Biden's new powers will decide TikTok's fate

The US House Foreign Affairs Committee gave US president Joe Biden the power to ban TikTok. 16 of the committee voted against the decision, while 24 members voted to grant the administration new powers.
TikTok's presence in the United States has become a serious issue for the country, especially after the ascending tension with China. The spy wars between the two countries increased the thoughts of TikTok's possible data breach, meaning over 100 million Americans' data could go into the hands of the Chinese government. On Wednesday, The US House of Foreign Affairs Committee gathered to discuss the matter and vote on the bill to grant the administration new powers. Reuters described it as "the most far-reaching U.S. restriction on any social media app."
The bill was approved after getting the majority of the votes, 24 to 16. TikTok is not the only app that Biden can ban. He can also ban other apps that have security risks. Joe Biden could "impose a ban on any entity that "may" transfer sensitive personal data to an entity subject to the influence of China."
"TikTok is a national security threat ... It is time to act. Anyone with TikTok downloaded on their device has given the CCP (Communist Party of China) a backdoor to all their personal information. It’s a spy balloon into their phone," said Representative Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the committee who sponsored the bill.
On the other side, Democrats opposed the bill and suggested getting consultation from experts before taking such a decision. The bill gives Biden the power to ban any entity that could transfer sensitive data to China, but the details on "how" is still a question mark. However, it will probably restrict access to TikTok from the United States. Many examples of app and service bans happen worldwide, and users find ways to breach the ban using VPNs.
This week, the White House directed federal agencies to remove TikTok from all government-issued devices. The agencies are given 30 days to complete the process. Canada, the European Commission, and European Council have also banned the application.
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Uhh, this has already been possible – I am not sure how but remember my brother telling me about it. I’m not a whatsapp user so not sure of the specifics, but something about sending the image as a file and somehow bypassing the default compression settings that are applied to inbound photos.
He has also used this to share movies to whatsapp groups, and files 1Gb+.
Like I said, I never used whatsapp, but I know 100% this isn’t a “brand new feature”, my brother literally showed me him doing it, like… 5 months ago?
Martin, what happened to those: 12 Comments (https://www.ghacks.net/chatgpt-gets-schooled-by-princeton-university/#comments). Is there a specific justifiable reason why they were deleted?
Hmm, it looks like the gHacks website database is faulty, and not populating threads with their relevant cosponsoring posts.
The page on ghacks this is on represents the best of why it has become so worthless, fill of click-bait junk that it’s about to be deleted from my ‘daily reads’.
It’s really like “Press Release as re-written by some d*ck for clicks…poorly.” And the subjects are laughable. Can’t wait for “How to search for files on Windows”.
> The page on ghacks this is on represents the best of why it has become so worthless, fill of click-bait junk…
Sadly, I have to agree.
Only Martin and Ashwin are worth subscribing to.
Especially Emre Çitak and Shaun are the worst ones.
If ghacks.net intended “Clickbait”, it would mark the end of Ghacks Technology News.
Ghacks doesn’t need crappy clickbaits. Clearly separate articles from newer authors (perhaps AIs and external sales person or external advertising man) as just “Advertisements”!
We, the subscribers of Ghacks, urge Martin to make a decision.
because nevermore wants to “monetize” on every aspect of human life…
“Threads” is like the Walmart of Social Media.
How hard can it be to clone a twitter version of that as well? They’re slow.
Yes, why not mention how large the HD files can be?
Why, not mention what version of WhatsApp is needed?
These omissions make the article feel so bare. If not complete.
Sorry posted on the wrong page.
such a long article for such a simple matter. Worthless article ! waste of time
I already do this by attaching them via the ‘Document’ option.
I don’t know what’s going on here at Ghacks but it’s obvious that something is broken, comments are being mixed whatever the article, I am unable to find some of my later posts neither. :S
Quoting the article,
“As users gain popularity, the value of their tokens may increase, allowing investors to reap rewards.”
Besides, beyond the thrill and privacy risks or not, the point is to know how you gain popularity, be it on social sites as everywhere in life. Is it by being authentic, by remaining faithful to ourselves or is it to have this particular skill which is to understand what a majority likes, just like politicians, those who’d deny to the maximum extent compatible with their ideological partnership, in order to grab as many of the voters they can?
I see the very concept of this Friend.tech as unhealthy, propagating what is already an increasing flaw : the quest for fame. I won’t be the only one to count himself out, definitely.
@John G. is right : my comment was posted on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/23/what-is-friend-tech/] and it appears there but as well here at [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/08/how-to-follow-everyone-on-threads/]
This has been lasting for several days. Fix it or at least provide some explanations if you don’t mind.
> Google Chrome is following in Safari’s footsteps by introducing a new feature that allows users to move the Chrome address bar to the bottom of the screen, enhancing user accessibility and interaction.
Firefox did this long before Safari.
Basically they’ll do anything except fair royalties.