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In a rare display of bipartisan unity, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed HR 7521, Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, by a vote of 352-65.If passed by the Senate and President Joe Biden, the implications of this bill are far-reaching, serving as a tool for censorship and limiting free speech and expression.

This legislation, proposed by Rep. Mike Gallagher and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, targets the popular social media app, TikTok, and could potentially lead to its ban.

The bill seeks to compel ByteDance, TikToks parent company, to sell the app to a U.S.-approved entity within six months, citing concerns over national security threats due to ByteDances Chinese-based ownership.

Government officials worry about potential exploitation by the Chinese Communist Party, fearing TikTok could be used to gather sensitive user data and disseminate propaganda, though the U.S. government has failed to provide any proof of such happenings.

TikTok refuted these allegations and asserted its independence from any government entity and highlighted its efforts to safeguard user data through initiatives like Project Texas.

Through Project Texas, TikTok will create a new special-purpose subsidiary called TikTok U.S. Data Security, which will handle TikTok U.S. separately from the rest of the companys operations.

All USDS leaders and employees would be thoroughly vetted and only report to an independent board of directors, each with a strong background in U.S. national security and highly respected in their field.

TikTok claims Project Texas would provide full transparency and accountability to the U.S. government, while not forcing diversion from ByteDance.

However, this plan has been under review for years by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Nevertheless, while there are still debates about TikToks connection to China and the validity of national security and data privacy concerns, the economic and political implications of this bill are of more significance.

According to a report from New Economics, TikTok contributed $24.2 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023.

Moreover, it was found that small or midsized businesses that marketed or advertised on TikTok generated nearly $15 billion in revenue in 2023, thus allowing them to grow organically and support over 224,000 jobs.

Likewise, through content creation opportunities on TikTok, several Americans have been able to generate new income streams and build wealth.

Most notably, it is important to consider the broad language of this bill and how it sets a dangerous precedent that not only threatens free speech but also empowers the U.S. government to ban any app they deem to be a threat, due to its connections to a foreign adversary.

Though this language is geared toward TikTok, it can be applied to so much more. This can be Chinese-owned apps, like AliExpress or WeChat, or even American-owned apps such as Instagram, Netflix, Snapchat and Google Maps, if foreign investment or relations concerns come into play in the future.

One of the key differences between us and those adversaries is the fact that they shut down newspapers, broadcast stations, and social media platforms. We do not, Rep. Jim Himes said. We trust our citizens to be worthy of their democracy. We do not trust our government to decide what information they may or may not see.

With the current global issues, social media apps, like TikTok, have become powerful communication tools through which Americans can voice their opinions, educate, advocate and rally for change.

If there were a ban, while this rhetoric would still transfer onto a new platform, the language of this bill allows Congress to target these platforms as well.The answer to authoritarianism is not more authoritarianism, Rep. Tom McClintock said. The answer to CCP-style propaganda is not CCP-style oppression. Let us slow down before we blunder down this very steep and slippery slope.

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Bipartisan push to ban TikTok is a dangerous move toward censorship - The Ticker

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When Fighting Disinformation Becomes Censorship, New WSJ Swing State Polls, Wisconsin's "Zuckerbucks ...  RealClearPolitics

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When Fighting Disinformation Becomes Censorship, New WSJ Swing State Polls, Wisconsin's "Zuckerbucks ... - RealClearPolitics

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Start your day with The Bright Side, a new daily podcast from Hello Sunshine. Co-hosted by journalist, TV host, and podcaster, Danielle Robay and Emmy-nominated journalist, host, and producer, Simone Boyce, The Bright Side brings your daily dose of culture and inspiration with the latest trends, celebrity interviews, and real conversations with women doing amazing things while navigating lifes transitions, big and small. The Bright Side is a talk show created to inspire, educate, and empower women as they tackle life each day and add joy to their morning routines. Join Danielle and Simone and the Hello Sunshine community every weekday for entertainment, culture, wellness, books, and more.

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New Hate Crime Hotline Proves Illegal Censorship Is HERE | Guest: Sheriff Bill Waybourn | 4/3/24 - The Glenn Beck ... - iHeartRadio

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I have just signed the petition against the recent Nikon photo of the year.

https://chng.it/LKBfY8D5Rt

It displays the corpse of Shani Louk shortly after she was murdered on October 7th.

Shanis body was then driven through Gaza on the back of the same truck.

She remains in death, a captive.

Recently I listened to the interview with Yehuda Kurtzer and Ron Hassner, the Berkeley professor who staged a sit-in against the universitys refusal to challenge the rise of antisemitism on campus. (The university has now accepted his requests).

In the discussion Ron states his preference that the antisemitic graffiti that is commonly displayed around the campus is not removed or covered-up. He believes it should remain as a demonstration to others, now and in the future of the reality of student life in 2024 America.

I am not sure how universities in the UK behave, whether they get-out the paint stripper or choose to ignore what has been written.

You could argue that the photograph should be placed on the cover of every newspaper to demonstrate the reality of what happened on October 7th, however, to me that feels a desecration.

There is a split between those who show-off the bodies of their dead and those who hide the images of the terrorists and missile-launchers.

The images from Israel of the 10/7 victims are pixilated. This a reflection of the Israeli values, dignity in death (and, more appositely, life).

Over recent years in media, particularly in movies on TV or on the news, trigger warnings have become a norm this video depicts images of offering the faint of heart the opportunity to turn-away or switch off.

I never really understood the utility of these alerts surely for most people, it is the not knowing that is the true horror whatever we create in our imagination is surely worse than any reality. And then, there is the essential human curiosity, What can be so awful that a warning is required, I had better look.

Triggering comes in many forms, either something that precipitates a flashback or even for some with epilepsy, a seizure. It arrives with enough time for the person to switch-off and move on to other things.

For me, a Jew living in the UK every news item has become a trigger.

I am faced with the options of either not accessing any media or defaulting to only that on the Right which is against everything I have ever believed.

The term for this, much loved by my dad was stuck between a rock and a hard place, meaning, there isnt much we can do, stick, or budge, you lose.

I am just now reading Dan Harris book Ten Percent Happier. Although I have not reached the reveal, my suspicion is that his answer is to read the facts then switch off the thoughts. Move into mindfulness.

This, I struggle to achieve.

Does anyone have an answer?

Dr Rod Kersh is a Consultant Physician working in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. He blogs at http://www.almondemotion.com

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Censorship | Rod Kersh | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

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North Korea deleted a large portion of its online presence in January 2024, with eight of its websites going offline along with most of its social media accounts. This followed a speech by North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un during an important party plenum in late December 2023 where he declared that unification with South Korea was impossible.

The scope of this deletion only slowly made headlines in South Korea due to the comprehensive censorship of North Korean websites and social media accounts. This was underlined by the piecemeal fashion in which journalists realised what was missing. Yonhap News quickly noticed the disappearance of sections on unification on two websites on 4 January 2024, but it took a full week for a journalist at News1 to figure out that content had also disappeared from a third website. The same was repeated several days later when whole websites disappeared.

Despite his initial campaign pledge, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has refused to lift censorship of North Korean media, which is currently enforced through the National Security Law. Though he has repeatedly criticised fake news and anti-intellectualism, he continues to ignore the question of how journalists and analysts are supposed to accurately report on and understand North Korea without access to basic information.

His government has also refused to explain why censorship has not been lifted even slightly after almost two years, pointing only to a lack of public support. Not surprisingly, right-wing activists had showered the government with protests hoping to stop the plan to relax censorship.

The vast censorship has led to the bizarre phenomenon that South Korean journalists frequently learn about major news from international outlets. They only noticed that scenes from the movie Frozen were being used in North Korean schools when NK News reported on it five days after being shown on North Korean television in May 2023.

Weeks before, major outlets only learned of an actor being scrubbed from movies aired on North Korean television after a scholar released her analysis through NK News. In this case, the scholar and journalists had missed domestic reports on the actor being cut from movies three times since May 2021.

This underlined how little access South Korean journalists have to North Korean television footage. If outlets cannot afford an expensive satellite dish and recording equipment, the only option is to access footage through the Ministry of Unifications library, which releases recordings only after a two week delay.

Between 18 and 21 October 2023, North Korea revealed in state-run newspaper Minju Chosun two central pillars of its 2023 electoral reform that would be applied in Novembers local elections separate ballot boxes for dissenting votes and two-person competitions for candidate nominations. This made it obvious that North Korea would give up on its alleged 100 per cent approval rates, which eventual election results confirmed.

But this time even after an analysis was published on NK Pro a sister site of NK News on October 23, South Korean journalists did not report on this information for weeks. The fact that all access points to the Minju Chosun newspaper are censored certainly played a role.

The Ministry of Unifications library claims to have found no outlet selling print Minju Chosun issues since 2020, while a Japan-based service providing almost immediate access to a digital version online is censored. The newspaper is shown in full on North Korean television in the afternoon, but there are no public channels available to access it and the only YouTube channel that uploads those newspaper sections daily is also censored.

The progressive online outlet Tongil News was the first to write about the electoral reforms on 5 November 2023, citing the newspaper Choson Sinbo, run by the North Korea-friendly Association of Koreans in Japan and censored by South Korea. Yonhap News, South Koreas quasi-public news agency, only released a report on 8 November, following a Radio Free Asia piece from the day before that only commented on the two-person competitions.

But the problem becomes even more obvious when South Koreans have no foreign outlets to rely on. While South Korean journalists now pay a lot of attention to disappearing content on North Korean websites or the halt on usage of certain terms, they missed the fact that major websites stopped publishing unification-related content earlier in 2023. The unification sections in Minju Chosun and Ryomyong did not publish new content after early May 2023 when inter-Korean relations had hit a new low.

This silence should have alarmed South Korean journalists and hinted that North Korea was set to cancel agreements including the 15 June NorthSouth Joint Declaration. But due to censorship, none of the South Korean public noticed this sign.

Naturally, foreign journalists take their clues from South Korean media about what is newsworthy. The fact that much goes unreported in South Korea or is reported late and with only shallow analysis thereby also diminishes the quality of global coverage.

This could be blamed on the generally low quality of South Korean journalism or its lack of interest in North Korea. But a major factor hindering constructive reporting has been the vast censorship by the South Korean state. This censorship keeps not just South Korean journalists but also their audiences, domestic and international, from exploring the facts.

Martin Weiser is an independent researcher based in Seoul.

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South Korean censorship obscures vital information - East Asia Forum

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