Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., announced Jan. 13 that he plans to introduce a bill to give China’s ByteDance more time to divest TikTok before facing a ban on the popular social media application in the U.S.
The U.S. this week sanctioned The Terrorgram Collective, a transnational terrorist group that promotes violent white supremacism and solicits attacks on critical infrastructure and government officials through social media and the digital messaging platform Telegram, the State Department said. The U.S. also sanctioned three of the group’s leaders: Brazil-based Ciro Daniel Amorim Ferreira, Croatia-based Noah Licul and South Africa-based Hendrik-Wahl Muller.
Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., urged the Biden administration Dec. 19 to give China’s ByteDance more time to comply with the law that requires the company to divest TikTok by Jan. 19 or face a U.S. ban on the popular social media application.
The leaders of the House Select Committee on China urged TikTok Dec. 13 to comply with an eight-month-old law that will ban the popular social media application in the U.S. unless it is divested by Chinese parent company ByteDance by Jan. 19.
President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Jacob Helberg, a commissioner with the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, to be the State Department’s next undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment. Helberg will “guide State Department policy on Economic statecraft, promoting America's Economic security and growth, and American technological dominance abroad,” Trump said in a Dec. 10 post on Truth Social.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who opposed passage of a law banning TikTok in the U.S. unless China’s ByteDance divests the popular social media application, said Dec. 10 he is “still hopeful” the U.S. Supreme Court will rule the measure unconstitutional.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Dec. 6 upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which bans the social media application TikTok in the U.S. or forces its parent company, Chinese tech giant ByteDance, to divest its ownership share in the application in the U.S. Judges Douglas Ginsburg, Sri Srinivasan and Neomi Rao said the ban survived constitutional scrutiny (TikTok Inc. and ByteDance Ltd. v. Merrick Garland, D.D.C. # 24-1113).
The EU on Oct. 25 officially began registering imports of goods under investigation in 12 ongoing antidumping or countervailing duty probes, allowing for retroactive collection of AD/CVD if certain conditions are met, Denis Redonnet, the EU’s chief trade enforcement officer, said on social media platform X. With the move, the EU may be able to collect retroactive duties on imports related to investigations on epoxy resins, decor paper, iron and steel tubes and pipes, optical fiber cables and more. The European Commission previewed the move in September (see 2409240010).
The U.S. on Sept. 3 unsealed charges of terrorism, murder conspiracy and sanctions evasion against six Hamas leaders for their role in planning the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks against Israel, DOJ announced. The six people -- Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammad al-Masri, Marwan Issa, Khaled Meshaal and Ali Baraka -- and their co-conspirators allegedly "control all aspects of the terrorist organization, including its political and military branches," DOJ said.
Former Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said last week he remains confident that a new law requiring China’s ByteDance to divest popular social media application TikTok will survive any legal challenges.