Seeing lots of tweets that simply assume if Trump blesses the Oracle-ByteDance deal in the next couple days, the skies clear and the TikTok ban magically goes away. It may not be that easy.
First, as I wrote here, the timing is real tight on the US side (it was when this piece first published and is increasingly so).
Second, any deal must still be approved by the Chinese government, so that’s an additional layer of complexity.
Third, the precise mechanism by which they might claw back the app store restrictions under these tight time constraints isn’t obvious.
The restrictions taking effect on Sunday had to be noticed in advance (hence today’s announcement), and still must be published in the Federal Register.
Is there enough time for that same process to play out reversing the restrictions if they reach a deal in the next 1-2 days?
I asked Christian Davis, a CFIUS expert at Akin Gump. He told me it’s not clear what mechanism could work. Maybe Trump could issue a new EO overturning the Aug. 6 EO, he said.
But the more likely scenario, Davis said, is that the app store restrictions still go into effect and the parties continue to negotiate into next week.
“It’s not good for TikTok, certainly, but it’s a relatively mild restriction given it already has so many users,” he said.
Remember, ByteDance and Oracle have until Nov. 12 to finalize a deal. That’s potentially weeks that TikTok could be under Commerce restrictions in the US while the companies talk to the US government.
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A short little story: Earlier this year, after @dotMudge's whistleblower allegations against Twitter became public, I filed a FOIA request to the FTC asking for all of Twitter's third-party compliance reports filed pursuant to its 2011 consent order.
These reports, which companies under order are usually required to submit to show they're abiding by their consent decrees, are public record and usually gettable.
But in this case, the FTC denied my requests for all five reports.
The FTC claimed that it didn't have to hand over the records under FOIA exemption 7(A).
7(A) lets agencies withhold records compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only if revealing those records "could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings." 🤔
Our full story on Elon Musk's Twitter Q&A with advertisers today, wherein he sketched out his plans for the platform's future and pleaded with brands to use the service more: cnn.com/2022/11/09/tec…
Here are a few highlights:
– Banking is coming to Twitter, with P2P payments, a "money market fund" and debit cards/checks
– Twitter Blue subscribers' tweets get shown by default but non-paying users' tweets will have to be manually sought out
Like many of you, I've been rethinking my relationship to Twitter. For me, it kind of began after I went on parental leave a year ago. I've always been pretty good at unplugging on off hours (or maybe just bad at my job?) but becoming a dad *really* tanked my drive to be on here.
As more of the experts and sources I follow head to platforms like Mastodon, though, I have to decide how and where to spend my attention. Starting over on a new site sounds exhausting (hello, network effects!) but until it's clear we've hit a tipping point, I'll be on both.
Good morning from Capitol Hill, where Twitter whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko is set to testify before US lawmakers on his damning allegations against his former employer. Things kick off at 10 ET, but our liveblog is already up and running: cnn.com/tech/live-news…
And here we are:
The Twitter whistleblower hearing is now getting underway. Follow live updates here: cnn.com/tech/live-news…
NEW: Twitter execs have tried to conceal enormous security vulnerabilities that put users, investors and even US national security at risk, according to a damning new whistleblower report by the company’s former head of security: cnn.com/2022/08/23/tec…
Among its allegations, the disclosure obtained by CNN claims half of Twitter employees, including all engineers, enjoy excessive access to the live Twitter product and user data, and coding/testing happens right in the product rather than in a sandbox: cnn.com/2022/08/23/tec…
It alleges serious breaches of Twitter's 2011 privacy settlement with the FTC, which legal experts including former FTC Chair Jon Leibowitz told CNN could lead to billions in new fines: cnn.com/2022/08/23/tec…
If you’re not following this week’s court decision on Texas’s social media law, you need to tune in. Right frickin’ now. cnn.com/2022/05/13/tec…
This week’s decision letting Texans sue social media companies is hugely significant. Three reasons why.
1. The law is in effect—right now. A wave of suits may be being prepared as we speak. Plaintiffs have never had a law like HB 20 to help them before. cnn.com/2022/05/13/tec…
2. Lots of uncertainty on how social media is allowed to work in Texas going forward. Companies need to figure out how to comply. Do they stop all moderation? Shut down and pull out? Do they need to engineer Texas-specific systems? What’s the impact to UX? cnn.com/2022/05/13/tec…