Tag: TikTok

They Deserve It: TikTok Forced Sale Legislation Advances to Senate

The most remarkable aspect of the pending legislation in Congress that would force a sale of TikTok is how much money and how many high profile lobbyists have taken the CCP’s shilling (or maybe yuan) to push the obviously corrupt company’s water. And yet…the legislation is advancing by leaps and bounds and TikTok is failing.

David was interviewed by Billboard to give a perspective. The headline here is that TikTok appears to be doing the same thing that Spotify was doing when Spotify was sued by Melissa Ferrick and David–using songs without a license.

The music industry’s view of the proceedings in Washington is mixed. The perspective of artists and songwriters is arguably best expressed by David Lowery, the artist rights activist and frontman for the bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, who also was one of more than 200 creators that, in early April, signed an open letter to tech platforms urging them to stop using AI “to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.”

“The rates TikTok pays artists are extremely low, and it has a history — at least with me — of using my catalog with no licenses,” Lowery says. “I just checked to make sure and there are plenty of songs that I wrote on TikTok, and I have no idea how they have a license for those songs.” 

As a result, Lowery says that while “I’m kind of neutral as to whether TikTok needs to be sold to a U.S. owner, the bill pleases me in a general way because I feel that they’ve gotten away with abusing artists for so long that they deserve it. I realize the bill doesn’t punish them for doing that,” he continues, “but that’s why a lot of musicians feel they really deserve it.” 

by theinvisiblestagehand

Guest post by @TheBlakeMorgan: A musician’s view of the TikTok legislation

Here’s a musician’s perspective on the TikTok legislation before Congress: I hope it passes, both as an American, and as a music maker. (The bill is “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, (HR 7521),” It was recently introduced by Representatives Mike Gallagher (R-Wi.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.). The bill passed the House by a vote of 352-65, demonstrating deep bipartisan support)

First––this bill restricts TikTok, it does not “ban” the app. It forces the company to separate its ties to the Chinese Communist Party and prevents them from accessing the data of Americans. That’s a good thing.

The bill doesn’t mandate or regulate speech, it’s focused on national security: the FCC called TikTok “a clear and present danger” to our country.

Second––music makers already know what music lovers are just now learning: TikTok is the worst, most exploitative streaming platform for music, anywhere. The vast majority of music on TikTok generates virtually no revenue for the musicians who made it, and even more music on the platform is completely unlicensed (stolen), copied (stolen via AI), or pirated (stolen).

Simply put, TikTok is trying to build a music-based business without paying music makers fair value for the music.

Lastly––musicians (and Americans) are all too familiar with being underpaid and undervalued, with our data being scraped and sold, with platforms which promote hate speech, bigotry, and bullying.

But TikTok does all of this and more, while posing an existential national security threat to our country.

It’s rare to see independent musicians (like me) stand with major labels, and it’s rare to see Republicans and Democrats stand together about anything. But here we are. I hope it passes the Senate and that President Biden signs it.

by trichordist

Must Read by @ebakerwhite: TikTok Parent ByteDance Planned To Use TikTok To Monitor The Physical Location Of Specific American Citizens — Artist Rights Watch

[Well, here it is. Two years ago we warned everyone who would listen that TikTok were apparatchiks for the Chinese Communist Party–by law in China because of the CCP’s civil-military fusion–“If Google is the Joe Camel of data, then TikTok is the Joe Camel of intelligence.” We did panels warning about TikTok including the CEO’s struggle session and the CCP constitution–facts, you know. Tim Ingham warned that on top of everything else, the deals suck. And then there’s Twinkletoes, who is in our view a walking, talking Foreign Agent Registration Act violation.

Emily Baker White warns of the harms from TIkTok we identified 2 years ago coming home to roost.

[According to Emily Baker White writing in Forbes:]

China-based team at TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, planned to use the TikTok app to monitor the personal location of some specific American citizens, according to materials reviewed by Forbes.

The team behind the monitoring project — ByteDance’s Internal Audit and Risk Control department — is led by Beijing-based executive Song Ye, who reports to ByteDance cofounder and CEO Rubo Liang. 

The team primarily conducts investigations into potential misconduct by current and former ByteDance employees. But in at least two cases, the Internal Audit team also planned to collect TikTok data about the location of a U.S. citizen who had never had an employment relationship with the company, the materials show. It is unclear from the materials whether data about these Americans was actually collected; however, the plan was for a Beijing-based ByteDance team to obtain location data from U.S. users’ devices.

Read the post on Forbes

by Trichordist Editor

@cgartenberg: Reddit CEO says TikTok is ‘fundamentally parasitic,’ cites privacy concerns

[Editor Charlie sez: Artists and songwriters should consider how their music is used for child data exploitation and Internet addiction. Not surprising that Europeans are investigating TikTok for data protections for children under 13 and the transfer of personal data by TikTok to China military-civil authorities likely under Articles 7 and 14 of China’s National Intelligence Law.]

Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman called TikTok “fundamentally parasitic” due to concerns over privacy during an appearance at the Social 2030 venture capital conference this week (via TechCrunch). Huffman specifically called out TikTok’s practice of fingerprinting to track devices as being of particular concern. 

“Maybe I’m going to regret this, but I can’t even get to that level of thinking with [TikTok],” Huffman said at the event, “because I look at that app as so fundamentally parasitic, that it’s always listening, the fingerprinting technology they use is truly terrifying, and I could not bring myself to install an app like that on my phone.”

Read the post on The Verge

by Trichordist Editor

Today: Music Biz Association Panel: Buyer Beware: What Does the Legal Future Hold for TikTok?

Chris Castle will moderate a panel entitled “Buyer Beware: What Does the Legal Future Hold for TikTok?” as part of the Music Business Association’s Entertainment & Technology Law Conference today at 1:35 pm ET.  Sign up here, registration fee is required.

The all-star panel has experts from inside and outside the music business:

  • Rick Lane, CEO, Iggy Ventures, LLC
  • Gwendolyn Seale, Attorney, Mike Tolleson & Associates
  • David Sterns, Partner, Sotos Class Actions
  • Trent Teyema, Principal, Global Threat Management

The panel will discuss the legal basis for the TikTok sale and potential ban as well as TikTok’s massive infringement problems.  The focus will be on understanding how we got here and what exposure TikTok will have even after a sale.

If you can’t make the panel, Chris has promised to make the panel materials available next week.

by Trichordist Editor

Must Read by @superwuster: A TikTok Ban Is Overdue

[Professor Tim Wu has a must read post in the New York Times that nails the problems with TikTok (and WeChat).  The subtitle are words that will live forever:  “Critics say we shouldn’t abandon the ideal of an open internet. But there is such a thing as being a sucker.”  Wowsa.]

Were almost any country other than China involved, Mr. Trump’s demands would be indefensible. But the threatened bans on TikTok and WeChat, whatever their motivations, can also be seen as an overdue response, a tit for tat, in a long battle for the soul of the internet.

In China, the foreign equivalents of TikTok and WeChat — video and messaging apps such as YouTube and WhatsApp — have been banned for years. The country’s extensive blocking, censorship and surveillance violate just about every principle of internet openness and decency. China keeps a closed and censorial internet economy at home while its products enjoy full access to open markets abroad.

The asymmetry is unfair and ought no longer be tolerated.

Read the post on the New York Times.

by thetrichordist

@TheJusticeDept: California Man Pleads Guilty to Using TikTok/Bytedance for Production of Child Pornography

According to admissions made in connection with his guilty plea, the defendant’s activities initially came to light in or about March of 2017, when the parents of a then six-year-old discovered that the minor had communicated with and created sexually explicit images at the request of another user on the social media application Musical.ly (now TikTok). Law enforcement investigators subsequently identified this user as Jacob Blanco…. In his interview with law enforcement, Blanco admitted that he communicated with at least 50 minors, an admission confirmed by the communications and images stored on his digital media.

Read the press release on Justice.gov

by thetrichordist