TikTok told users to contact their representatives. Lawmakers say what happened next shows why an ownership restructure is necessary.
CBSN
Some TikTok users saw their phones flash Thursday morning with an urgent-sounding push notification: "Take action: Speak up against a TikTok shutdown." The alert linked to a page prompting users to enter their zip code, then provided them with a direct link to call their congressional representative. Lawmakers say their offices were inundated with calls as a result.
And the calls to action have not ended. A new page pushed out to users by TikTok Friday warns, "Your freedom to create is at risk," and once again provides a link to call.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat who serves as the ranking member of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, said Friday this demonstrates exactly why he takes issue with the app, whose parent company is privately owned Chinese technology firm ByteDance. Critics say that as a Chinese company, ByteDance poses security risks.
This story previously aired on Sept. 15, 2018. News report: Today, in a 5-1 decision, the California State Supreme Court ruled that Rodney Alcala did not receive a fair trial. Juror: We, the jury, find the defendant, Rodney James Alcala, guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree. Victim Robin C. Samsoe… "I wanna kill, I wanna kill, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean, kill, kill, kill, kill." Jury member [in court]: We, the jury … determine that the penalty to be imposed upon defendant, Rodney James Alcala, to be death. D.A. Cyrus Vance to reporters: For both families, who had lost all hope that these cases would ever be solved, the pleas by Rodney Alcala, and today's sentencing brings closure to painful chapters in their lives.
A new law aims to strengthen reporting requirements for technology companies to combat online predators seeking to exploit children. One dad told CBS News that he hopes the law will save children like his son, who died by suicide after becoming ensnared in a "sextortion" scheme when he was 17 years old.