U.S. Considers Banning TikTok

Facebook releases sustainability goals report

(From NewsHero issue 135 available here)

Facebook Announces its New Oversight Board to Guide Content Rules on the Platform — brayve.net

🦸‍♀️ — Facebook, for making moves on its sustainability goals
🦸‍♀️ — Facebook, for its oversight board, though it’s getting a late launch
🦸‍♀️ — Mike Pompeo, officials looking at apps that could threaten U.S. national security

• A report from Protocol discusses Facebook’s sustainability goals. Protocol’s David Pierce writes: Facebook has said its goal is to have its own operations be 100% sustainable by 2020 and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 75% compared to 2017 levels. On Tuesday, Facebook put out its most substantive sustainability report yet, with a look into how all that was going as of the end of 2019. Pierce points out that “acting greener” isn’t however what Facebook is likely to be remembered for in 2020. How true.
• The Oversight Board assembled by Facebook to, well, oversee content and policy decisions will now not be getting underway until “late fall,” and as TechCrunch notes, that time will likely be after the November election.
  Via Twitter the board explained that as much as it would like to “officially begin our task of providing independent oversight of Facebook’s content decisions,” it regrets that it will be unable to do so for some time. “Our focus is on building a strong institution that will deliver concrete results over the long term.”
• The Trump administration said Tuesday that it’s “looking at” banning TikTok, viewing the app as a threat to national security, reports CNN. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, said, “With respect to Chinese apps on people’s cell phones, I can assure you the United States will get this one right too, Laura.”
  TikTok has attempted to highlight its independence from China, citing its recently hired American CEO, and the company said it has “never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked.”
  Other prominent critics have considered TikTok as a potential spying threat. Last year, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton called for the intelligence community to assess the risk TikTok may pose to national security.

(From NewsHero issue 135 available here)

Sources:

• Facebook’s closer to its sustainability goals, but not quite there — Protocol
• Too little, too late: Facebook’s Oversight Board won’t launch until ‘late fall’ — TechCrunch
• TikTok is a national security threat, US politicians say. Here’s what experts think — CNN