Future, which champions civil liberties in the digital realm, said that she supports the effort to delay the ban, which her group has opposed.
“We think this makes a lot of sense and we think lawmakers should support it,” she said.
Greer acknowledged that the bill is a long shot. It’s no small thing to pass the House, Senate and be signed by the president, all in the span of a handful of days. But she said she could envision a world where Trump’s support gets Republicans to sign on to the delay.
BONTA, WEBER APPEAL HUNTINGTON BEACH VOTER ID LAW RULING
As they foreshadowed last year, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal of an Orange County Superior Court judge’s ruling that it was premature — or “not ripe for adjudication,” as the judge put it — to challenge the City of Huntington Beach’s voter ID law.
City voters passed the ordinance in defiance of the state, and out of concern that there are insufficient safeguards to prevent fraudulent voting. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, either in California or elsewhere in the country.
The Orange County judge found that the voter ID law “currently presents no conflict with state elections law,” which Bonta and Weber expressly rejected in a statement Tuesday.
“The Orange County Superior Court got it wrong — plain and simple. Secretary of State Weber and I firmly believe not only that the time is right for us to bring our lawsuit, but also that Huntington Beach’s voter ID policy is unlawful,” Bonta said in a statement.
The state’s appeal is being filed in the Fourth District Court of Appeal, where Bonta is arguing that “our elections are already secure, and applicants who register to vote in California are already required to verify their identity during the registration process.”
Weber, who has overseen the state’s vote-by-mail expansion, said that it is her role to “encourage democracy through voter participation and stop attempts that burden democracy by preventing or discouraging eligible citizens from voting.”
Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns in December issued a statement vowing to continue to fight against the state.
“My city council colleagues and I will not back down amidst pressure from the state, we will continue to fight for the will of our residents,” he said.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Today’s vote, along with the recent federal court decision striking down the Biden administration’s proposed Title IX guidance protecting transgender athletes, represents yet another effort to deny transgender youth the dignity and respect they deserve. Title IX is a critical safeguard that ensures all students, including LGBTQ+ students, are protected from discrimination and can learn in a safe, welcoming environment.”
- Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang, in a statement responding to Tuesday’s U.S. House vote in favor of the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” to ban trans athletes from women’s and girls’ sports at schools receiving federal funding. The bill still must make it through the Senate, where it faces a likely uphill battle.
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