TikTok will challenge the newly approved “unconstitutional” law forcing ByteDance to sell the platform, it said in a statement Wednesday as President Joe Biden signed the measure.
Exports to China
Ziff Davis hires Gannett’s Kate Gutman, also former A+E, as executive vice president-general manager of its tech media group ... Penn Entertainment adds Aaron LaBerge, former Disney Entertainment and ESPN president-chief technology officer, as CTO, effective July 1 ... Washington Technology Industry Association promotes Kelly Fukai to chief operating officer ... Consilio, legal tech solutions provider, taps John Hale, ex-Kelly Services, also former Microsoft, as chief marketing officer ... 9fin, news and analytics platform for debt capital markets, promotes Will Caiger-Smith to vice president-content, newly created role ... VNET Group, internet data center services provider in China, announces resignation of CEO Jeff Dong for personal reasons, and names Josh Sheng Chen, VNET founder and co-chair, as his interim replacement.
Legislation forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a U.S. ban will “trample” the rights of 170 million users, TikTok said in a statement. The House on Saturday approved a package of foreign aid bills, including the divestment legislation and a bill that would ban data brokers from transferring sensitive data of American users to adversarial foreign nations like China. The Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act (HR-7520) and the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (HR-7521) were attached to the 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act, which the House passed 360-58. TikTok said Monday: "It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually." The foreign aid package will “bolster security and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday, urging the Senate to send it “quickly” to his desk. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats and Republicans “locked in an agreement enabling the Senate to finish work on the supplemental with the first vote on Tuesday afternoon.” The Senate is on a path to pass the “same bill soon,” he added. House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., welcomed the inclusion of HR-7520 and HR-7521: The House vote “is a clear victory for protecting Americans online and off.” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said he’s “very glad to see progress toward compelling a divestiture of TikTok from its parent company, Byte Dance, which is legally beholden to the Chinese Communist Party. This is a strong step forward to shore up our national security against malign influence, and it couldn’t come at a more important time.”
The House on Friday voted 316-94 to advance a foreign aid package, setting up a Saturday vote on four bills, including one that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok.
Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., said during a Thursday Punchbowl News event he will “very shortly” roll out a resolution aimed at allowing 5G innovation in the U.S. to “continue” amid uncertainty about when Congress will restore the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority. “There is incredible interest from my colleagues” in both parties for the resolution, he said. Joyce remains hopeful that Congress still has a chance to renew the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority “by the end of the year” despite more than a year of stalled progress in talks aimed at reauthorizing the mandate as part of a broader legislative package (see 2404110059). Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and others are shopping new spectrum proposals in hopes of jump-starting the talks (see 2403210063). Restoring the FCC’s authority not only is positive … for anyone who logs on, it’s positive for industry because competition can continue to occur,” said Joyce, a House Communications Subcommittee member. “It’s what’s needed worldwide so that we can” be as dominant on 5G as the U.S. was with 4G. “We’re gonna lose out to China if we don’t have that reauthorization.” He pointed to enactment of his 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement Act in late December to give the FCC temporary authority to issue 2.5 GHz band licenses that T-Mobile and others won in a 2022 auction (see 2312200061) as an example of Congress being able to quickly move on airwaves issues when necessary. “We have a very short window … to get this completed,” Joyce said.
"The sky's the limit" when considering Chinese capabilities for conducting digital attacks on critical U.S. infrastructure, since China switched from focusing on economic and political espionage to a strategy that can only be pre-positioning for attacks, Brandon Wales, executive director of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said Wednesday. Also at a Semafor conference on digital infrastructure, Kathy Grillo, Verizon senior vice president-public policy and government affairs, said the lack of FCC auction authority could have significant ramifications in a handful of years for keeping up with growing data demands. Numerous conference speakers talked about AI’s potential and risks.
The Biden administration “strongly opposes” legislation that would ban intelligence agencies from buying consumer data from brokers without a warrant, the White House said in a statement Tuesday. The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (HR-4639) would block law enforcement from accessing commercially available information but wouldn’t prevent foreign enemies or the private sector from buying the same data, the administration said: That means the legislation jeopardizes national security but doesn’t protect privacy. The House is expected to vote on the bill this week, after Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., agreed to bring it to the floor during debate on reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (see 2404120044). Responsible use of commercially available data is vital to investigations related to China, illegal drug sales, cyberthreats, child exploitation and terrorist activity, the White House said. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Tuesday urged Democrats and Republicans to work together to pass FISA reauthorization so surveillance authorities don’t lapse on April 19. Schumer filed cloture on the motion to proceed to House-passed legislation Tuesday. “If we don’t cooperate, FISA will expire, so we must be ready to cooperate,” he said.
The House on Friday voted to renew the intelligence community’s foreign surveillance authority for two years (see 2404100069). The vote was 273-147, with 147 Democrats and 126 Republicans in favor. An amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act narrowly failed 212-212, with 128 Republicans and 84 Democrats voting in favor.
Copyright concerns related to AI can be addressed using existing law and litigation, so Congress should avoid new legislation, legal experts told the House Intellectual Property Subcommittee during a hearing Wednesday.
Top DOD officials stressed the continuing military importance of the lower 3 GHz band as DOD and NTIA kick off a study of the band that the national spectrum strategy requires (see 2403120056). DOD and other administration officials during a Monday event at CTIA stressed the importance of developing more sophisticated ways of sharing spectrum. The National Spectrum Consortium also sponsored the event.