Commentary: Ban TikTok or Let Beijing Control Our Broadcast Networks, Too

Tiktok User

In the dynamic landscape of global entertainment, the influence of Beijing over Hollywood has long been a topic of heated discussion. While the box office power of the Chinese market has waned, giving a breath of creative freedom back to our filmmakers, there looms a new and more pervasive form of influence on Hollywood and well beyond: TikTok.

Beijing may have lost theatrical market leverage, but it has more than made up for that with an overpowering social media presence that has become an epidemic, not just in Hollywood but throughout the United States. In fact, the Chairman of Congress’s Select Committee on China, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), accurately labels TikTok as “digital fentanyl” and has been aggressively campaigning to ban the social media app.

Read More

The Biden Admin Is Pursuing Total Domination of Americans’ Digital Lives

President Joe Biden’s administration has recently taken unprecedented action to exert influence over Americans’ digital lives, including broadband internet, net neutrality, social media and artificial intelligence (AI).

Read More

Wisconsin Congressman Calls on LinkedIn to Remove Job Listings for Companies That Pose Security Threats

U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-8) this week urged the head of the career-networking website LinkedIn to prohibit the platform from posting job openings at companies posing security threats to America. 

Gallagher, who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Armed Services Committee, penned a letter to LinkedIn Chief Executive Officer Ryan Roslansky, drawing particular attention to companies with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The congressman stated that the site presently welcomes thousands of employment-opportunity notices from China-based corporations the U.S. government flags as national-security and privacy risks. 

Read More

U.S. Bans Chinese Tech That Allegedly Lets China Spy on Military Sites

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday announced a ban on new imports of Chinese-owned telecommunications equipment, including the equipment suspected of surveilling sensitive U.S. military sites.

The new rules, prohibiting U.S. sales and imports of equipment from companies including Huawei and ZTE, are the first to be implemented on the grounds they pose “unacceptable risk to national security,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said Friday. U.S. authorities have expressed concerns that Beijing could exploit the companies’ telecommunications installations across the country to collect data from U.S. sites, including nuclear and military sites in the U.S.

Read More

FCC Member: ‘TikTok Is China’s Digital Fentanyl’

Federal Communications Commission member Brendan Carr said that TikTok is “China’s digital fentanyl” and that the social media platform is “a very sophisticated surveillance app.”

“At the end of the day, TikTok is China’s digital fentanyl,” Carr, a Republican and one of five FCC commissioners, said Friday on Fox News.

Read More

Biden Admin to Bar Chinese Telecom Giants from U.S. Market

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to ban telecommunication devices and video surveillance equipment from five Chinese companies in a recent move to address national security concerns, according to Axios.

The proposed FCC ban blocks Huawei,  ZTE, Hytera Communications Corporation, Hikvision and Dahua Technology Company on national security grounds, marking the first time the FCC has attempted to implement an electronics ban on that basis, Axios reported. The proposed ban follows an Oct. 5 draft order circulated by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that, if approved through a vote, will effectively block all equipment sales by firms that pose a threat to the U.S., according to Axios.

Read More

Report: U.S. Investigates Blacklisted Chinese Tech Giant over Concerns It May Be Spying on Missile Silos

The U.S. is investigating Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei for potential surveillance capabilities at cell towers near U.S. military bases and missile silos, according to Reuters.

Authorities are concerned that China could exploit Huawei communications equipment in the U.S. to gather sensitive data on military procedures and personnel, Reuters reported Thursday. The Commerce Department reportedly opened the investigation in 2021.

Read More

Biden’s FCC Pick Gigi Sohn Cut Sweetheart Deal with Broadcasters One Day After Nomination

President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Gigi Sohn, cut a favorable deal with broadcasters shortly after she was nominated to the regulatory agency.

Sohn previously worked as a director of Locast, a streaming service that transmitted local television broadcasts on the internet. The company was shut down in October 2021 after broadcasters sued and a judge ruled the service was in violation of copyright law. Locast entered into a settlement agreement with broadcasters requiring the service to pay $32 million in damages.

Biden nominated Sohn to an empty commissioner position at the FCC, which is tasked with regulating the broadcast industry, in late October; however, one day after she was nominated, Sohn signed a confidential agreement with broadcasters cutting the amount of damages Locast would pay to around $700,000, according to a copy of the agreement seen by Bloomberg Law.

Read More

Biden’s FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn Wants to ‘Silence Dissent,’ Top Senate Republicans Say

Gigi Sohn

Senate Commerce Republicans are whipping opposition to the nomination of Gigi Sohn, one of President Joe Biden’s picks for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Biden nominated Sohn, former FCC counsel under Tom Wheeler and Ford Foundation alum, to an empty spot on the commission in late October, along with current acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to the permanent position.

While Republicans have been quiet in their response to the nomination of Rosenworcel, many are pointing to Sohn’s public statements on conservatives as reasons to oppose her confirmation.

Read More

Soros-Funded Group Sends Letter to FCC Calling for Murder of Republicans

A far-left group funded by radical billionaire George Soros submitted a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) calling for Republicans to be murdered, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

The group in question is Free Press, which is funded by Soros’s Open Society Foundation, as well as the Center for American Progress, the Tides Foundation, and other far-left organizations. Free Press, whose stated goal is to “reshape media” in the United States, submitted a letter signed by almost 5,000 of its members baselessly accusing the FCC of systemic racism.

Read More

U.S. Government Allegedly Approves Sale of Electronic Chips to Huawei

The United States government has allegedly approved the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of electronic chips to Chinese technology giant Huawei, in a massive reversal of a Trump-era policy by the Biden Administration, as reported by the Daily Caller.

The report was first made by Reuters on Wednesday, which cited two anonymous sources who claimed to be familiar with the deal. Huawei intends to use the new supply of chips to construct more automatic components of automobiles, including video monitors and motion sensors. Huawei allegedly asked the suppliers to raise the value of chips from hundreds of millions to at least one billion for the next sale after the four-year licensing agreement expires.

Read More