Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) plans to block a bill introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) that would ban the popular video-sharing app TikTok, The Hill reported Wednesday.
Sen. Rand Paul to Block Sen. Josh Hawley’s Bill to Ban TikTok
Tag: GOP
Political Grandstanding, FBI’s Long History Of Surveillance Abuse May Finally Get It Booted Off The Section 702 Block
from the hell,-I’ll-take-politicized-if-that’s-the-best-option dept
Wed, Feb 15th 2023 10:45am – Tim Cushing
The FBI has had access to Section 702 surveillance and it has always abused this access. The data and communications are collected by the NSA under this authority. Once collected, the FBI hooks up to this massive data store and to perform backdoor searches on domestic targets, even though it’s only supposed to received masked/minimized domestic data from the NSA.
Political Grandstanding, FBI’s Long History Of Surveillance Abuse May Finally Get It Booted Off The Section 702 Block
Millions of seniors on Social Security are at risk of losing benefits this summer if the GOP doesn’t raise the debt ceiling
As Insider previously reported, Biden could get around Congress through a process known as minting the coin, in which Biden could deposit a $1 trillion platinum coin in the Federal Reserve thanks to a loophole in the types of coins the Treasury can mint. But Yellen has dismissed that idea on numerous occasions and remains committed to Congress lifting the debt limit once again.
GOP Stops Pretending It Ever Actually Cared About ‘Antitrust Reform’
GOP Stops Pretending It Ever Actually Cared About ‘Antitrust Reform’
To be clear, despite the press narrative to the contrary, I don’t think either party is particularly serious about antitrust reform. Congress is simply too grotesquely corrupt, and the combined cross-industry lobbying opposition to meaningful reform too great, to currently be overcome without some sort of major policy and cultural trajectory shift and a massive upheaval in Congress.
Related:
Big Tech Antitrust Push in Congress Is Blunted by GOP-Led House
The appointment of Massie, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained inventor who has filed dozens of patents, signals that the Judiciary Committee under Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio will shift its focus away from legislation aimed at curbing the power of the largest tech companies. Jordan has been more focused on free-speech issues, including big tech’s perceived liberal bias.
“We’re all united in wanting to stop the censorship of conservatives and the suppression of free speech,” Jordan said in an interview. “That’s going to be a focus of the full committee work.”
Funny, that’s not what Massie told Breitbert. 🤷🏼♀️
Rail Companies Blocked Safety Rules Before Ohio Derailment
Norfolk Southern helped convince government officials to repeal brake rules — and corporate lobbyists watered down hazmat safety regs.
Rail Companies Blocked Safety Rules Before Ohio Derailment
Nikki Haley, who once criticized AIPAC for being insufficiently pro-Israel, is running for president
Nikki Haley was the first U.S. governor to sign anti-BDS legislation, and once criticized AIPAC for not being pro-Israel enough. Now, she is preparing to run for president.
Nikki Haley, who once criticized AIPAC for being insufficiently pro-Israel, is running for president
“They’re going to call you socialists anyways”: Progressives slam 109 Dems for backing GOP stunt
“They’re going to call you socialists anyways”: Progressives slam 109 Dems for backing GOP stunt
Here’s what this is really about: More and more members on the other side of the aisle are calling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and many have referred to these programs as “socialism” throughout their existence. The other night in the Rules Committee they showed their cards. Republicans refused an amendment to declare that Social Security and Medicare is not socialism. This resolution is little about intelligent discourse and everything to do about laying the groundwork to cut Social Security and Medicare.
‘Socialism’ for me, but not for thee?!
Josh Hawley Wants In On The TikTok Moral Panic Attention, Proposes Nationwide Ban
Insurrectionist sprinter Josh Hawley has joined the growing chorus of GOP politicians who’ve spent years doing jack shit about U.S. consumer privacy abuses, and now want to pretend that banning a single app — TikTok — will protect American consumers from a problem they themselves created.
Josh Hawley Wants In On The TikTok Moral Panic Attention, Proposes Nationwide Ban
U.S. Press Starts To Figure Out College TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance
U.S. Press Starts To Figure Out College TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance
One, the bans are generally designed to agitate a xenophobic base and give the impression the GOP is “doing something about China.” But the party that couldn’t care less about rampant corruption or privacy violations isn’t doing much of anything meaningful to thwart China. In fact, letting adtech, telecom, and app companies run rampant with little oversight runs contrary to any such goal.
Two, the bans distract the public and press from our ongoing failure on consumer privacy and security issues. Banning TikTok, but doing nothing about the accountability optional free for all that is the adtech and data-hoovering space, doesn’t actually fix anything. China can just obtain the same data from a universe of other international companies facing little real oversight on data collection.
Three, the ban is really just about money. Trump gave the game away with his proposal that TikTok be chopped up and sold to Oracle and Walmart. That cronyistic deal fell through, but it’s pretty clear that this moral panic is designed to either help TikTok’s competitors (Facebook lobbyists are very active on this front), or force the sale of the most popular app in modern history to GOP-allies. At which point they’ll engage in all the surveillance and influence efforts they pretend to be mad about.
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