THE BIG STORY
Leaked audio from 80 internal TikTok meetings shows that US user data has been repeatedly accessed from China |
Erik Carter for BuzzFeed News |
|
|
According to leaked audio from more than 80 internal TikTok meetings, China-based employees of ByteDance have repeatedly accessed nonpublic data about US TikTok users — exactly the type of behavior that inspired former president Donald Trump to threaten to ban the app in the United States. Data was accessed far more frequently and recently than previously reported, suggesting that the company may have misled lawmakers, its users, and the public by downplaying that data stored in the US could still be accessed by employees in China. "Everything is seen in China," said a member of TikTok's Trust and Safety department in a September 2021 meeting. TikTok has said it has never shared personal user data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked. Still, lawmakers' fear that the Chinese government will be able to view American data through ByteDance is rooted in the reality that Chinese companies are subject to the whims of the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party, which has been cracking down on its homegrown tech giants over the last year. The risk is that the government could force ByteDance to collect and turn over information as a form of "data espionage." There's also another concern: that the soft power of the Chinese government could impact how ByteDance executives direct their US counterparts to adjust the levers of TikTok's powerful "For You" algorithm, thus shaping Americans' commercial, cultural, or political behavior. |
|
|
STAYING ON TOP OF THIS Americans captured in Ukraine are not protected by Geneva Conventions, Kremlin says |
- Despite sanctions, Europe has gradually been taking more oil from Russia, Bloomberg reports. And half of Russia's crude oil now goes to Asia, up from about one-third at the beginning of the year.
- The Kremlin says that Americans captured in Ukraine are not protected by Geneva Conventions, according to the Washington Post. Earlier this month, two American fighters were detained by Russian forces in Donetsk. They remain in captivity now.
|
|
|
"Do you feel safe? You shouldn't.": The Instagram comment that will likely send a man to prison. A man from Nebraska is the first person to plead guilty as part of the Justice Department's task force to combat threats against elections workers — which the department says have significantly increased due to the lies spread by former president Donald Trump and his supporters in the wake of his 2020 loss. A Walgreens employee was accused of killing a teenage coworker who had rejected his advances. Joshua Johnson, 28, was detained June 12 by state troopers about 100 miles outside Colorado Springs, a day after Riley Whitelaw's body was discovered in the break room of the Walgreens where they both worked. A Republican US Senate candidate's campaign video called on supporters to hunt members of the GOP considered disloyal by its right wing. Eric Greitens' video was removed from Facebook and Instagram on Monday for inciting violence. Seven crew members of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert were arrested inside a US Capitol building. The production team members were charged with unlawful entry after filming a comedy segment inside a Capitol office building while it was closed.
|
|
|
Start your day in a well-informed way with HuffPost's Morning Email, bringing you the news you care about and keys to living your best life. Click here to subscribe. |
|
|
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR GUN PURCHASES? Mastercard and Visa are refusing to shut down payments for ghost guns |
A seized AR-15 assault rifle from a sample of ghost guns in 2021 The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images |
Prosecutors, gun legislation advocates, law enforcement officials, and corporate shareholders are calling on credit card giants Visa and Mastercard to ban payments for "ghost guns," or untraceable, easy-to-assemble firearm kits that are often sold online. Visa and Mastercard, which process 75% of all credit card transactions in the US, have refused to do so. A spokesperson for Mastercard said, "We believe that it is the responsibility of elected officials to enact meaningful policies to address the issue of gun violence, while it remains Mastercard's role to ensure that consumers are permitted to make lawful purchases on our network." Mastercard's board also unanimously recommended that shareholders vote against a new proposal that calls on the company to take action. A BuzzFeed News investigation last month found that though Mastercard and Visa closely track businesses that have been flagged for lying to customers and banks, they rarely cut them off. Instead, they continue to facilitate the businesses' transactions and collect a percentage of every sale. Between January 2016 and December 2021, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms reported ghost guns had been involved in 692 homicide or attempted homicide investigations. 11 states as well as Washington, DC, have already restricted the sale of ghost guns. And in April, the Justice Department announced new federal rules requiring retailers to include serial numbers on firearms and run background checks before selling the weapons, effective Aug. 24. In the meantime, websites like ghostguns.com boast a countdown clock to when the new regulations are in effect, encouraging consumers to buy them now. Many of their bestsellers are already out of stock, the site shows. |
HOLLYWOOD HAS BECOME TOO SAFE Sure, I guess I'll go see Jurassic Marvel Gun Barbie World 9 |
Olive Burd / BuzzFeed News |
The last two weeks at the box office have featured Top Gun: Maverick, a 36-years-later sequel, which broke all kinds of records and registered the lowest drop between opening week and its second week. Maverick was only unseated from the top by the 386th installment of Jurassic Park, this one called Jurassic World Dominion in case you're keeping track, writes Elamin Abdelmahmoud. Meanwhile, Lightyear opens in theaters this weekend, and though the internet has registered a bewildering thirst for young Buzz, it remains unclear who exactly asked for this. The following two weekends are taken up, respectively, by a new Elvis movie and a new Minions movie — Minions being a sequel of a spin-off from the wildly successful Despicable Me movies. And on TV, this year we have had to put up with a show about scammer Anna Delvey, a movie about televangelist Tammy Faye, a show about Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, a show about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of fraud earlier this year, a new Star Wars show built around Obi-Wan Kenobi, and a show about Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. And then there's Netflix, which is capitalizing on the runaway success of the highly original Squid Game… by launching a Squid Game reality show, presumably sans the mass murder. We seem to have arrived at the nadir of original stories, a cultural moment where many of the TV shows and movies feature names and characters we already know. It does not matter how well we know them — it just matters that the audience is already familiar with the world. We are living through the age of peak intellectual property. Are you exhausted yet? |
|
|
You don't have to prove anything to anyone except yourself, Alexa |
|
| BuzzFeed, Inc. 111 E. 18th St. New York, NY 10003
Unsubscribe |
|
|
|
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire
Thank you to leave a comment on my site