Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) urged <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/apple" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple</a> CEO Tim Cook and <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/google" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google</a> CEO Sundar Pichai to remove <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/tiktok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok</a> from the companies’ app stores over national security concerns.
ByteDance, the Beijing-based company which owns TikTok, has been accused of maintaining close ties with the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ccp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese Communist Party</a>. Bennet is the latest of several Republican and Democratic officials to express opposition to the social media platform’s presence in the United States; he warned the technology executives that Chinese law obligates ByteDance to “support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work.”
“These obvious risks render TikTok, in its current form, an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States,” Bennet wrote in a <a href="https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=F0E5599B-C7E4-47DC-8C9D-7AD46BC3EF93" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a>. “No company subject to CCP dictates should have the power to accumulate such extensive data on the American people or curate content to nearly a third of our population. Given these risks, I urge you to remove TikTok from your respective app stores immediately.”
Bennet also cited a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tiktoks-parent-company-in-china-planned-to-use-platform-to-track-locations-of-specific-americans-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from Forbes which indicated that ByteDance planned to track the location of specific American citizens. An internal audit and risk department started by the company was initially supposed to investigate misconduct from current and former employees, but the team allegedly planned to collect data about the location of at least one American who had never been employed by ByteDance.
“TikTok’s prevalence in our country also allows it to amass extensive data on the American people, including device information, search and viewing history, message content, IP addresses, faceprints, and voiceprints,” Bennet continued. “Independent security researchers discovered that TikTok also had the capacity to engage in ‘keylogging,’ allowing it to monitor Americans’ keystrokes and inputs on third-party web browsers opened in the app, such as Apple’s Safari and Google Chrome.”
The letter comes shortly after President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-unanimously-votes-to-ban-tiktok-on-government-devices" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> legislation banning TikTok from all devices owned by the federal government. Several states, including Nebraska, Alabama, Iowa, and North Dakota, had previously banned the platform from government devices.
TikTok, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tiktok-was-most-visited-site-in-2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">surpassed</a> Google and other competitors to become the most visited website in the world two years ago, pioneered the vertical video format that other firms have since <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/left-wing-media-company-buzzfeed-to-dismiss-large-share-of-workforce" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sought</a> to emulate. Bennet said that the average American spends more than 80 minutes per day on the app, surpassing the amount of time spent on Facebook and Instagram combined.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tiktok-ceo-will-testify-before-congress-as-national-security-privacy-concerns-grow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testify</a> before members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee next month. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said in a <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/tik-tok-ceo-to-testify-at-energy-and-commerce-committee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> that the firm has “knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data.”
Federal and state officials have become increasingly wary of Chinese companies. The Biden administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-quietly-probes-chinese-tech-firm-for-possibly-harvesting-data-from-military-bases-missile-silos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigated</a> Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei over concerns that cell towers in the United States equipped with the company’s devices were transmitting data on nearby military facilities to the Chinese Communist Party. A final rule <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-makes-historic-move-to-block-certain-chinese-tech-after-national-security-concerns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> last year by the Federal Communications Commission likewise prohibited Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, and Dahua from importing and selling certain technology considered a potential threat to national security. The new rule, however, does not apply to technology currently within the nation’s borders.

7ABBE8F3-F60F-48A7-B5C7-D1932D6A7EB8_1_201_a

Democrat Senator Urges Apple And Google To Ban TikTok From App Stores

Democrat Senator Tells Tech Companies To Ban TikTok

Apple

China

Chinese Communist Party

Congress

Google

National Security

Politics

TikTok

Actor Ryan Reynolds says that if a song from his holiday Apple TV+ offering &#8220;Spirited&#8221; were to earn an Academy Award nomination, he would feel obligated to &#8220;show up on that stage and embarrass myself.&#8221;
The song in question is titled &#8220;Good Afternoon&#8221; and is already reportedly on a &#8220;<a href="https://variety.com/feature/2023-oscars-best-original-song-predictions-1235396256/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shortlist</a>&#8221; shared by entertainment site Variety:
<ol>
<li>“Lift Me Up” by Tems, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna and Ryan Coogler (&#8220;Black Panther: Wakanda Forever&#8221;)</li>
<li>“Naatu Naatu” by Kala Bhairava, M. M. Keeravani, Rahul Sipligunj (&#8220;RRR&#8221;)</li>
<li>“Ciao Papa” by Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz and Guillermo del Toro (&#8220;Guillermo del Toro&#8217;s Pinocchio&#8221;)</li>
<li>“Applause” by Diane Warren (&#8220;Tell it Like a Woman&#8221;)</li>
<li>“Til You’re Home” by Rita Wilson (&#8220;A Man Called Otto&#8221;)</li>
<li>&#8220;Hold My Hand” by Lady Gaga and Bloodpop (&#8220;Top Gun: Maverick&#8221;)</li>
<li>“This is a Life” by David Byrne, Ryan Lott and Mitski (&#8220;Everything Everywhere All at Once&#8221;)</li>
<li>“Carolina” by Taylor Swift (&#8220;Where the Crawdads Sing&#8221;)</li>
<li>&#8220;Good Afternoon” by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (&#8220;Spirited&#8221;)</li>
<li>“Stand Up” by Jazmine Sullivan and D’Mile (&#8220;Till&#8221;)</li>
</ol>
&#8220;Good Afternoon&#8221; writer Justin Paul <a href="https://variety.com/2023/artisans/awards/ryan-reynolds-spirited-good-afternoon-oscars-original-song-1235489178/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Variety</a> that he&#8217;d love to see the song nominated, in part because he&#8217;d love to see actors Reynolds and Will Ferrell perform the number live at the Academy Awards.
&#8220;I need them on stage,&#8221; he said.
And Reynolds appears to be amenable to that, though he&#8217;s not expecting it. &#8220;I’m not thinking about that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Look, if this song is nominated for an Academy Award, I would say that the least I can do is show up on that stage and embarrass myself.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Spirited — “Good Afternoon” Full Scene | Apple TV+" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OMkJIR9pX1w?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The one person likely to be disappointed — should &#8220;Spirited&#8221; get the nod and land Reynolds alongside Ferrell on the Oscars&#8217; stage — is &#8220;X-Men&#8221; actor Hugh Jackman. <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/watch-hugh-jackman-begs-academy-not-to-nominate-ryan-reynolds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jackman</a>, who often trades barbs with Reynolds — and is set to appear with him in the next &#8220;Deadpool&#8221; movie — shared his concerns about the prospect.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
But don’t get me wrong … <a href="https://t.co/8ymOYUOq9m">pic.twitter.com/8ymOYUOq9m</a>
&mdash; Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealHughJackman/status/1610639446709342210?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In a video posted just after the new year, Jackman begged the Academy not to nominate Reynolds, claiming it would &#8220;make the next year of my life insufferable.&#8221;
Reynolds responded with a video of his own, first calling on the Academy to nominate Jackman for his role in &#8220;The Son&#8221; and then, after apparently pretending to shut the feed off, mumbled under his breath about him.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
For Hugh-r consideration. <a href="https://t.co/0qDASD4xDm">pic.twitter.com/0qDASD4xDm</a>
&mdash; Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) <a href="https://twitter.com/VancityReynolds/status/1613198396403351553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Apple Original Film’s “Spirited” New York Red Carpet

‘The Least I Can Do’: Ryan Reynolds Promises To Show Up And ‘Embarrass Myself’ If ‘Spirited’ Tune Scores Oscar Nod

Ryan Reynolds Promises To Show Up And 'Embarrass Myself' If 'Spirited' Tune Scores Oscar Nod

Celebrities

Ryan Reynolds

U.S.

Will Ferrell

Apple, Inc. was slapped with a new class action <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/616578588/Apple-Sued-Over-Racial-Bias-in-Heart-Rate-Monitoring#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> Christmas Eve alleging the pulse oximetry feature on the Apple Watch product doesn&#8217;t work on people with a &#8220;darker skin tone.&#8221;
Plaintiff Alex Morales of New York filed a multi-state lawsuit on behalf of the state and nine others under consumer fraud laws against the tech giant in the Southern District of New York last week.
Morales, who said he purchased an Apple Watch between 2020 and 2021, claims he was unaware the pulse oximetry feature, which measures the oxygen level of a wearer&#8217;s blood directly from their wrist, was biased against people with darker skin tones.
&#8220;For decades, there have been reports that such devices were significantly less accurate in measuring blood oxygen levels based on skin color,&#8221; the lawsuit alleges. &#8220;The &#8216;real world significance&#8217; of this bias lay unaddressed until the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, which converged with a greater awareness of structural racism which exists in many aspects of society.&#8221;
According to the lawsuit, researchers claim the clinical significance of racial bias in pulse oximetry came from records of patients taken during and before the pandemic.
The conclusion showed that &#8220;reliance on pulse oximetry to triage patients and adjust supplemental oxygen levels may place Black patients at increased risk for hypoxemia.&#8221;
Health care recommendations base blood oxygen levels on readings, the lawsuit says, allegedly giving white patients more access to care than those with darker skin when faced with equally low blood oxygenation.
Representatives for Apple, the lawsuit reads, affirmed and promised that it did not incorporate biases and defects of pulse oximetry concerning persons of darker skin tone.
The Food and Drug Administration held a panel last month, which USA Today <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/11/03/pulse-oximeter-inaccurate-people-of-color/8256798001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> discussed studies that found pulse oximeter devices register higher oxygen level readings in people with darker skin tones.
Amal Jubran, a pulmonologist at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois, told the outlet that researchers identified the problem in the 1990s.
&#8220;It never got any traction, then the COVID pandemic brought everything to the forefront,&#8221; Jubran said.
Jubran and a colleague published a peer-reviewed study in the European Respiratory Journal that found inaccurate oximeter readings in darker-skinned patients remained &#8220;unchanged&#8221; for 32 years.
Michael Sjoding, a fellow University of Michigan clinical professor, told the outlet that past work showed pulse oximeters produced less accurate results in darkly pigmented patients.
&#8220;What was described in these older studies might still be happening,&#8221; Sjoding said.
The clinical professor conducted a study in 2020 along with other colleagues, which found that 11.7% of black patients registered higher than accurate oxygen levels on pulse oximeters compared to 3.6% of white patients.
Apple released its signature Watch product nearly eight years ago. It quickly became one of the most wearable devices after 4.2 million users purchased one in the second quarter of the fiscal year 2015. By December 2020, more than 100 million people were estimated to use an Apple Watch.
Apple Insider <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/12/27/apple-watch-sensor-has-racial-bias-claims-new-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in 2015 that the tech giant faced another lawsuit concerning the skin when users complained that black wrist tattoos interfered with the device&#8217;s heart sensor.
&#8220;Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact heart rate sensor performance,&#8221; read an updated Apple support page, according to the outlet. &#8220;The ink, pattern, and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings.&#8221;
Such issues happened before the blood oxygen sensor problem came to light, which Apple added to the Apple Watch Series 6 in 2020.
Apple has yet to respond to media requests for comment.

Apple Holds Launch Event For New Products At Its Headquarters

Apple Watch Feature Biased Against Dark Skin, Lawsuit Claims

New Yorker Sues Apple Over Alleged Racial Bias In Oxygen Monitoring

Business

Lawsuit

New York

Racism

Technology

The Daily Wire has placed in two Top 10 Apple Charts based on the listenership of leading podcast episodes, shows, channels, and subscriptions for 2022.
According to new year-end charts released by the tech giant on Monday, &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show&#8221; ranked number nine out of 20 in Apple&#8217;s Top Shows category, while The Daily Wire secured number five out of 20 in the Top Free Channels of 2022.
Apple, which releases information about the top podcasts on its platform each year, said the charts reflect the most popular audio shows in each local market from listeners in nearly 100 countries and regions worldwide based on listenership between November 1, 2021, through October 31, 2022.
&#8220;This means listeners in the U.S. can browse the Top New Shows among listeners in the U.S. while listeners in France can browse the Top New Shows among listeners in France — helping people discover popular podcasts that are relevant to them and in their local language,&#8221; Apple <a href="https://wccftech.com/apple-shares-top-podcasts-of-2022/">wrote</a> of the new lists in the app.
<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://get.dailywire.com/readers-pass/read-only-v2?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/readers-pass/read-only-v2?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-35350">TIRED OF THE LEGACY MEDIA’S BIAS CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE AND OBSCURING THE TRUTH? JOIN US.</a>
Shapiro, editor emeritus of The Daily Wire, has been one of the top voices for American conservatives since becoming a nationally syndicated columnist when he was just 17 years old.
His flagship show for The Daily Wire covers the nation&#8217;s top political personalities while breaking down American culture.
Other Daily Wire personalities with shows available on Apple Podcasts include Andrew Klavan, Michael Knowles, Candace Owens, and Matt Walsh. DailyWire+ host Dr. Jordan B. Peterson is also on Apple Podcasts.
The Daily Wire also launched &#8220;Morning Wire&#8221; last year, an alternative news podcast covering the latest developments in politics, culture, education, and sports, presented by the company&#8217;s Editor-in-Chief John Bickley, and co-host Georgia Howe.
Oliver Schusser, Apple&#8217;s vice president of Apple Music and Beats, said in a <a href="https://www.apple.com/jo/newsroom/2022/11/apple-announces-the-2022-apple-podcasts-award-winner/">news release</a> that &#8220;podcasting plays an important role in our lives — helping us stay informed, keep entertained, and get inspired.&#8221;
Apple&#8217;s top three overall podcasts in 2022 include &#8220;Crime Junkie,&#8221; &#8220;The Daily,&#8221; and &#8220;Dateline NBC.&#8221;

Ben Shapiro

The Daily Wire Places In Two Top 10 Apple Podcast Charts Of 2022

Media

Morning Wire

Podcast

The Ben Shapiro Show

The Daily Wire

Two women have filed a class action lawsuit against <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/apple" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple</a> over its AirTag devices, which they claim allowed their ex partners to stalk them.
On Monday, the proposed class action lawsuit was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/business/apple-airtag-lawsuit.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed</a> in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It reportedly alleges that Apple did not put in place sufficient safety parameters that would keep stalkers from using the devices to keep track of victims.
“With a price point of just $29, it has become the weapon of choice of stalkers and abusers,” the lawsuit reportedly said.
The plaintiffs also <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63880969" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> allege that the devices were connected to murders of women in Indiana and Ohio this year. They also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/apple-is-sued-by-women-who-say-airtag-lets-stalkers-track-victims-2022-12-06/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> AirTag is &#8220;the weapon of choice of stalkers and abusers.”
<a class="c-link" href="https://get.dailywire.com/readers-pass/read-only-v2?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0&amp;_gl=1*9jw1yt*_ga*MTE3MDIyNDM4Ni4xNjU4MzQzNjQx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTY3MDM2OTI4NC40NjQuMS4xNjcwMzY5Mjg5LjU1LjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/readers-pass/read-only-v2?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">TIRED OF THE LEGACY MEDIA’S BIAS CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE AND OBSCURING THE TRUTH? JOIN US.</a>
AirTags are devices that allow people to keep track of their belongings that they may otherwise lose track of, such as wallets and keys.
One of the women in the lawsuit, Lauren Hughes of Travis County, Texas, said that she realized she was being tracked by an AirTag in August of last year. A three-month relationship had ended between her and her ex-partner, and the person began to write abusive messages on her social media pages, as well as leave threats on her voicemail.
She ended up moving after the person put objects outside of her apartment, but she realized while she was living at a hotel that she was being stalked. Her phone notified her that an unfamiliar AirTag was moving with her — which she discovered hidden in her car’s wheel well.
The second woman involved in the suit resides in New York and discovered an AirTag in her kid&#8217;s backpack over the summer. She found the device following a “contentious divorce.” The lawsuit claims that the woman&#8217;s stalker had “a commitment to continuing to use AirTags to track, harass, and threaten her.”
The class action filing is looking to win an undefined amount of damages for those who own Android or iOS devices who have been monitored with an AirTag or who are at risk of being victims of stalking.
The BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60004257" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in January that multiple women had said they were tracked with AirTag devices.
&#8220;If you create an item which is useful for tracking stolen items, then you have also created a perfect tool for stalking,&#8221; Eva Galperin, Director of Cyber-Security at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the outlet at the time.
&#8220;I have personally talked to several people who have found AirTags in their possession,&#8221; she said.
When it launched the AirTags, Apple made the claim that “AirTags are designed to track items not people.”

E63E67EC-758C-479F-99D2-B2EE912C20B0_1_201_a

Apple Sued Over AirTags Allegedly Being Used By Stalkers

Apple Sued In Class Action Lawsuit Over AirTags Allegedly Being Used By Stalkers To Track Women

California

Courts

Women

Apple CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tim-cook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tim Cook</a> hid behind staffers Tuesday to avoid answering questions from a reporter who grilled him on Apple enabling the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/communist-china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese Communist Party&#8217;s</a> human rights abuses.
Cook hid from Fox News reporter Hillary Vaughn as he was leaving a <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/apple-ceo-tim-cook-flies-meet-gop-lawmakers-standoff-elon-musks-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meeting</a> with U.S. lawmakers in the nation&#8217;s capital.
&#8220;Do you support the Chinese people&#8217;s right to protest?&#8221; Vaughn asked.
Cook did not respond.
&#8220;Do you have any reaction to the factory workers that were beaten and detained for protesting COVID lockdowns?&#8221; Vaughn asked.
Cook did not respond.
&#8220;Do you regret restricting airdrop access that protesters used to evade surveillance from the Chinese government?&#8221; Vaughn asked.
Cook did not respond.
&#8220;Do you think it&#8217;s problematic to do business with the Communist Chinese Party when they suppress human rights?&#8221; Vaughn asked.
Cook did not respond.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨WATCH: Apple CEO Tim Cook ignores our questions on China as zero-COVID lockdown protests rage in the country. Full video 👇🏻 <a href="https://t.co/m0NpgRN6U4">pic.twitter.com/m0NpgRN6U4</a>
&mdash; Hillary Vaughn (@hillary__vaughn) <a href="https://twitter.com/hillary__vaughn/status/1598439834703613962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Protests <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/protests-against-covid-lockdowns-erupt-across-china-some-turn-violent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">intensified</a> over the weekend in major cities across China, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan. According to media reports, a demonstration in Shanghai eventually devolved into chaos, with police clashing with protesters and deploying pepper spray. The protests emerged as a response to the “zero COVID” policies imposed by the Chinese Communist Party government since the beginning of the pandemic.
The protests reportedly began on Thursday after ten people were killed in a fire at a residential high-rise building in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Videos of the incident posted on social media spawned accusations that lockdowns contributed to the deaths, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/26/world/asia/china-protests-covid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a> and Reuters reported. Residents of the city have been locked down and prevented from leaving their homes for as long as 100 days at a time, Reuters added.
According to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-health-china-fires-covid-4ffc00e5f6761be48f5887d57d66c708" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Associated Press</a> and Reuters, protesters gathered at Wulumuqi Road in Shanghai on Saturday, which is named after Urumqi, to hold a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims of the fire. Around 100 police officers stood by to reportedly keep demonstrators from gathering.
At some point during the night, police deployed pepper spray into a crowd of about 300 protesters. A witness told the AP that one of his friends was beaten, and two others were pepper sprayed. He added that police stepped on his feet while he tried to prevent them from taking his friend away; he also lost his shoes in the chaos and was left barefoot.
Outside Shanghai, major cities and college campuses were also the scenes of major protests. Reuters reported that demonstrations broke out in the cities of Wuhan, Chengdu, Lanzhou, and Beijing on Sunday. Protests in Wuhan reportedly turned violent, with demonstrators smashing through metal barricades, overturning testing tents, and demanding an end to lockdowns. The New York Times reported another protest in the city of Korla in northern Xinjiang.
John Rigolizzo contributed to this report.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-meets-with-apple-ceo-tim-cook-reveals-resolved-issue" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk Meets With Apple CEO Tim Cook, Reveals ‘Resolved’ Issue</a>

Apple CEO Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook Hides Behind Staffers As He’s Grilled For Enabling Communist China’s Human Rights Abuses

Apple CEO Tim Cook Hides Behind Staffers As He's Grilled For Enabling Communist China's Human Rights Abuses

Communist China

Tim Cook

Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lindsey-graham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lindsey Graham</a> (R-SC) said during a Fox News interview Wednesday that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/apple" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple</a> is making a big &#8220;mistake&#8221; when it comes to siding with the Chinese Communist Party and their crackdowns on protests throughout China.
&#8220;Corporate appeasement of the Chinese Communist Party is pretty rampant,&#8221; Graham told Fox News. &#8220;I like Apple. They&#8217;re a great American company. But the Chinese Communist Party writes the rules of the road. And to do business in China, you either leave the customer base or you follow their lead.&#8221;
&#8220;The NBA has appeased China. The movie industry appeases China, now Apple. And I think this is a &#8212; this is a mistake,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So, you have got Apple threatening to take Twitter out of the Apple Store and at the same time doing the bidding of the Communist Party, restricting sharing of information to people who are trying to protest.&#8221;
&#8220;I think we have got it backwards here,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And I think what drives this is just money and market share.&#8221;
On Wednesday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk met with Apple CEO Tim Cook, after which Musk tweeted regarding the notion that Twitter would be removed from the App Store: “Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.”
WATCH:
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=6316374159112&#038;w=466&#038;h=263"></script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="https://www.foxnews.com">foxnews.com</a></noscript>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>SANDRA SMITH, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: The Chinese Communist Party cracking down on protesters as they rally against COVID lockdowns.
We are now learning America&#8217;s largest company, Apple, has restricted the use of its AirDrop feature in the communist nation. It allowed users to share content between Apple devices and dodge China&#8217;s censorship. And now Elon Musk says Apple&#8217;s threatening to boot Twitter from its App Store.
So, how did we get to a point where big tech companies consider 280 characters a bigger threat than the communist regime?
Let&#8217;s bring in South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
Senator, good to have you here today.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Thank you.
SMITH: Why are we here today? And why are we not going tougher on China for its behavior?
GRAHAM: Money. You got a billion people in China.
Corporate appeasement of the Chinese Communist Party is pretty rampant. I like Apple. They&#8217;re a great American company. But the Chinese Communist Party writes the rules of the road. And to do business in China, you either leave the customer base or you follow their lead.
The NBA has appeased China. The movie industry appeases China, now Apple. And I think this is a &#8212; this is a mistake. So, you have got Apple threatening to take Twitter out of the Apple Store and at the same time doing the bidding of the Communist Party, restricting sharing of information to people who are trying to protest.
I think we have got it backwards here. And I think what drives this is just money and market share.
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Yes, well, obviously too Apple has got a lot invested in this&#8230;
GRAHAM: Yes.
ROBERTS: &#8230; because of the protests against the COVID lockdowns at Foxconn factories. It looks like Apple is going to be short some six million iPhone Pros this year. So that&#8217;s definitely going to hurt their bottom line.
But it also gets into the idea of free speech when we pull back to 30,000 feet here, and we take a look at the idea that Apple, according to Elon Musk, may reexamine whether or not the Twitter app is available on the Apple Store.
And Musk also tweeted this &#8212; quote &#8212; &#8220;Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?&#8221;
(LAUGHTER)
GRAHAM: Well, all I can say, that Apple is a private company and Twitter&#8217;s a private company. They have their differences.
I would hope that Apple would keep allowing Twitter to be part of the Apple Store. But, big tech, you can&#8217;t sue these people because of Section 230. And there&#8217;s no regulatory scheme that works.
So I&#8217;m going to unveil a Digital Regulatory Commission to deal with social media companies like Apple and Twitter and Google. We need some regulatory environment to control the abuses of power here. So, I&#8217;m going to do that with Elizabeth Warren. You look for something that can bring us together in Washington, social media is out of control. They need to be regulated in some fashion.
And I think that brings both parties together.
SMITH: OK, so then maybe you agree with Karine Jean-Pierre at the Biden White House, who said this. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We&#8217;re all keeping a close eye on this. We&#8217;re all monitoring what&#8217;s &#8212; what&#8217;s currently occurring. And we see &#8212; we see it with our own eyes of what you all are reporting and just for ourselves what&#8217;s happening on Twitter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: So, the White House says it&#8217;s keeping a close eye on what is happening at Twitter.
GRAHAM: Yes.
SMITH: Do you agree with &#8212; with that?
GRAHAM: No, I think somebody needs to regulate social media companies, who are the largest companies on the planet.
If they take down your content &#8212; I like Elon Musk. Well, there may be somebody in charge of Twitter tomorrow that I don&#8217;t like. So, what happens if you&#8217;re a consumer if Twitter or any other group takes your content down? You have to appeal to the company yourself &#8212; itself.
I want to create a process where a consumer can make their case that my rights were abused to somebody other than the company. I&#8217;m not asking the White House to watch Twitter. We have the commission for securities. We have a commission for about every activity in America to make sure the consumer is protected.
When it comes to social media, your privacy is at risk, your content can be taken down because somebody doesn&#8217;t like you or what you&#8217;re saying. We need to have a system to deal with those problems.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dereliction-of-duty-senators-cruz-graham-warn-mayorkas-of-impeachment-over-border-crisis">‘Dereliction Of Duty’: Senators Cruz, Graham Warn Mayorkas Of Impeachment Over Border Crisis</a>

Senate Holds Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings For Ketanji Brown Jackson

Senator Graham: Apple Is Making A Big ‘Mistake’ By Caving To The Chinese Communist Party

Senator Graham: Apple Is Making A Big 'Mistake' By Caving To The Chinese Communist Party

Big Tech

Elon Musk

Lindsey Graham

Twitter CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> met with Apple CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tim-cook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tim Cook</a> Wednesday at Apple&#8217;s headquarters in Cupertino, California, and said that they resolved the conflict that erupted this week.
&#8220;Good conversation,&#8221; Musk tweeted. &#8220;Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1598090996281413638?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The meeting came after Musk signaled Monday that he was willing to “go to war” with Apple after the company had largely stopped advertising on Twitter and had allegedly threatened to boot the social media platform from its App Store.
Musk specifically called out Cook in a series of tweets where he also raised the issue of censorship.
“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” Musk asked. “What’s going on here @tim_cook?”
“Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why,” Musk added.
Musk then posted a poll, which he has used in the past to make decisions about what he will do at the company, asking, “Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers[?]”
Musk highlighted an account that claimed to have been silenced by Apple and asked, “Who else has Apple censored?”
Musk also renewed his criticisms of the fees that Apple charges app developers, “Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?”
Account impersonations and Musk’s endorsement of some conservative figures have provoked ire among left-wing nonprofits, some of whom recently pressured advertisers to cease their relationship with the social media company. Several organizations endorsed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/extremely-messed-up-elon-musk-blasts-activist-groups-for-pushing-advertisers-to-ditch-twitter-destroy-free-speech-in-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to the executives of major advertisers, claiming that “extremists” consider the takeover “a new opportunity to post the most abusive, harassing, and racist language and imagery,” including “clear threats of violence against people with whom they disagree.”
The world’s richest man initially <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585619322239561728" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> advertisers that he acquired Twitter to “have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.” He vowed that the social media platform would not become a “free-for-all hellscape” where users could breach the law with impunity.
Musk has <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593385611632594944" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarked</a> that widespread coverage of the acquisition and his subsequent attempts to reform the company, including negative reports from legacy outlets, has contributed to usage reaching record levels. He said his number-one priority is the <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1595671290421170179" target="_blank" rel="noopener">removal</a> of child exploitation content from Twitter, which previous management neglected to accomplish. Several advertisers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/major-companies-remove-advertisements-from-twitter-over-child-pornography-allegations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paused campaigns</a> on the platform two months ago after a report showed that child sexual abuse material had appeared alongside major advertisers’ profiles.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-to-start-creating-smartphones-if-apple-google-remove-twitter-from-app-stores" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Musk To Start Creating Smartphones If Apple, Google Remove Twitter From App Stores</a>

Elon Musk Visits Germany

Elon Musk Meets With Apple CEO Tim Cook, Reveals ‘Resolved’ Issue

Elon Musk Meets With Apple CEO Tim Cook, Reveals 'Resolved' Issue

Twitter

<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Meta</a> CEO <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> joined <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> CEO <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> in his criticism of <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/apple" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple</a> for the company’s ability to unilaterally control its app store.
During a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/30/business/dealbook-summit-conference" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit, Zuckerberg said that Apple is the only platform “where one company can control what apps get on the device,” a situation he characterized as neither “sustainable” nor “good.” The founder also noted that other systems such as Windows and Android do not exercise such aggressive gatekeeping.
Meta <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/charts/iphone/social-networking-apps/6005" target="_blank" rel="noopener">controls</a> three of the top four social networking platforms on the Apple app store, including WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook. Twitter <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ranks</a> first in the app store’s news category.
Musk, who officially <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/go-to-war-musk-targets-apple-claiming-it-canceled-ads-threatened-to-boot-twitter-from-app-store" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquired</a> Twitter last month and desires to pivot the social media company’s business plan toward a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-introduces-new-idea-to-twitter-and-kills-it-hours-later" target="_blank" rel="noopener">subscription-based</a> model, said that Apple, which levies a 30% fee on in-app purchases, enforces a functional tax on the internet. The entrepreneur previously said that Apple has “threatened to withhold” Twitter from its app store without explanation.
Noting that Apple has “mostly stopped advertising” on Twitter, the world’s richest man asked whether the world’s largest company hates “free speech in America.” Several advertisers have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/extremely-messed-up-elon-musk-blasts-activist-groups-for-pushing-advertisers-to-ditch-twitter-destroy-free-speech-in-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backed away</a> from Twitter at the behest of activist groups claiming that “extremists” consider the Musk takeover “a new opportunity to post the most abusive, harassing, and racist language and imagery,” including “clear threats of violence against people with whom they disagree.”
Musk hinted that he would consider launching a new brand of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-to-start-creating-smartphones-if-apple-google-remove-twitter-from-app-stores" target="_blank" rel="noopener">smartphones</a> in the event that Apple removes Twitter from the app store. “I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone,” he told commentator Liz Wheeler.
Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/raw-exercise-of-monopolistic-power-desantis-demands-congressional-action-if-apple-dumps-twitter-from-app-store" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserted</a> that a potential move to delist Twitter would constitute a significant abuse of power from Apple. “He’s providing free speech, and so if Apple responds to that by nuking them from the app store, I think that would be a huge, huge mistake,” the governor said, noting that a response from Congress could be warranted.
Musk recently published a set of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-reveals-how-twitters-business-is-doing-under-his-leadership" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investor slides</a> showing that the daily inflow of new users into Twitter has reached two million under his leadership, while “user active minutes per day” reached eight billion. The company now has more than 250 million monetizable daily active users, with all three metrics surpassing previous company records.
According to a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/elon-musk/less-month-elon-musk-has-driven-away-half-twitters-top-100-advertisers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from left-wing organization Media Matters—one of the groups that signed the letter asking advertisers to sever their relationships with Twitter—as many as 50 of the largest 100 advertisers on the platform have “either announced or seemingly stopped” their campaigns. The world’s richest man initially <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585619322239561728" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> advertisers that he acquired Twitter in order to foster free speech and noted in the slides that purported hate speech impressions have dwindled under his watch. The hesitant advertisers, however, have spent $2 billion on the platform over the past two years, dealing a salient blow to the company’s bottom line.
“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” Musk confirmed earlier this month. “Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.”

New York Times DealBook Summit Held In New York City

Zuckerberg Joins Musk In Criticizing Apple’s Iron Grip On Its App Store

Zuckerberg Criticizes Apple's App Store Policies

Free Speech

Mark Zuckerberg

Key Speakers At The Token Summit

Tech Entrepreneur David Sacks: Apple Is Doing The Same Thing In The U.S. That They Are Doing In China

Censorship

United States

This week, the Chinese government activated its vast censorship apparatus to prevent dissemination of news regarding thousands of citizens taking to the streets to protest the CCP’s zero covid lockdowns. China has developed the world’s most sophisticated and invasive surveillance scheme: according to The Wall Street Journal, police have been dispersing to the site of protests ahead of time thanks to their monitoring of internet traffic, cellphone data, and messaging apps. China also has access to data from hundreds of millions of cameras, “some equipped with facial-recognition software…The government has enhanced these capabilities over the past two years as part of contact-tracing efforts to control the spread of the virus.”
Such compulsion becomes necessary when a tyrannical government presides over an increasingly unhappy population. Chinese dictator Xi Jinping despises capitalism – in fact, he despises it so much that he has undercut the durability of his own economy in a bizarre quest to pursue a form of authoritarian mercantilism. The result has been slower economic growth, shoddy product innovation, and extraordinary levels of debt, all piled atop an aging demographic time bomb. He has sought to make up for this through higher levels of compulsion domestically, combined with stealing technology from the West and utilizing military power to simply take over areas like Hong Kong. Chinese tech companies have been brought to heel: as The New York Times reported in July 2021, Chinese “companies and entrepreneurs are effectively telling the government that they know who the master is.” 
But Xi hasn’t stopped there.
Xi has taken advantage of the weak underbelly of capitalism – the reality that profit-seeking enterprises will allow themselves to be coopted by malevolent actors in order to maintain their profitability, that corporations are not predominantly concerned with American national security but with economic efficiency. This is why Apple is now reportedly doing the bidding of the Chinese government.
Apple bases its manufacture of the iPhone, among other devices, in China – to the point where 25 percent of the value of the iPhone apparently comes from Chinese companies – is completely subject to Chinese whim, and they know it. That’s undoubtedly why Apple cut off its Airdrop feature in its latest Chinese update, just before the anti-lockdown protests broke out: Airdrop allows users to transfer data using wireless connections rather than the internet, which avoids governmental scrutiny.
Apple isn’t a rarity. Multiple major companies have had to make the choice between access to China’s markets and labor resources and standing against Chinese autocracy. Some companies have withstood the test – but not enough of them.
Meanwhile, the West is focused laser-like on Elon Musk’s Twitter as the supposed threat to democracy. This week, the EU announced that Twitter could be in violation of the Digital Services Act, which forces social media platforms to police “hate speech.” The White House has also announced that it has its eye on Musk’s Twitter, which it says has now become a font for “misinformation.” Musk has dedicated Twitter to opening up standards of speech, allowing those with non-lawbreaking activity to tweet.
This has raised the hackles of our thoughtleaders – not Apple actively doing the work of suppressing sharing of information in authoritarian China.
All of this bodes ill for the future of the digital age in the West. If the West is perfectly sanguine about tyrannical regimes weaponizing capitalism and technology while fretting over capitalists who own technology companies broadening the use of their platforms, the West will be contributing to its own defeat. And China will celebrate.

Ben Shapiro Transcript 3

China Is Using Big Tech — So Why Is The West Targeting Musk’s Twitter?

Readers Pass

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed Apple during an interview Tuesday evening for its role in hindering widespread protests against China&#8217;s severe pandemic restrictions and for allegedly threatening to boot Twitter from its App Store.
&#8220;If you look what&#8217;s going on in China now, the CCP, they have been imposing these zero COVID lockdown policies. They have been doing it on and off for three years,&#8221; DeSantis told Fox News host Tucker Carlson. &#8220;And you have people in China that are really engaged in a noble effort to protest which is basically Leninist rule. So, what is Apple doing with that? They are limiting the AirDrop function of the protesters. So they are serving basically as a vassal to the Chinese Communist Party.&#8221;
&#8220;Then, on the other hand, here in the United States, what are they doing? They are trying to get Elon Musk&#8217;s Twitter off the App Store, potentially, which would be a huge blow for free speech,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;And so this is maybe the most powerful company in the entire world, certainly one of the most powerful companies in American history. They exercise more authority in some respects than even some governments do. And they&#8217;re using their authority to protect the CCP while also try to limit speech here in the United States.&#8221;
DeSantis said that federal lawmakers needed to break up companies like Apple using anti-trust laws because &#8220;they are exercising massive amounts of power over our society.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Gov. Ron DeSantis slams Apple for &quot;using their authority to protect the CCP, while also try[ing] to limit speech here in the United States.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Z0pWmj3nbK">pic.twitter.com/Z0pWmj3nbK</a>
&mdash; The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1597776395324661760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: So, apparently, Apple is considering, according to Elon Musk, removing Twitter from its App Store, which would, of course, shut down Twitter.
And almost nobody in office has noticed this or decided to comment on it, except for Ron DeSantis. He&#8217;s the governor of the state of Florida.
He joins us tonight.
Governor, thanks for coming on.
So, of all the news going on in the world &#8212; and there&#8217;s a lot of it &#8212; you stopped on this story, and you commented on it. Why? Why did this catch your attention?
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Well, Tucker, if you look what&#8217;s going on in China now, the CCP, they have been imposing these zero COVID lockdown policies. They have been doing it on and off for three years.
And you have people in China that are really engaged in a noble effort to protest which is basically Leninist rule. So, what is Apple doing with that? They are limiting the AirDrop function of the protesters. So they are serving basically as a vassal to the Chinese Communist Party.
Then, on the other hand, here in the United States, what are they doing? They are trying to get Elon Musk&#8217;s Twitter off the App Store, potentially, which would be a huge blow for free speech.
And so this is maybe the most powerful company in the entire world, certainly one of the most powerful companies in American history. They exercise more authority in some respects than even some governments do. And they&#8217;re using their authority to protect the CCP, while also try to limit speech here in the United States.
CARLSON: While existing as an American &#8212; supposedly American company, using our copyright protections, our rule of law to their own advantage. They&#8217;re benefiting from America, but working against our most basic value, which is free speech.
What can be done about that?
DESANTIS: Well, Tucker, in the states, we did big tech censorship bill two years ago. It&#8217;s gotten caught up in the courts. I think the U.S. Supreme Court is going to accept that case for this term. Texas has a similar case. There&#8217;s a conflict in the circuits.
And so, whatever the states can do to protect people&#8217;s rights to engage in free expression &#8212; and, you know, what some of these companies do, they get a lot of benefits from the government, as you said, patent, things like that.
CARLSON: Yes.
DESANTIS: The social media companies get liability protection.
And yet they turn around and they use that protection to marginalize voices they disagree with. So, I think, from the congressional perspective, though, they need to look at antitrust with these massive companies, because they are exercising massive amounts of power over our society.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fox-news-democrat-analyst-juan-williams-names-desantis-2022s-top-u-s-political-player-he-scares-me">Fox News Democrat Analyst Juan Williams Names DeSantis 2022’s Top U.S. Political Player: ‘He Scares Me’</a>

US-ISRAEL-POLITICS-REPUBLICANS

DeSantis Hammers Apple For Helping Communist China Squash Protesters

DeSantis Hammers Apple For Move To 'Protect' Communist China From Protesters

Ron DeSantis

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