I typically keep work/Tumblr separate nowadays, but the Senate passed the TikTok bill, and the President is aching to sign it.

It's wildly unlikely TikTok will manage to divest within 270 days, and the potential three month extension won't do much either, so this amounts to a ban. But more than just TikTok, the language of the bill-soon-to-be-law grants the President incredibly broad authority to ban or force the sale of other foreign-owned apps, too, especially given its very expansive definition of "foreign-owned apps."

I don't have a particular call to action that I care to offer here. But, it's something people (not only US citizens) should be aware of, as this is a pretty big fucking deal.

This TikTok ban is about the corrupt right-wing US government and the apartheid state of Isreal (IDF) being pissed off that they don't have control of the narrative about the genocide of Palestinians. The overwhelming majority of young people do not support the apartheid state of Israel committing genocide of Palestine, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The US & the apartheid state of Isreal lost the youth and future generations. History will not be kind to the US and the apartheid Israel.

Free Palestine.

Free Congo.

Americans can't afford rent, food, or medical care and the majority of Americans are against the genocide we're funding and getting arrested for it, but by God we sure showed the Chinese what's what because we all know tiktok is the most pressing issue in American society today!

If you abstain from voting for Biden over a stupid useless app that lowers your attention span, then you’re unbelievably droolingly stupid.

In other words, a MAGA voter

Any updates on the ban?

Unfortunately, President Biden has signed the bill into a law. The law will effectively ban TikTok unless ByteDance sells to an American company.

I am still doing research on what exactly the bill will do, but this is what is being said right now. I do not know when the bill will be put into effect.

So they just came right out and said it...

It was never about data harvesting. They think its fine when American companies infringe on our privacy (facebook/meta). It was about being able to control the narrative.

Now that the TikTok ban has been signed into law, I felt obligated to give my two cents.

This is nothing less than a crystal clear infringement on our right to free speech. Through TikTok, the flaws within the American government have been revealed to millions of young people across the country, especially after October 7th. When you have a large group of people, especially a group as influential as the next generation, all collectively speaking out against an inherently corrupt institution, the first thing that institution would need to do to preserve itself is take away the platform on which that group speaks, and that is exactly what this ban will do. The US government is cracking down on tiktok not just because it wants to silence the youth of America, but because it needs to in order to preserve its authority.

But why does this ban apply to tiktok specifically??? If they want to silence opposition, why not get rid of social media as a whole???

Here’s the thing, they don’t even need to do that. X and Meta are run by corporate billionaires, both of which are on the same side as the US government and have already been censoring their platforms. Facebook, Instagram, and X are already on their side in this, so why ban them when you can focus on the outlier? The foreign run company that isn’t a slave to the federal government? And that’s exactly what they’re doing. They’re banning TikTok because we have nowhere else to run.

Additionally, the vast majority of Americans were against this bill, and yet it still made it through congress, and got signed by the president. There is nothing that could show us that the federal government’s interests have moved beyond those of the people’s more clearly than this. They do not care. Our senators , our representatives, our president, none of them care about the people anymore, and so long as this system of government exists, they never will, which is why nothing in America, nothing in the world will change unless we can put aside the imaginary differences we’ve set up for ourselves and come together against the collective enemy of the capitalist system.

Lauren Gambino at The Guardian:

Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that rushes $95bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion. The Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure in a 79 -18 vote late on Tuesday night, after the package won similarly lopsided approval in the Republican controlled House, despite months of resistance from an isolationist bloc of hardline conservatives opposed to helping Ukraine. “It’s going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer,” Biden said, in remarks delivered from the White House, shortly after signing the bill.

“It was a difficult path,” he continued. “It should have been easier and it should have gotten there sooner. But in the end, we did what America always does. We rose to the moment, came together, and we got it done.” The White House first sent its request for the foreign aid package to Congress in October, and US officials have said the months-long delay hurt Ukraine on the battlefield. Promising to “move fast”, Biden said the US would begin shipping weapons and equipment to Ukraine within a matter of hours. Biden admonished “Maga Republicans” for blocking the aid package as Ukrainian soldiers were running out of artillery shells and ammunition as Iran, China and North Korea helped Russia to ramp up its aerial assault on Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. Rejecting the view that Ukraine is locked in an unwinnable conflict that has become a drain on US resources, Biden hailed Ukraine’s army as a “fighting force with the will and the skill to win”. But the president also pressed the case that supporting Ukraine was in the national security interest of the US.

[...] In an effort to attract Republican support, the security bill includes a provision that could see a nationwide ban on TikTok. The House also added language mandating the president seek repayment from Kyiv for roughly $10bn in economic assistance in the form of “forgivable loans”, an idea first floated by Donald Trump, who has stoked anti-Ukraine sentiment among conservatives. Although support for the package was overwhelming, several Democrats have expressed their concern with sending Israel additional military aid as it prosecutes a war that has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza and plunged the territory into a humanitarian crisis. Three progressive senators, Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch of Vermont and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, voted against the bill for its inclusion of military support to Israel.

On Wednesday, Biden called the aid to Israel “vital”, especially in the wake of Iran’s unprecedented aerial assault on the country. Israel, with help from the US, UK and Jordan, intercepted nearly all of the missiles and drones and there were no reported fatalities. The attack had been launched in retaliation against an Israeli strike on an Iranian consular site in Syria. “My commitment to Israel, I want to make clear again, is ironclad,” Biden said. “The security of Israel is critical. I will always make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and terrorists who it supports.” Biden’s abiding support for Israel’s war in Gaza has hurt his political standing with key parts of the Democratic coalition, especially among young people. As he spoke, students at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities were demonstrating against the war. Biden emphasized that the bill also increases humanitarian assistance to Gaza, touting his administration’s efforts to pressure Israel to allow more aid into the devastated territory. But House Republicans added a provision to the bill prohibiting funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Unrwa, a “lifeline for the Palestinian people in Gaza” that Israel has sought to disband.

President Biden signed a foreign aid package worth $95BN containing foreign aid for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel and provisions to a TikTok ban.

The good: Ukraine and Taiwan funding. The bad: TikTok ban and Israel funding.

See Also:

Vox: Ukraine aid and a potential TikTok ban: What’s in the House’s new $95 billion bill

okay on the tiktok ban— i think the key point everyone is ignoring is that the us government is BANNING an ENTIRE APP. like i do not care if you hate tiktok or not you need to realize how huge that shit is. an ENTIRE FORM OF COMMUNICATION IS BEING BANNED.

hey since it's coming up again: no it's not a good thing that the government wants to ban tiktok. no you should not be glad that the government might ban tiktok. no you should not respond to this with "good riddance" or "hurry up I hate that app". I should not have to explain this to you but the government banning a social media app is still a bad thing even if you don't like the UI or booktok or having to say "unalive" or how you think it's killing the very notion of attention spans. It's still bad. It's bad.