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Why does the US want to ban TikTok? The allegations against it

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Why does the US want to ban TikTok? The allegations against it

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte on Wednesday signed legislation to ban Chinese-owned TikTok from operating in the state to “protect Montanans” from alleged Chinese surveillance, making it the first US state to ban the popular short video app.

Here is a detailed list of US allegations against the company and its parent, Bytedance.

FBI Director Chris Wray said in November that TikTok poses a national security risk, adding that Chinese companies are required to essentially “do whatever the Chinese government wants them to in terms of sharing information or serving as a tool of the Chinese government.”

Members of Congress in March complained that the Chinese government has a “golden share” in ByteDance, giving it power over TikTok. TikTok has said “an entity affiliated with the Chinese government owns 1% of a ByteDance subsidiary, Douyin Information Service,” and says the holding “has no bearing on ByteDance’s global operations outside of China, including TikTok.”

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The FBI’s Wray has also said US operations of TikTok raise national security concerns because the Chinese government could harness the video-sharing app to influence users or control their devices.

Risks include “the possibility that the Chinese government could use [TikTok] to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations,” Wray told US lawmakers.

National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone said in March he was worried about the data TikTok collects, the algorithm used to disperse information to users, and “the control of who has the algorithm.”

He asserted the TikTok platform could enable sweeping influence operations because TikTok could proactively influence users and could also “turn off the message.”

TikTok says it “does not permit any government to influence or change its recommendation model.”

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Lawmakers have alleged that the Chinese government, under a 2017 National Intelligence law, can force ByteDance to share TikTok user data. TikTok argues that because it is incorporated in California and Delaware, it is subject to US laws and regulations.

TikTok’s chief executive has said the company has never, and would never, share US user data with the Chinese government

In March 2022 eight states, including California and Massachusetts, launched a probe into whether TikTok causes physical or mental health harm to young people and what the company knew about its role in those harms.

The investigation focuses on how TikTok boosts young user engagement, including allegedly increasing the duration of time spent on the platform and how often it is used.

TikTok says it has taken numerous steps “to help ensure that teens under 18 have a safe and enjoyable experience on the app, and many of these measures impose restrictions that don’t exist on comparable platforms.”

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In December, ByteDance said some employees improperly accessed TikTok user data of two journalists. ByteDance employees accessed the data as part of an unsuccessful effort to investigate leaks of company information earlier this year, and were aiming to identify potential connections between two journalists, a former BuzzFeed reporter and a Financial Times reporter, and company employees.

A person briefed on the matter told Reuters that four ByteDance employees who were involved in the incident were fired, including two in China and two in the United States. Company officials said they were taking additional steps to protect user data.

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Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

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Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

 Shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust jumped 2.4% on Monday after the exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the price of bitcoin saw its first day of inflow since January.

The move marks a major milestone for GBTC, which has seen $17.46 billion in withdrawals since it converted from a trust to an easily tradable ETF in January, due to the higher fees it charges compared with rivals.

Some of the outflows were also tied to the wave of bankruptcies in the crypto industry, as companies that collapsed in the last two years pulled money out of the fund to repay their creditors.

GBTC saw inflows of $63 million on Friday, according to investment management firm Farside Investors. It currently manages $18.08 billion in assets, according to its website.

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However, its position as the biggest spot bitcoin ETF by assets under management (AUM) has come under threat from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, which manages $16.91 billion, according to its website.

Grayscale said in March that it would seek approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to spin off a portion of GBTC’s assets into a new, lower-fee Bitcoin Mini Trust. The company has yet to decide on the fees for the Mini Trust.

Spot bitcoin ETFs, which were approved by the SEC in January following a decade of rejection, provide investors with bitcoin exposure without the need to directly hold the cryptocurrency. 

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China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

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China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

China’s top engineering and rail design experts have exciting news: they’re planning to build the country’s very first hyperloop train line!

This futuristic project will connect two bustling cities, Shanghai and Hangzhou, spanning a distance of 150km (about 93 miles).

What makes this project so special? Well, it’s all about speed! The hyperloop train will travel inside a special vacuum tunnel, allowing it to reach mind-blowing speeds of up to 1,000km/h (that’s about 621mph!).

Before choosing the Shanghai-Hangzhou route, the experts carefully evaluated several options.

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They considered factors like economic potential, population density, and existing transport infrastructure. In the end, they decided that connecting Shanghai and Hangzhou would bring the most benefits to the region.

This project is a big deal for China, and it’s being led by some of the country’s top engineers and scientists.

They’re excited about the potential for this hyperloop train to revolutionize transportation and boost economic growth in the area.

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Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth’s surface

Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth’s surface

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Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth's surface

There’s all sorts of intriguing stuff hidden beneath the Earth’s surface, from massive oceans to water leaking directly into the planet’s core – the latest discovery, though, might be the most interesting of all.

New research has pointed to fascinating findings close to the Earth’s core which experts are claiming to be remains from an ancient planet.

The planet, named Theia, could have collided with our planet billions of years ago and evidence of this event is supposedly found within two blobs far beneath the surface.

These blobs have fascinated the scientific community since they were first discovered back in the 1980s. These structures are the size of entire continents and around twice the size of the moon.

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They’re located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean, and due to the high iron content of these structures, seismic waves pass through them at a slower rate – leading to them being labelled “large low-velocity provinces” (LLVPs).

A study into these LLVPs was published at the end of 2023 in the journal Nature and featured new findings from Caltech researchers.

Most significantly, the study argues that these structures, which have divided opinion for decades, are actually the remains of Theia, which collided with Earth billions of years ago.

This collision caused the creation of the moon, and the new study argues that the planet was absorbed into the Earth and formed the LLVPs.

“Seismic images of Earth’s interior have revealed two continent-sized anomalies with low seismic velocities, known as the large low-velocity provinces (LLVPs), in the lowermost mantle,” researchers wrote.

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“The LLVPs are often interpreted as intrinsically dense heterogeneities that are compositionally distinct from the surrounding mantle.”

They added: “Here we show that LLVPs may represent buried relics of Theia mantle material (TMM) that was preserved in proto-Earth’s mantle after the Moon-forming giant impact.

“Our canonical giant-impact simulations show that a fraction of Theia’s mantle could have been delivered to proto-Earth’s solid lower mantle.”

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