House Passes Bill That Would Lead To A TikTok Ban If Chinese Owner Doesn’t Sell
The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell, as lawmakers acted on concerns that the company’s current ownership structure is a national security threat. The bill, passed by a vote of 352-65, now goes to the Senate, where its prospects are unclear. TikTok, which has more than 150 million American users, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd. The lawmakers contend that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government, which could demand access to the data of TikTok’s consumers in the U.S. any time it wants. The worry stems from a set of Chinese national security laws that compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering. Joining us this morning on AirTalk is Alex Barinka, tech reporter at Bloomberg and Eric Goldman, professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law and co-director of the High Tech Law Institute.
California Pilots Program To Pay Community College Students
A new program called Hire Up will pay some students by the hour to attend community college. According to CalMatters, the $30 million state program is modeled after other California guaranteed basic income programs. Ten schools are participating, some having already started and others starting in the fall. The initiative focuses on vulnerable students. Joining AirTalk to discuss is Adam Echelman, who covers community colleges for CalMatters, Rachael Cutcher, director of Student Financial Services at Santa Rosa Junior College, and Nicole Albo-Lopez, vice chancellor of educational programs for the Los Angeles Community College District. Do you have questions? Call 866-893-5722 or email atcomments@laist.com.
All Hail The Book Club! Let’s Hear About Yours
Book clubs can be a wonderful way to build community. Picture it: a dozen or so people coming together for a common purpose, maybe noshing on a cube of cheese and sipping a glass of wine, everyone getting their moment to participate in the discussion and share sparkling insights. But, like any group endeavor, there can be complicated dynamics to navigate. How do you choose the book? How do you deal with problem members? What’s the secret to making a book club last? Joining us to discuss is Julie Goler, book group facilitator in Los Angeles. But we also want to hear from you! Do you have a long-running and particularly successful book club? What’s your secret? Does your book club focus on a particularly unique genre? Or could you use advice from a book club expert? Give us a call at 866-893-5722 or email us at atcomments@laist.com.
COVID Past And Present: Lessons Learned Four Years In, Plus New Research Into
Monday, March 11th marked four years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. By the end of that week, schools had closed, workplaces had shuttered, the N.B.A. had canceled the remainder of its regular season and the world was left to wonder what would happen next. We’ve learned a lot in the time since -- about vaccines, public health messaging, the ability of our healthcare systems to handle a global pandemic and more. And we continue to learn even more -- just last week, researchers at UCSF released new research that found evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can persist in patients for more than a year after the initial infection.
Today on AirTalk, we’ll look back on what we’ve learned in the four years since the start of the pandemic with Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the UCSF Medical Center and hear more about this new research on how long COVID stays in the body after infection from the man who led the studies on it -- UCSF Infectious Disease Researcher Dr. Michael Peluso. If you have questions for Dr. Chin-Hong or Dr. Peluso, call us at 866-893-5722 or email atcomments@laist.com.
Artists' Songs Remain Silent As TikTok And Universal Music Group Continue Licensing Negotiations
Universal Music Group has pulled all their artists’ songs off of TikTok after the two companies failed to reach a new licensing agreement to pay artists for the use of their songs on the social media platform. TikTok began muting videos that included UMG music on February 1. This includes songs that credit even just one co-writer or producer under UMG’s network. Because UMG is the largest music label in the industry, owning several subsidiary labels, publishers, and distributors, even artists not represented by the label are having their songs muted. According to UMG, TikTok proposed to pay artists at a much lower rate compared to other social media platforms and only makes up one percent of UMG's revenue. But since its start in 2016, TikTok has become one of the most powerful marketing platforms for musicians, with many artists such as Lil Nas X and PinkPantheress finding initial success releasing music on the platform. Joining us today to discuss the effect this standstill is having on artists and the industry is Ari Herstand, columnist with Variety and author of “How To Make It in the New Music Business,” and Serona Elton, Director of the Music Industry program at University of Miami. She was previously a VP at Warner Music Group.
‘Battle For The Bird’ Chronicles The Struggle For Twitter’s Soul
And now, for your daily dose of “has it really been that long? Dang, I feel old.” Twitter, now called “X,” turns 18 years old this month. Yes, that’s right. It’s now officially an adult…at least by its age. Whether or not the content that still exists on the platform designates it as such probably depends who you ask. One thing is for sure -- it looks a lot different than it did when Jack Dorsey and his co-founders launched the company back in March of 2006. The site itself would go live in July of that year, just a few months before Facebook opened up for access to anyone older than 13 with a valid email address. Twitter was originally conceptualized as a platform for “microblogging,” where users could share what they were doing in 140 characters or less. As popularity grew and more users came on board, the site evolved into a place where journalists could cover breaking news in real time and share updates in snippets with followers in real time as a story developed. Celebrities, athletes and public figures who had accounts were now just a tweet away -- and who knows, they might even respond to you! And if you were a journalist, celebrity, athlete or another public figure, you might even get a coveted blue checkmark verifying that you are the actual person you say you are, and not a parody account. But as Bloomberg Social Media Reporter Kurt Wagner writes in his new book “Battle for the Bird: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, and the $44 Billion Fight for Twitter’s Soul,” as culturally relevant as Twitter ultimately became, it was never a particularly strong business, and it was led by a man in Jack Dorsey who, as Wagner explains, never really wanted to be a CEO. And years of questionable decision making by Dorsey and others ultimately led to Twitter being sold to billionaire Elon Musk in October of 2022 for $44 billion, after which things took a decidedly downward turn . According to Variety, user numbers dipped 15 percent in the year following its sale, and ad revenue fell 54 percent.
Today on AirTalk, Kurt Wagner joins us to talk about his new book, the rise and fall of Twitter, and what the future holds for the once-beloved social media platform.
