House to TikTok: Byte Me

TikTok Ban, Online Predators

If you're a political science teacher struggling to get your middle school students excited about learning how a bill becomes a law, this is your moment. The House just passed a bill that could ban TikTok, unless the social network splits from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance. "The bill passed with 352 votes, needing a two-thirds majority to advance. Sixty-five members voted against it, with one voting present. The bill still needs to clear the Senate, which is no small task. But President Joe Biden said on Friday he would sign it into law if it passes." (This morning was the first time my 15 year-old daughter and I have agreed on a school commute topic of conversation since Travis and Taylor started dating.) This ban has been bandied about since at least 2020. In the early days of TikTok's rise, friends from Pentagon and the CIA advised me to keep my kids off TikTok for some of the very reasons behind today's ban. (FWIW, they didn't seem too enthusiastic about me driving a Volvo or flying a DJI drone). I don't doubt that there are national security and privacy risks associated with TikTok. I do question whether or not the threat posed by TikTok is greater than the one posed by Facebook policies during recent elections or by Twitter's bubbling cesspool as we approach the next one. Since we're talking about matters of degree, it's worth noting that while the House has been able to pass a bill protecting democracy from the somewhat elusive threat posed by TikTok, it has been unwilling to pass a bill defending democracy from the very concrete and immediate threat posed by an expansion-minded Vladamir Putin. That's one of reasons why—when considering threats to America that are more immediately pressing than TikTok–I'd add the current makeup of the US House to the list.

2

Predators

"The person in the online chat introduced himself as 'Brad.' Using flattery and guile, he persuaded the 14-year-old girl to send a nude photo. It instantly became leverage. Over the following two weeks in April 2021, he and other online predators threatened to send the image to the girl’s classmates in Oklahoma unless she live-streamed degrading and violent acts ... They coerced her into carving their screen names deep into her thigh, drinking from a toilet bowl and beheading a pet hamster — all as they watched in a video chatroom on the social media platform Discord. The pressure escalated until she faced one final demand: to kill herself on camera." The Washington Post, Wired Magazine, Der Spiegel in Germany and Recorder in Romania teamed up to bring us this extremely disturbing report from one of the darkest corners of the dark web. On popular online platforms, predatory groups coerce children into self-harm. "Vulnerable teens are blackmailed into degrading and violent acts by abusers who then boast about it."

3

Hitting the Cease Pipe

Bernard-Henri Lévy on the curious case of those who call for Israel to agree to a ceasefire without insisting that Hamas do the same, "a solution that would have the obvious effect of handing victory to Hamas; to prolong the hold of a Muslim Brotherhood death cult on a population that serves as its guinea pig in a horrific experiment; to see the aura of the terror cult and its backers grow, and grow again, beyond Gaza, with all the cataclysmic consequences that one can imagine, both throughout the Middle East and in Europe. Or to expect the international community, and even Hamas’ sponsoring countries, to demand of the aggressor two very simple things that would immediately end this atrocious war and the suffering it causes: Liberate the Israeli hostages who still alive; and lay down their arms, recognizing, in one way or another, defeat. Who has the courage to demand this?" Stop the War in Gaza. In the only way it can be done. "These proud members of the global Empire of Palestine hardly flinch when China commits genocide against its Uyghurs, Iran its Kurds, and Putin the Chechens or Ukrainians. They can find no complaints with the fact that neo-Ottoman Turkey resumes, in Nagorno-Karabakh, its endless war against the Armenian people. I see no mobilizations on campus when an Arab state, Syria, kills not just thousands, but hundreds of thousands of civilians, backed by Iran, which promises even greater massacres against Jews and anyone in the region who dares to oppose it. But, now it’s about Israel."

+ And Thomas Friedman in the NYT (Gift Article) on how Netanyahu Is Making Israel Radioactive. "No fair-minded person could deny Israel the right of self-defense after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 Israelis in one day. Women were sexually abused, and children were killed in front of their parents and parents in front of their children. Scores of abducted Israeli men, women, children and elderly people are still being held hostage in terrible conditions, now for more than 150 days. But no fair-minded person can look at the Israeli campaign to destroy Hamas that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, about a third of them fighters, and not conclude that something has gone terribly wrong there." These articles, both worth reading, are partly in agreement and partly opposed. Welcome to the Middle East.

4

Past Times at Ridgemont High

"As the teacher started to count down, the students uncrossed their arms and bowed their heads, completing the exercise in a flash. 'Three. Two. One,' the teacher said. Pens across the room went down and all eyes shot back to the teacher. Under a policy called 'Slant' (Sit up, Lean forward, Ask and answer questions, Nod your head and Track the speaker), the students, aged 11 and 12, were barred from looking away. When a digital bell beeped (traditional clocks are 'not precise enough, the principal said) the students walked quickly and silently to the cafeteria in a single line. There they yelled a poem — 'Ozymandias,' by Percy Bysshe Shelley — in unison, then ate for 13 minutes as they discussed that day’s mandatory lunch topic: how to survive a superintelligent killer snail." NYT (Gift Article): ‘You Can Hear a Pin Drop’: The Rise of Super Strict Schools in England. (Is this a roundabout method of competing with robots?)

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Extra, Extra

Cat Nip: "Cat bonds investors are gambling on nature. If a disaster they’ve bet on occurs, their money is used to settle insurance claims. If it doesn’t, they get handsome returns. For decades, the instruments were a last resort reserved for super-rare events, such as a cataclysmic storm on the scale of Hurricane Katrina. But multibillion-dollar calamities have become alarmingly frequent on a warmer planet." Bloomberg (Gift Article): How a Physics Whiz Made a Fortune Betting on Nature’s Catastrophes.

+ Quash Blossom: "Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee quashed six counts in the indictment, including three against Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee. But the judge left in place other counts — including 10 facing Trump — and said prosecutors could seek a new indictment to try to reinstate the ones he dismissed." Judge dismisses some charges against Trump in the Georgia 2020 election interference case.

+ Hammer and Sickening: "A long-time ally of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been attacked outside his home in Lithuania. Leonid Volkov said his arm was broken and his leg hit 15 times with a hammer." (Another Putin attack on a person in a NATO country. Criminals don't stop. They need to be stopped.)

+ Error-O-Plane: "You’d think Boeing’s already miserable 2024 couldn’t get any worse. But on Monday, a 787 Dreamliner plunged suddenly mid-flight, injuring dozens of passengers, after a pilot said he temporarily lost control of the aircraft." CNN: Boeing is in big trouble.

+ Ex Show: Don Lemon says Elon Musk canceled his X show, hours after interview taped for debut episode. Do a deal (and an interview) with the devil and you get burned..

+ America's Achilles Heel: Aaron Rodgers eyed as running mate for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Anyone who thought American politics couldn't get any worse has never seen the Jets play.)

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Bottom of the News

"A Virginia wildlife center has figured out how to prevent abandoned newborn animals – specifically foxes – from imprinting on humans, doing so by wearing a giant fox mask while feeding the babies." Virginia wildlife center staff pretend to be giant foxes when feeding cub. (Why do people still feel the need to come up with an excuse for their cosplay?)

+ "Jackie and Shadow’s three bald eagle eggs in Big Bear Valley aren’t likely to hatch again this year, disappointing tens of thousands of people that’ve been keeping a close eye on a livestream for any signs of new life in the nest." This article led me to the livestreamwhere I may spend the rest of my internet days...

+ And if you missed it yesterday, I led with a excellent article expertly introduced on how even milk cultures are part of the culture wars. Fraught Milk?

Thanks,

Dave Pell, Managing Editor, Internet