<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/instagram">Instagram</a> will start automatically blurring nude photos sent via private messaging for account holders younger than 18, per an<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/04/new-tools-to-help-protect-against-sextortion-and-intimate-image-abuse/"> announcement</a> from its parent company, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/meta">Meta</a>.
In addition to blurring images containing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nudity">nudity</a>, the popular social media platform will prompt users “to think twice before sending nude images.” The app will also show a notification to adult users, encouraging them to turn the feature on for their accounts.
The new feature is likely a response to increased public pressure from critics who say social media companies should be doing more to protect children from online harm. Meta also said the feature would help protect minors from “sextortion,” or the practice of scammers sending nude images to children in an effort to get them to send photos back.
“While people overwhelmingly use DMs to share what they love with their friends, family or favorite creators, sextortion scammers may also use private messages to share or ask for intimate images,” Meta shared Thursday in a blog post.
The new feature will make it so any images containing nudity will be automatically blurred, and a prompt will ask the user if they’d like to view it. 
“We’ll also show them a message encouraging them not to feel pressure to respond, with an option to block the sender and report the chat,” Meta said.
The company also said “severe action” is taken against any platform users who are determined to be engaging in sextortion. The users have their accounts removed and steps are taken to prevent them from making new profiles, Meta said. If warranted, the user may also be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and local authorities.
Meta also said it has increased the data it shares with Lantern, an online child safety program. 
“Meta’s proposed device-side safety measures within its encrypted environment is encouraging,” John Shehan, SVP at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said in a statement provided by Meta. “We are hopeful these new measures will increase reporting by minors and curb the circulation of online child exploitation.”
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The move comes after Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg attended Senate hearings in January, which included testimonies from families of victims who experienced abuse online. 
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through. Nobody should have to go through what your families have suffered,” Zuckerberg said at the time, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/im-sorry-for-everything-mark-zuckerberg-faces-families-harmed-by-social-media">reported</a>. “This is why we have invested so much and are going to continue industry-leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things your families have suffered.”

Instagram

Instagram Will Blur Nude Images Sent To Teens To Curb Sextortion

Instagram Will Blur Nude Images Sent To Teens In Effort To Curb Sextortion

Business

Nudity

Social Media

Technology

Teenagers

This past weekend Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X to block a number of popular accounts. Almost immediately after, Elon Musk said that free speech principles matter more than profits. And he announced plans to defy the court&#8217;s order and lift all speech restrictions in the country once his employees are in a “safe place” where they are not at risk of being arrested. Musk says he expects he will ultimately be forced to shut down X’s office in Brazil and will lose all revenue there.
On April 7, shortly after Musk’s announcement, de Moraes issued a <a href="https://www.migalhas.com.br/quentes/404983/moraes-inclui-elon-musk-no-inquerito-das-milicias-digitais">decision</a> adding Musk to a broader investigation. In this new inquiry, the judge accused Musk of obstruction of justice and incitement to crime. “The flagrant conduct of obstruction of Brazilian Justice, incitement to crime, public threat of disobedience to court orders and future lack of cooperation by the platform are facts that disrespect Brazil&#8217;s sovereignty and reinforce the connection of the intentional criminal instrumentalization of the activities of the former Twitter,” he wrote. Many now expect the Brazilian Supreme Court to shut off access to X at any moment.
Nor is X the only American social media company being targeted by president Lula da Silva’s government. Facebook, Google, and others have faced investigations for what the same court called “abusive practices.” Though it appears those platforms have complied with speech restrictions to some degree, Musk is the only big tech executive to have engaged in a public fight with the court.
<div id="attachment_720967" style="width: 876px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-720967" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-720967" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-2144473733-866x576.jpg" alt="President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Marina Silva are participating in the launch of the Union with Municipalities Program to Reduce Deforestation and Forest Fires in the Amazon on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (Photo by Ton Molina/NurPhoto via Getty Images)" width="866" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-2144473733-866x576.jpg 866w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-2144473733-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-2144473733-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-2144473733.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" />Ton Molina/NurPhoto via Getty Images</div>
Brazil’s government has leaned heavily on lawfare in its attempt to squeeze American social media platforms into compliance. Before presiding over Musk&#8217;s case, de Moraes ordered investigations into big tech executives at other companies after they lobbied against a proposal to regulate Brazil’s internet. If passed, the Law on Freedom, Responsibility, and Transparency on the Internet, colloquially known as the “Fake News Bill,” will levy large fines against the tech companies if they fail to identify and report illegal content.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/trump-s-fundraiser-haul-brazilian-online-censorship-4-8-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LISTEN: Catch the full story on Morning Wire</a></h4>
Due to such legislation, the definition of illegal speech in Brazil has been rapidly expanding to potentially include anything labeled “misinformation” by the government. Independent journalist Michael Shellenberger, who is in Brazil and broke parts of this story, said it’s not an exaggeration to say that Brazil is “on the brink of dictatorship.” He <a href="https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1776776372351836642/video/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lambasted</a> a number of big tech companies for giving in to the demands of Brazilian authorities, saying, “I know censorship when I see it.”
“The Twitter files revealed also that Google, Facebook, Uber, WhatsApp and Instagram betrayed the people of Brazil,” Shellenberger said. “If this evidence is proven and admitted to, the executives of those companies behaved like cowards. They provided the Brazilian government with personal registration data and telephone numbers without a court order. Therefore, they violated the Brazilian laws.”
Musk has said he plans to publish on X everything the Brazilian judge has ordered, and these posts will explain how the court’s demands violate Brazilian law. “This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil. He should resign or be impeached,” Musk posted.
But Musk may face opposition not only from the Brazilian government, but also from the U.S. State Department, who some former officials are accusing of helping to engineer Brazil’s censorship efforts.
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Policy Mike Benz said the CIA and other U.S. foreign policy divisions fear rising populism in countries like Brazil. <a href="https://x.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1776826555328549308" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to Benz</a>, these State Department divisions and associated NGO’s helped President Lula da Silva secure power over his populist rival Jair Bolsonaro by funding censorship groups to suppress so-called election “misinformation.”
“When I was looking into what was behind censorship in Brazil, it turned out what was driving it appeared to be a gaggle of US State Department funded NGOs,” Benz said in a video posted to X. “National Endowment for Democracy, USAID, and the National Endowment for Democracy [were] funding a bunch of domestic censorship groups in Brazil. This actually goes right back to the beginning of Bolsonaro his tenure in 2019.”
Benz added that the State Department doesn’t want to see Brazilian citizens openly criticizing their country’s government on social media any more than Da Silva does.
On April 7, after Musk promised to publish all records pertaining to Brazil’s crackdown on X, Brazil&#8217;s Attorney General Jorge Messias called for &#8220;urgent regulation&#8221; of all social media networks, saying, &#8220;We cannot live in a society in which billionaires domiciled abroad have control of social networks&#8230;”

SpaceX And T-Mobile Hold Joint Event In Texas

Brazilian Supreme Court Takes On Elon Musk And X In Social Media Crackdown

Brazil

Elon Musk

Facebook

Google

Readers Pass

Twitter

Twitter Files

A joke <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/twitter">tweet</a> about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/netflix">Netflix</a> has gone viral as many users on the social media platform believed – and hoped – it was real.
User Soren Iverson issued clarification for his original post after it went viral over the weekend, racking up close to 25 million views by Monday.
“Netflix ‘skip the foreplay’ feature removes <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/sex">naughty scenes</a> to make family movie night less awkward,” Iverson wrote in the original post caption. He included a fake image of the Netflix menu screen showing the “skip the foreplay” menu option associated with the popular period drama series, “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment">Bridgerton</a>.” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Netflix &quot;skip the foreplay&quot; feature removes naughty scenes to make family movie night less awkward <a href="https://t.co/NV6Aaj1OSI">pic.twitter.com/NV6Aaj1OSI</a>
&mdash; Soren Iverson (@soren_iverson) <a href="https://twitter.com/soren_iverson/status/1776988165288681652?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Make family movie night less awkward by deleting naughty scenes from this show,” the faux menu option says, with selection buttons indicating “No, it’s fine” or “Please do.” 
“Well this blew up,” Iverson wrote in a follow-up after the tweet started gaining traction. “I make unhinged stuff like this daily so if you lol’d at this (or breathed through the nose a lil at least), then pls DEMOLISH that follow button.”
Many commenters believed the feature was real, while others observed that “skip the foreplay” didn’t make much sense because that would technically mean going straight to graphic sex scenes.
“I would pay for this feature. No kidding,” one person <a href="https://twitter.com/TurbatoThonnas/status/1776989119593304372">replied</a>.
“That’s actually an amazing idea,” a second person <a href="https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1777014880262144397">agreed</a>.
Another tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/barelyyalex/status/1777091417653072173">said</a>,  “You guys are so weak. Watching a surprise sex scene with your entire family builds character.”
“Is this real? I wholly reject this concept. If they’re not mature enough to watch, then they’re not mature enough to watch. This also plays into the whole ‘sex scenes are unnecessary’ griping that is going to become poisonous to art. Just pick something else for family night lol,” a third X user shared.
Several X users made jokes, with one person <a href="https://twitter.com/NatiTTV/status/1777036213485981922">observing</a> how the racy HBO drama “Game of Thrones” would have “2 minutes of episode time.” 
“Need this option on flights! Was just trying to watch ‘Oppenheimer’ in my aisle seat and suddenly it looks like I just fired up a porn on a flight,” yet another commenter wrote, referring to the graphic sex scene in the Oscar Award winning film.

Netflix

Fake Tweet About Netflix’s New ‘Skip The Foreplay’ Feature Goes Viral, Creator Responds To Commenters Wishing It Was Real

Fake Tweet About Netflix's New 'Skip The Foreplay' Feature Goes Viral, Creator Responds To Commenters Wishing It Was Real

Entertainment

&#8220;90210&#8221; star Ian Ziering said in a world with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social media</a>, he&#8217;s found it&#8217;s &#8220;challenging&#8221; keeping his kids &#8220;grounded.&#8221;
During an interview with <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/90210-star-ian-ziering-tough-keep-kids-grounded-todays-environment">Fox News</a>, the 60-year-old actor &#8212; who shares two daughters with ex-wife Erin Ludwig &#8212; talked about the challenges of raising his daughters at a time when they can find any content they want to watch and view it literally anywhere.
&#8220;Oh brother, it&#8217;s tough in this environment, keeping young girls grounded,&#8221; Ziering said. &#8220;Keeping any child grounded is very challenging with the social media and the fragmented television landscape where they can watch content on their watch if they wanted to.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s tough,&#8221; he added. &#8220;You know, every level&#8217;s got a different devil. For me, it&#8217;s just about putting things into context. I can&#8217;t stop them or shield them from what they&#8217;re exposed to. There&#8217;s no way.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8216;90210&#8217; star Ian Ziering says it’s &#8216;tough&#8217; to keep kids grounded in today’s ‘environment’ <a href="https://t.co/TPcfhG1Qrn">https://t.co/TPcfhG1Qrn</a>
— Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1775440178145878168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2024</a></blockquote>
&#8220;I can put it into context, and I think that&#8217;s where I&#8217;ll do the best I can,&#8221; the TV star continued. &#8220;And then, ultimately, their mom and I, hopefully we&#8217;ve done a good enough job that when they are on their own, they&#8217;ll be able to make good decisions, smart decisions that will help put them in a situation where they can go on and prosper and encourage others to do the same.&#8221; 

When asked if he would support his girls if they wanted to follow in his footsteps and get into the entertainment industry, Ziering said he would always support them, but he’d make sure they have a &#8220;Plan B.&#8221;
&#8220;My little one, Penna, she&#8217;s very dramatic,&#8221; the actor said. &#8220;She loves being part of school plays. If that lends itself to a career in the entertainment industry, then I&#8217;ll support it.&#8221;
&#8220;My other one, Mia, she likes music. She likes architecture. Completely different skill set,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Whatever she likes, I&#8217;ll support it, but regardless of what they choose, I&#8217;m going to make sure they have a Plan B.&#8221;
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The TV star previously made <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/brother-youre-a-beast-beverly-hills-90210-castmate-praises-ian-ziering-for-taking-on-biker-gang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">headlines</a> when video of him confronting a motorcycle gang on Hollywood boulevard went viral. He later called on leaders to stop the rising crime in Los Angeles.
&#8220;Yesterday, I experienced an alarming incident involving a group of individuals on mini bikes. While stuck in traffic, my car was approached aggressively by one of these riders leading to an unsettling confrontation,&#8221; Ziering said. &#8220;In an attempt to assess any damage I exited my car. This action, unfortunately, escalated into a physical altercation, which I navigated to protect myself.&#8221;
&#8220;I have always been an advocate for standing up against intimidation and misconduct, and this incident reinforces my belief in the importance of personal and community safety,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We must address the underlying issues that lead to such disruptive behavior and ensure that our streets are safe for everyone. I urge city officials and law enforcement to take decisive action against such lawlessness and provide the necessary resources to prevent future occurrences.&#8221;

KIIS FM’s iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023 Presented By Capital One – Arrivals

‘90210’ Star Says In A World Of Social Media, It’s ‘Challenging’ Keeping His Kids ‘Grounded’

Celebrities

Children

Hollywood

U.S.

Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at NYU-Stern, said in an interview this week that smartphones and social media have led to numerous problems for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gen-z" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gen Z</a>.
Haidt made the remarks while speaking to &#8220;Firing Line&#8221; with host Margaret Hoover about his new book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.”
He explained that &#8220;the great rewiring&#8221; refers to a five-year period between 2010 and 2015 when society fundamentally changed for adolescents with the emergence of smartphones and social media.
&#8220;In 2010, adolescents had flip phones. They had no, most did not have high speed internet,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Over the next five years, by 2015, most American teens have a smartphone with a front-facing camera, high speed internet. They have an Instagram account or other social media accounts, Snapchat, a bunch of other ones. And now, in 2015, it’s possible to spend almost every waking hour online, and many do. And so my argument in the book is that all of a sudden, boom, in the blink of an eye, childhood became about sitting down and looking at a screen, hour after hour, year after year. And that, I believe, is the major reason why rates of mental illness go skyrocketing around 2012, 2013.&#8221;
He said that the very concept of social media — posting things that make you stand out because &#8220;you’re desperately fighting for attention&#8221; — has been detrimental to adolescents because they are learning these behaviors during puberty.
&#8220;So the millennials were basically through puberty by the time this great rewiring happens. That’s why they’re okay, I believe,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The definition of Gen Z, I would say &#8230; is that they went through puberty on super viral social media, on a smartphone in their pocket, that was giving them notifications and calling them away from whatever they were doing, calling them away from people, calling them away from their friends. You can see them sitting in a lunchroom next to each other, each on their phone. That is not a way that a human being can grow up. And that all happened between 2010 and 2015.&#8221;
He said that young people&#8217;s brains were very vulnerable during this time period because it&#8217;s the time when adolescents are supposed to be shaped by the adults in their lives into knowing how to act and how make the transition into becoming an adult.
&#8220;We don’t do that. Instead, what we do is hand you this device. So this is about the worst thing you can imagine to give kids at the beginning of puberty,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And the great rewiring radically altered the inputs to children, taking away most of what they used to do, most of their older inputs, including other people, and swapping in screens.&#8221;
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He said that another mistake that parents have made is being overly protective of their children in the real world while not setting boundaries and watching them in the digital world.
&#8220;And for human children, the best kind of play is a group, mixed age group, out in the neighborhood. They make their own games. They make their own rules. They enforce their own rules. That’s how you basically mature for a democratic society,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But beginning in the 1980s, we began to get very afraid. We begin to get the milk cartons with the missing child. Even though true abduction is very rare, Americans get scared. They begin to clamp down on free play and childhood independence. And they think that they’re being good parents by always keeping them supervised. That’s the safest thing to do. Well, it is safe in the sense that external harm won’t come to them. But as rates of childhood death have gone down and down and down from all causes, they’re now going up and up and up from suicide. We’re blocking our children’s development. So this is the other half of the story, the very sudden and complete replacement of a play-based childhood with the phone-based childhood. And that’s why all of a sudden in 2012, Gen Z gets anxious and depressed.&#8221;
&#8220;There are a few things in the world that get better when you drop them, and you have to drop them periodically. You have to challenge them. They have to face obstacles,&#8221; he later added. &#8220;So muscle and bone and the immune system are all anti-fragile. If you take it easy on your muscles, take it easy on your bones, they get weak and brittle. It’s a principle of human psychology that we grow by being toughened. And so that’s why kids seek out risk. And the possibility of getting hurt is actually part of what makes it beneficial, because then they learn how to face risk and how to not get hurt. And the 90s, when we said, ‘no more risk, you’re not going to do anything that could possibly get you hurt,’ we blocked that process and our kids began getting more fragile.&#8221;
He said that the correlation between social media use and depression and anxiety are high among girls, but very low among boys.
&#8220;It took me longer to figure out what happened for boys, but it’s a very interesting and a very sad story,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Boys, it turns out, have been withdrawing from the real world since the 70s and 80s. Boys are less likely to graduate from high school, less likely to go to college, less likely to get master’s degrees, PhDs, become doctors, lawyers. Boys are dropping out of society. And a big part of that, we believe, is that the virtual world has gotten so enticing. Boys, adolescent boys, care a lot about sex. They’re really motivated to get sex, which is hard, very hard to do. You have to learn all kinds of skills, and it’s very scarce to get sex. Oh, but just go online. You have the most amazing, vivid pornography available to you. And, you know, boys love adventure. They love teamwork. They love sports, they love competing, you know, but it’s hard to make a team. And there’s all kinds of challenges there. Oh, just turn on your Xbox and you’ve got a team versus team situation. So we made life easier and easier for boys, which is a terrible thing to do to them. So they don’t exert themselves. Boys are not doing the things that would turn them into men.&#8221;
He said that when it comes to girls, &#8220;the loss of in-person time is the biggest single thing.&#8221;
&#8220;But then there’s also the constant social comparison,&#8221; he added. &#8220;If you have an 11 or 12-year-old girl on Instagram several hours a day, on TikTok several hours a day, most of what she sees is happy girls living beautiful lives. Is this going to be good for her? Hell no. So kids shouldn’t be – you know, of course, social comparison is part, part of being young, but let it be within your small group of friends. Don’t let it be among a billion people, many of whom are gorgeous and fake.&#8221;
He added that the explosion of transgenderism is a social contagion caused by social media and smartphones.
&#8220;So there’s very important, older research by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler where they looked at, they had gigantic health data sets, the Framingham Heart Study, and they were able to see that, you know, if one person takes up smoking, their friends are more likely to take up smoking, but actually, so are their friends&#8217; friends and even friends&#8217; friends&#8217; friends,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So the things we do spread out through social network, we affect each other. Now it turns out, when you’re looking at emotions, girls and women, when they study women, when a woman is depressed, that spreads out to her network. Whereas when a man is depressed, it doesn’t. Women talk about their feelings. They’re more connected in that way. Girls are connecting on social media, where it just turns out in many communities, the more anxious and depressed you are, the more you get support. The more extreme your symptoms, the more you get likes and followers. You know, of course it’s good to destigmatize social, mental illness. We don’t want people to be ashamed. But boy, is it a terrible idea to valorize it, to tell young people, ‘You know what? The more you have this, the more popular you’ll be, the more support you’ll get.’ And so you get this explosion, not just of anxiety – anxiety is in part, I think, spread sociogenically, it’s called, from social causes, not from internal causes – but we get it for dissociative identity disorder. And it seems to be the case for gender dysphoria as well.&#8221;
When asked directly if &#8220;the data demonstrates&#8221; that the increase in transgenderism &#8220;is above and beyond just the phenomenon of coming out and increased awareness,&#8221; he said, &#8220;Yes.&#8221;
&#8220;Yes. Because it happens in clusters of girls,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It happens in clusters of girls who had no previous gender dysphoria when they were young. So it’s very different from the kinds of gender dysphoria cases that we’ve known about for decades. I mean, it is a real thing. But what happened, especially when girls got &#8212; was YouTube and Instagram early, but then especially TikTok, girls just, you know, girls get sucked into these vortices and they take on each other’s purported mental illnesses.&#8221;
He said that parents need to band together and form small groups where they have the same rules for their kids so that their kids don&#8217;t feel like they are being left out by not having a smartphone or not being allowed on social media.
Hoover noted that the four main reforms that Haidt is pushing for in society is no smartphones before high school, no social media before 16, phone-free schools, and significantly more unsupervised play and childhood independence.
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Jonathan Haidt | Full Episode 3.29.24 | Firing Line with Margaret Hoover | PBS" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-L0ae8_o5IE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Unfinished Live 2022 – Day 2

Top Psychologist Blames Smartphones, Social Media For Decay Of Gen Z, Rise Of Transgenderism

Gen Z

Smartphones

Social Issues

Transgender

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/paris-hilton">Paris Hilton</a> said she hopes her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/children">children</a> are less obsessed with screens than she is herself.
The 43-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment">reality star</a> made the remark while attending the &#8220;A Day of Unreasonable Conversation&#8221; summit in Los Angeles on Monday and speaking on the panel alongside  U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, as People <a href="https://people.com/paris-hilton-says-she-hopes-her-kids-wont-be-as-addicted-to-social-media-as-she-is-8620487">reported</a>.
The socialite said she hoped her kids would &#8220;grow up in a world that&#8217;s kind,&#8221; adding that such an atmosphere would be more achievable with less emphasis on social media.
&#8220;I just want my children just to feel just so loved and seen and want to be that next generation of someone that brings positivity to the world and just to have big hearts and big loving,&#8221; Hilton said during the panel. &#8220;That&#8217;s something that&#8217;s really important to me.&#8221;
&#8220;And also to live a world outside of social media and being on their phone all the time. So I feel that&#8217;s really taken a lot from children. Kids are not going outside anymore and playing as much because everyone&#8217;s just so busy on their phones,&#8221; she continued.
&#8220;So hopefully my kids won&#8217;t be as addicted to social media as I am,&#8221; Hilton concluded.
Hilton shares son Phoenix, 14 months, and daughter London, four months, with her husband Carter Reum. They have been married since 2021 and had both children via surrogate.
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The “Simple Life” star said she went through multiple rounds of IVF so she could have a daughter after creating 20 male embryos. 
Hilton also said she opted for surrogacy because she was nervous about giving birth. 
“I’m just so scared,” she said, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-have-20-boys-paris-hilton-reveals-shes-frozen-20-male-embryos-and-is-waiting-for-a-girl">reported</a>. “When I was in ‘The Simple Life,’ I had to be in a room when a woman was giving birth, and that traumatized me&#8230; But I want a family so bad, it’s just the physical part of doing it. I’m just so scared,” she continued. “Childbirth and death are the two things that scare me more than anything in the world.”
The celeb said her friend Kim Kardashian, who also had a child via surrogate, convinced her to do it.

Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton Says She Hopes Her Kids ‘Won’t Be As Addicted To Social Media’ As She Is

Paris Hilton Says She Hopes Her Kids 'Won't Be As Addicted To Social Media' As She Is

Parenting

On Monday, Florida GOP Governor DeSantis signed legislation to get minors off of social media.
Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/25/desantis-childen-social-media-ban-00148805" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on the legislation yesterday, saying:
<blockquote>Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Monday aimed at kicking minors off social media, putting the final stamp on a top Florida Republican priority that is widely expected to face legal challenges from the tech industry. 
Under the new law, many platforms are prohibited from allowing children younger than 14 to have an account. State leaders contend that accessing social media is harmful to their development and mental health. </blockquote>
This is correct. It is. Social media has harmed children, has harmed minors. It has made them less likely to engage in the kinds of activities that make childhood awesome, like going outside, touching grass, actually having and hanging out with friends, studying, and doing homework. Screens suck children in, and social media is the worst form of screens. 
It&#8217;s not even like a video game; social media is about perverting your child&#8217;s mind and sucking them into a world where people do not have their best interests at heart, where they are constantly being told to live up to standards that are not realistic and not real, or where they&#8217;re being told they have friends they don&#8217;t actually have. That&#8217;s what social media does to your kids.
Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and professor at New York University, has an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Coddling-American-Mind-Intentions-Generation/dp/0735224897/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">excellent book</a> about this — about how social media has destroyed an entire generation of people. It is going to do the same to the next generation unless kids don&#8217;t get on social media.
That’s one of the reasons I have zero plans to give my kids independent Internet access until they hit their late teens at the absolute earliest.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1933-the-feds-raid-diddy-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
Politico continues, reporting, “The measure, which also targets adult websites, aligns Florida with other states like Arkansas and Utah that have attempted to rein in social media use, drawing the ire of the tech companies and free speech advocates.”
There are no free speech rights in the United States for minors. Minors’ free speech rights are relatively limited because they are minors.
They do not have the capacity to consent to activity that would normally fall under the preservation of free speech for adults. That is particularly true when discussing topics such as pornography or social media intervention.
DeSantis said, “It used to be, ‘Well, if they’re out somewhere, maybe they’re not supervised, maybe some predator can strike.’ Now, with things like social media and all this, you can have a kid in the house — safe, seemingly — and then you have predators that can get right in there — into your own home.”
Politico noted:
<blockquote>Florida’s legislation, FL HB3 (24R), represents a compromise between DeSantis and lawmakers, led by House Speaker Paul Renner, who initially proposed enacting the strictest social media prohibitions in the country.
The original bill, vetoed by DeSantis earlier this month, would have blocked all minors younger than 16 from many social media platforms. The law DeSantis ultimately signed Monday gives parents the power to grant 14- and 15-year-olds consent to use the applications.</blockquote>
This is how it works in the state of Florida. We would like to see the government protect our children.
And that is a very, very good thing.
<h4><a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a></h4>

NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500

DeSantis Signs Bill Getting Minors Off Of Social Media. That’s A Good Thing. 

Ben Shapiro

Florida

TikTok

Legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States (unless its Chinese owner divests from the company) is currently making its way through the Senate. 
It&#8217;s still not clear what&#8217;s going to happen to that bill. It overwhelmingly <a href="https://apnews.com/article/senate-tiktok-ban-lobbying-congress-china-a340cf30b05343816380793af1c5d186" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> in the House by hundreds of votes, but it appears to be significantly less <a href="https://apnews.com/article/senate-tiktok-ban-lobbying-congress-china-a340cf30b05343816380793af1c5d186" target="_blank" rel="noopener">popular</a> in the upper chamber. That&#8217;s true, in no small part, because the most intense lobbying campaign in recent memory is underway to kill the legislation. A lot of very powerful interests don&#8217;t want to see this ban pass.
That&#8217;s not to say there aren&#8217;t reasonable arguments on both sides of the issue. On one hand, TikTok is unquestionably toxic for both kids and adults. Pretty much everyone who uses TikTok very quickly drops several IQ points and learns how to twerk — at least in the U.S., where the algorithm is <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6309696840112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fine-tuned</a> for that express purpose. It&#8217;s also a spy app under the control of a hostile foreign power that&#8217;s transmitting all sorts of data we don&#8217;t know about. These are serious problems.
On the other hand, there are obviously legitimate concerns about empowering the U.S. government to remove entire platforms from the Internet. Even though the bill, as it&#8217;s written, only applies to platforms that are &#8220;controlled&#8221; by foreign entities, you have to wonder how far that limitation can be stretched. We all just lived through several years of hysteria about Russian &#8220;control&#8221; of the White House. And every other significant new power that the government has been given to combat foreign enemies has eventually been used against the government&#8217;s domestic political opponents. So it&#8217;s hard to be reassured that, given this vast new authority to ban the most popular social media app on the planet, that the government wouldn&#8217;t at least try to ban, say, Twitter — which is far more inconvenient for them.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1333-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
That&#8217;s why legislation that was just signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is so significant. It hasn&#8217;t gotten much attention, but it should, because it addresses the legitimate concerns about apps like TikTok, without granting the government any kind of sweeping new, unprecedented powers to regulate the lives of American citizens. Instead, it regulates the behavior of children in a manner that&#8217;s consistent with all sorts of other regulations that already apply to minors. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Gov. DeSantis signs social media ban for children under 14" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o72oo5YWz5k?start=42&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So generally speaking, under this bill, children under the age of 14 can&#8217;t have social media accounts. And 14 and 15-year-olds will need permission from their parents to have a social media account. The bill is set to take effect at the beginning of next year, although as you heard, there are undoubtedly going to be legal challenges on First Amendment grounds. Several months ago, a federal judge blocked a similar law in Arkansas, which <a href="https://apnews.com/article/arkansas-social-media-parents-consent-kids-64db48ec94517911a4d2498f60841500" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banned</a> minors from creating social media accounts without parental consent.
But the <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/3/BillText/er/PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida bill</a> is meaningfully different from the legislation that was struck down in Arkansas. It&#8217;s important to get into the specifics, because as we&#8217;ve learned, the media will misrepresent the substance of every Florida bill they possibly can. So here are the details. 
This Florida bill is not a blanket ban on any particular app. Instead, it&#8217;s focused on banning apps that have particular features which are designed to keep children on the app at all times. In order to fall under this ban, according to the <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/3/BillText/er/PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">text</a> of the legislation, the app must have one of the following &#8220;addictive features&#8221;: (1) Infinite scrolling, which the bill defines as &#8220;continuously loading content, or content that loads as the user scrolls down the page without the need to open a separate page&#8221;; (2) Push notifications or alerts &#8220;to inform a user about specific activities or events related to the user&#8217;s account&#8221;; or (3) &#8220;Auto-play video or video that begins to play without the user first clicking on the video or on a play button for that video.&#8221;
There are a couple of other features that are singled out in the bill, but those are the big ones. Live-streaming is also banned.
In other words, TikTok can create a version of its app for minors that complies with these restrictions, and it wouldn&#8217;t be banned. The point of the law isn&#8217;t to ban content per se — it&#8217;s to regulate how much of it is being exposed to children. That&#8217;s a significant distinction, because there&#8217;s a lot of <a href="https://healthmatters.nyp.org/how-social-media-use-affects-adolescent-brain-development/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">evidence</a> that these addictive features rewire the brains of children. The journal World Psychiatry recently <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6502424/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> an analysis which found that, 
<blockquote>The primary hypothesis on how the Internet affects our attentional capacities is through hyperlinks, notifications, and prompts providing a limitless stream of different forms of digital media, thus encouraging us to interact with multiple inputs simultaneously.</blockquote>
These are the kind of notifications that are specifically banned in the Florida bill. And there&#8217;s more research along these lines. Researchers at UNC, for example, <a href="https://www.unc.edu/posts/2023/01/03/study-shows-habitual-checking-of-social-media-may-impact-young-adolescents-brain-development/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that, 
<blockquote>&#8230;checking social media repeatedly among young teens ages 12 to 13 may be associated with changes in how their brains develop over a three-year period.</blockquote>
In their analysis, which was published in JAMA Pediatrics, the UNC researchers specifically determined that, 
<blockquote>The brains of adolescents who checked social media often – more than 15 times per day, became more sensitive to social feedback.</blockquote>
There&#8217;s much more research on this point, but intuitively, we all know this is true. The social media companies know it too, which is why they have these kinds of features. Their goal is to rewire children&#8217;s brains so that they seek positive social feedback from apps, instead of people. And that&#8217;s concerning because, when their brains are developing, children are especially prone to falling into addictive behaviors that, once learned, can affect them for the rest of their lives.
We are mentally and emotionally deforming entire generations of children, who do not know how to interact with the world, or pay attention to it, unless it is filtered through a tiny screen. This isn’t just concerning, it’s a crisis. It is impacting the future of our civilization. If we could look into a crystal ball and see what the world will look like 100 years from now because of this, it would probably terrify us so much that we would call for the ban of every social media company and every smartphone in existence. That’s how bad it’s going to get. I’m not saying we should ban all of those things. I’m simply saying that horrors beyond our comprehension await us, as we condition billions of people to be totally dependent — physically, mentally, emotionally — on a little screen.
And this is why we need to protect children in particular. We already protect them from all kinds of other toxic influences. We don&#8217;t allow children to, say, gamble, smoke, or drink alcohol. We also already regulate how companies can engage with children on the Internet.
There&#8217;s something called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, for example. Among other things, that law <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/complying-coppa-frequently-asked-questions#F.%20Photos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">requires</a> that websites get <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/25/business/florida-social-media-ban-desantis.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">parental consent</a> before they allow children to post photos, videos, or audio recordings of themselves or any other identifying personal information. This law is the reason why major social media platforms, including Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook already prohibit children under the age of 13 from using their platforms.
What Florida&#8217;s law does is slightly expand limitations like this to social media platforms that are targeting young children.
In response to the Florida law, one of the most common counter arguments you&#8217;ll hear is that children will just circumvent the ban, as they&#8217;ve already circumvented the Children&#8217;s Online Privacy Protection Act. All kids have to do right now is provide a fake birthdate, and they can make an Instagram account. But all this tells us is that the feds aren&#8217;t concerned with enforcing the law. Florida is taking a different approach. And we&#8217;ve already seen that, when states actually want to enforce these laws, they can get results. We saw that after various states passed laws requiring pornography websites to verify that their users aren&#8217;t minors. Some users found a way around the ban by routing their web traffic to other states using a VPN service. Still, these services cost money on a monthly basis. They&#8217;re not the easiest things for a 13-year-old to sign up for, at least not in most situations. That&#8217;s why traffic to these pornography websites went down significantly, even though it was technically possible to break the law and circumvent the restriction.
The other common counter argument you&#8217;ll hear is that parents should be in charge of policing this sort of thing, not the government. And indeed, that&#8217;s one of the major arguments that came up in Florida. It&#8217;s why DeSantis vetoed another version of the legislation, which would&#8217;ve prevented 14-year-olds from accessing these apps, even with parental consent. The final bill was a kind of compromise position, which addressed the concerns of the &#8220;parental rights&#8221; dissenters.
But the truth is that, although parents should be the ones policing their children&#8217;s social media use, many parents don&#8217;t. It&#8217;s also true that parents should stop their kids from drinking alcohol or using tobacco products, but they don&#8217;t all do that either. That&#8217;s why we still have laws against those things. And most people don&#8217;t think those laws should be repealed, for good reason.
What this means is that Florida, without much fanfare, has found a solution to the TikTok debate that has dominated Congress for the past several weeks. All we have to do is what we&#8217;ve done before. It doesn&#8217;t have to be complicated.
We don&#8217;t have to open the door to future government bans of Twitter or any other social media platform. We just need to do something that&#8217;s fallen out of favor recently, which is to protect children from strangers on the Internet who want to abuse them.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Holds News Conference On Security Preparations For Upcoming Spring Break

Florida Bans Children From Social Media

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Truth Social, the social media company founded by former President Donald Trump, is set to go public as soon as next week after shareholders voted Friday to approve a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-could-make-billions-from-truth-social-stock-as-company-looks-to-go-public" target="_blank" rel="noopener">merger</a> with a shell company.
The merger means those who hold stock in Digital World Acquisition, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), will now be shareholders of Trump Media &amp; Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/business/trump-media-merger-truth-social.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The deal will also provide Trump Media with more than $300 million, and the company will replace Digital World Acquisition on the stock market under the ticker DJT, Trump&#8217;s initials.
Based on Digital World Acquisition&#8217;s current price of nearly $42 a share, Trump Media will hit the market with a value of around $5 billion, meaning Trump&#8217;s 60% stake in the company will boost his net worth by more than $3 billion. Thanks to Trump supporters turning Digital World Acquisition into a “<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/meme-stock-5206762" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meme stock,</a>” shares for the company have skyrocketed since January, moving up from around $17 to where it currently stands at around $42.
While the former president stands ready to make billions of dollars, the merger likely won&#8217;t result in an immediate windfall for him. The former president would have to hold his shares for six months before he could sell any of them unless Digital World Acquisition waives its agreement, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/15/truth-social-trump-merger-sec/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. But even if the agreement were waived, the potential of the company’s largest stockholder dumping his holdings could tank the stock price.
The Truth Social deal, which could provide Trump with an extra source of cash, comes before the Monday deadline set by Judge Arthur Engoron for Trump to post bond in the $454 million civil business fraud judgment against him. However, some remain skeptical about Trump’s chances to rake in billions from the deal even with the Trump Media&#8217;s current valuation of over $5 billion.
University of Florida Finance Professor Jay Ritter told the Post that the current value of the merged company doesn’t line up with the actual performance of the company, Trump Media. Ritter called Trump Media “a money-losing company that generates less than $5 million per year,” adding that Digital World Acquisition appears to be “a classic meme stock, whose price is totally unrelated to the underlying fundamentals.”
Over the first nine months of 2023, Trump Media reported a net loss of $49 million on $3.38 million in revenue, according to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/03/22/trump-truth-social-dwac-merger-public" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Axios</a>.
Earlier on Friday, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-he-has-nearly-500m-in-cash-as-bond-deadline-for-ny-civil-fraud-judgment-approaches" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on Truth Social that he now has $500 million cash on hand ahead of the Monday deadline to post bond for the $454 million judgment.
&#8220;Through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million dollars in cash, a substantial amount of which I intended to use in my campaign for president,&#8221; Trump wrote. “The often overturned political hack judge on the rigged and corrupt A.G. case, where I have done nothing wrong, knew this, wanted to take it away from me, and that’s where and why he came up with the shocking number which, coupled with his crazy interest demand, is approximately $454,000,000. I did nothing wrong except win an election in 2016 that I wasn’t expected to win, did even better in 2020, and now lead, by a lot, in 2024. This is communism in America.”

Donald Trump

Shareholders Approve Truth Social Merger; Trump’s Social Media Company To Go Public

Shareholders Approve Truth Social Merger; Trump's Social Media Company To Go Public

Stock Market

Wall Street

With a $454 million civil fraud judgment looming over former President Donald Trump, the leading 2024 presidential candidate could be looking at a multi-billion-dollar windfall as his social media company, Truth Social, aims to go public.
Shareholders are expected to vote Friday on a merger to take the platform public, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/trump-is-in-line-for-a-3-5-billion-windfall-from-his-stake-in-truth-social-eae58c9d?mod=hp_lead_pos5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The social media company will likely merge with Digital World Acquisition, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which Truth Social could then replace on the stock market with the ticker DJT, Trump’s initials. Trump’s stake in the public company would be around 60%, or $3.5 billion at its current value.
Digital World Acquisition’s shares have skyrocketed since January, moving up from around $17 to more than $42, where it currently stands. The shell company has turned into a “<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/meme-stock-5206762" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meme stock</a>” for Trump supporters, which has helped boost Truth Social’s value to $6 billion, according to WSJ. If shareholders approve the deal on Friday, the social media company could go public as soon as next week, but that wouldn’t result in an immediate windfall for Trump. The former president would have to hold his shares for six months before he could sell any of them unless Digital World Acquisition waives its agreement, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/15/truth-social-trump-merger-sec/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. But if the agreement were waived, the potential of the company&#8217;s largest stockholder dumping his holdings could tank the stock price.
Even with the current valuation of $6 billion, some remain skeptical about Trump’s chances to rake in billions. University of Florida Finance Professor Jay Ritter told the Post that the current value of the merged company doesn’t line up with the actual performance of the company, Trump Media.
Ritter called Trump Media “a money-losing company that generates less than $5 million per year,” adding that Digital World Acquisition appears to be “a classic meme stock, whose price is totally unrelated to the underlying fundamentals.”
Trump was fined last month by Judge Arthur Engoron, siding with New York Attorney General Letitia James who charged that the former president inflated his net worth and misled lenders. Engoron ordered Trump to dish up $350 million, which increased to $454 million, including interest. Trump’s co-defendants were also fined in the judgment, raising the combined amount that Trump and his fellow defendants owed to more than $464 million.
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The former president’s lawyers said earlier this week that securing bond for the massive fine is “a practical impossibility,” explaining that their client approached “about 30 surety companies through 4 different companies.” Attorney General James, a Democrat, has said that she will seize the former president’s properties if he cannot come up with the money to pay the fine.
The Wall Street Journal reported that it isn’t clear if insurers that would back Trump’s bond would accept shares of the merged company.

Trump Could Make Billions From Truth Social Stock As Company Looks To Go Public

General

On Sunday, House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) offered a defense of the bill <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-bill-that-could-lead-to-u-s-ban-on-tiktok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> by the lower chamber last week that could lead to a U.S. ban on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tiktok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok</a> unless its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, divests in the popular social media app.
&#8220;This Week&#8221; anchor Martha Raddatz asked Turner about the legislation on ABC News, noting that his support for the bill is one area in which he has broken with former President Donald Trump. &#8220;That bill could potentially ban TikTok. You say it’s a national security concern,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I know you had that classified briefing. What can you tell us to make it more clear to Americans why this is a problem?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Turner tells <a href="https://twitter.com/MarthaRaddatz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarthaRaddatz</a> that he doesn’t think Americans will lose their livelihood with bill that would require that the Chinese ownership of TikTok be divested. 
“This is not a ban on TikTok.” <a href="https://t.co/p5kCVrCdGw">https://t.co/p5kCVrCdGw</a> <a href="https://t.co/WQATZTaSft">pic.twitter.com/WQATZTaSft</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1769361271147634798?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Turner replied, &#8220;We have to first start with, that China is a country that’s not like us. It’s an authoritarian regime that has self-identified as an adversary to the United States. It has banned Twitter. It has banned Facebook. It has banned YouTube in China.&#8221;
He added, &#8220;It understands the power of social media and social media apps. It certainly seeks in a number of illegal ways to obtain the data of Americans that it can use as part of its perpetration of this greater surveillance society that it uses to control its own population.&#8221;
When Chinese President Xi Jinping stood next to President Vladimir Putin in Russia, Turner continued, &#8220;he openly said it to the world what his intentions were. He said that we, the two of them, are going to bring about change that hasn’t happened in 100 years. That’s the battle between authoritarianism and democracy and that’s certainly what we’re seeing in China’s — both economic, its propaganda and certainly its military buildup that is part of its self-declaration as an adversary of the United States.&#8221;
Raddatz asked the congressman if there is &#8220;recent&#8221; evidence showing that TikTok is sending &#8220;significant&#8221; amounts of data about Americans to the Chinese government.
&#8220;What you see is a structural relationship for which there is not divisions, and there are great concerns about the individuals&#8217; privacy and issues of data between TikTok and the communist Chinese party,&#8221; Turner replied.
&#8220;But what you have even more importantly here is that this is a propaganda tool, these algorithms, this influencing through social apps, being in the hands of a self-declared adversary of the United States, one that has&#8230;banned Twitter, banned Facebook and banned YouTube, understands the use of these tools to be able to manipulate a society, and that’s certainly is one the greatest concerns that we have,&#8221; he said.
The Senate is up next in considering the legislation, which demands ByteDance sell TikTok within 180 days of enactment or risk having the app face a clampdown in the United States. If it were to pass in the upper chamber too, President Joe Biden has <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-tiktok-ban-bill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he would sign the bill into law.
Raddatz closed out the interview by noting, &#8220;You had a lot of TikTokkers up on the Hill this week who—and TikTok apparently supports a minimum of 224,000 jobs in this country.&#8221; She then asked Turner what he would say to Americans who might lose their livelihood.
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&#8220;I don’t think they’ll lose their livelihood. They have obviously undertaken a livelihood that is communicating to people through social apps and social media, and this is not a ban on TikTok as you know. This is actually a piece of legislation that requires that the Chinese ownership of TikTok be divested so that we would sever that relationship between Chinese ownership, the Chinese government, the Chinese communist party that is of such troubling concerns,&#8221; he replied.
&#8220;And, you know, India has previously banned TikTok over the exact same concerns. These are concerns that as you look at what China is doing around the world, their propagation of a surveillance society, their even illegal means in which they’re acquiring data on Americans and people around the world, their use of propaganda, their own banning of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube because of their concerns of the voices of democracy being heard, you can see what a great concern this is to our country.&#8221;

House Intelligence Chairman Michael Turner

House Intel Chair Defends TikTok Bill, Warns Of Chinese ‘Propaganda Tool’

House Intel Chair Defends TikTok Bill, Warns Of Chinese 'Propaganda Tool'

China

Chinese Communist Party

Communist China

Congress

Mike Turner

Politics

On Wednesday, the GOP-led House passed a bill that could lead to a ban on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tiktok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok</a> unless its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, divests in the popular social media app.
The legislation, known as the &#8220;Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,&#8221; was <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202486" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved by a 352-65 vote</a>. Fifty Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against the measure. The bill now heads to the Democrat-controlled Senate.
According to <a href="https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/media/press-releases/gallagher-bipartisan-coalition-introduce-legislation-protect-americans-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a press release</a> from the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the &#8220;bill prevents app store availability or web hosting services in the U.S. for ByteDance-controlled applications, including TikTok, unless the application severs ties to entities like ByteDance that are subject to the control of a foreign adversary, as defined by Congress in Title 10.&#8221;
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The legislation <a href="https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/Protecting%20Americans%20From%20Foriegn%20Adversary%20Controlled%20Applications_3.5.24.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demands</a> ByteDance sell TikTok within 180 days of the bill being enacted, or risk having the app face a clampdown in the United States.
&#8220;In addition,&#8221; the release added, &#8220;the bill creates a process for the President to designate certain, specifically defined social media applications that are subject to the control of a foreign adversary — per Title 10 — and pose a national security risk. Designated applications will face a prohibition on app store availability and web hosting services in the U.S. unless they sever ties to entities subject to the control of a foreign adversary through divestment.&#8221;
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, introduced the legislation with Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), the panel&#8217;s ranking member.
Supporters of the bill argued the legislation would stymie attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to collect data on Americans and manipulate young users through content on the app.
&#8220;Today’s bipartisan vote to pass The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act demonstrates Congress’ opposition to Communist China’s attempts to spy on and manipulate Americans and signals our resolve to deter our enemies,&#8221; Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1767926784517890284" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post to X. &#8220;I urge the Senate to pass this bill and send it to the President so he can sign the bill into law.&#8221;
Opponents of the legislation such as Reps. <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1767901983292162398" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> (D-NY) and <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1767914172895862798" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marjorie Taylor Greene</a> (R-GA) argued the bill, which was introduced just last week, was rushed and warned it could lead to more censorship.
&#8220;I suspect that there is a way to address the challenge posed by TikTok that is consistent with our commitment to freedom of expression,&#8221; Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House intelligence Committee, <a href="https://twitter.com/jahimes/status/1767920202304356696" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in a statement. &#8220;But a bill quickly passed by one committee less than a week ago is not that way.&#8221;
The legislation passed through committee by a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/potential-tiktok-ban-clears-congressional-hurdle-as-some-republicans-voice-opposition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">50-0 vote last week</a>, paving the way to a floor vote on Wednesday. President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-tiktok-ban-bill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said he would sign</a> the bill into law if it advances through both chambers of Congress. His 2024 rival, former President Donald Trump, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/12/trump-tiktok-ban-lobbying/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">came out against</a> the legislation.
TikTok <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-warns-tiktok-bill-is-about-censorship-and-government-control" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> the bill would &#8220;trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs.&#8221; A China official reportedly <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4528618-china-says-tiktok-ban-would-come-back-to-bite-the-united-states/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> a ban would &#8220;come back to bite the United States.&#8221;

House Passes Bill That Could Lead To U.S. Ban On TikTok

U.S. House of Representatives

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