But the eNaira launch came nine months after the CBN effectively banned cryptocurrencies, which were used to fund anti-police brutality protests that swept the country in late 2020. The CBN claimed crypto jeopardized the financial system and could be used to fund terrorism and froze protestors’ bank accounts.
For all the (mostly misleading) talk of the US government having too much say in content moderation decisions, this move would literally put US government officials effectively in control of content moderation decisions for TikTok. Apparently the thinking is “welp, it’s better than the Chinese government.” But… that doesn’t mean it’s good. Or constitutional.
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Honestly, what this reads as is the moral panic over China and TikTok so eating the brains of US officials that rather than saying “hey, we should have privacy laws that block this,” they thought instead “hey, that would be cool if we could just do all the things we accuse China of doing, but where we pull the strings.”
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So, look, if we’re going to talk about US government influence over content moderation choices, why aren’t we talking much more about this?
CFIUS monitoring agencies, including the departments of Justice, Treasury and Defense, would have the right to access TikTok facilities at any time and overrule its policies or contracting decisions. CFIUS would also set the rules for all new company hires, including that they must be U.S. citizens, must consent to additional background checks and could be denied the job at any time.
The left-wing government of Germany has passed a controversial new “green” heating law that will force at least 65 percent of all new installed heating systems to be “renewable” energy.
“If we really want to tackle climate change, the state has to interfere more in what had been private issues because we have to change our behavior,” Römmele said.
The focus of the amendment is on new heating systems, as these are used for an average of 20 to 30 years and the government wants to ensure they are low carbon from the outset. Existing heating systems, however, can continue to be operated as before. This is a compromise reached in the legislative process to mitigate the economic hardships otherwise caused by the amendment.
President Biden’s White House has told America’s news organizations — including CNN, the New York Times and Fox News — to “ramp up their scrutiny” of House Republicans “for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies.”
We have covered the Protecting Kids On Social Media Act a few times, when it was first introduced back in April, where we highlighted how it was both unconstitutional and the rationale behind it was not supported by any actual evidence, and then again just recently when Senator Chris Murphy (one of the bill’s co-sponsors) wrote a ridiculously confused op-ed for the NY Times, claiming it was necessary because kids these days get too many music recommendations and no longer could discover new music on their own.
The U.S. government, through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), proposed a draft agreement last summer that would grant it extensive access and control over TikTok‘s operations. This move comes as an attempt to address national security concerns related to the Chinese-owned app. A draft agreement, sourced from Forbes, outlines the following potential powers for the U.S. government:
Wrote to Tammy Baldwin about how Republicans want to censor LGBT content with the KOSA bill that she is sponsoring! I included the following Techdirt article in my email! Not one word, about it, in her reply to me (which is just a form letter)! In fact, I didn’t bring up anything that she mentioned! As she is a LGBT person, I thought that she’d be concerned but I guess not?!
Meanwhile, Republicans are now freely admitting that they’re going to use KOSA to force websites to censor LGBTQ content. They’re literally proud of it. The Heritage Foundation, which at least used to have some principled stances before being taken over by culture warriors without any principles, is bragging about how it will use KOSA in this manner:
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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