TOPEKA, Kansas: Banning TikTok from government devices enjoys bipartisan support across the US, but a few Democratic legislators in Kansas object to expanding a ban imposed by their party’s governor because they don’t want a state law to target a company by name.
The Republican-controlled Kansas House voted 109-12 on Thursday to pass a bill to prohibit any electronic device owned or issued to a state employee from accessing TikTok. The measure appears to have bipartisan support in the GOP-dominated state Senate.
In late December, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly responded to concerns about the popular social media app’s Chinese ownership with an executive order to keep it off state devices. However, a new law would cover agencies or institutions not under her direct control, such as state universities or the Insurance Department.
And during a brief debate, House members added language to also apply the ban to any app or website owned by ByteDance Ltd., the private Chinese company owning TikTok, as well as any subsidiary, successor company or firm “directly or indirectly controlled” by ByteDance.
Congress and more than half of US states have banned TikTok from government devices. Most of the Kansas House critics were Democrats, and they questioned listing companies by name in a law — something Kansas typically doesn’t do, even in creating taxpayer-funded incentives to lure a single company’s project to the state.
“What’s next, right? Today it’s TikTok. Tomorrow it’s Twitter or Facebook,” said state Rep. Brandon Woodard, a Kansas City-area Democrat. “It’s important for us to be able to communicate with our constituents however we want to.”
TikTok is consumed by two-thirds of American teens. But there’s long been bipartisan concern in Washington that China could use its legal and regulatory power to seize American user data or try to push misinformation or narratives favoring China.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing increased with the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the US and its shooting down earlier this month. It’s also intensified interest in Congress and in US states, including Kansas, in restricting foreign ownership of property, particularly agricultural land.
“If I had my way, we would ban every piece of mobile application or website coming out of China, but we’ll address that another day,” said Rep. Stephen Owens, a Republican from central Kansas.
In Arizona, a state House committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a Republican proposal to ban TikTok on government devices after no one voiced opposition.
The measure doesn’t name TikTok but describes a “covered application” in such a way that it applies to the app. Its sponsor, Republican Rep. Matt Gress, of Phoenix, said legislative rules don’t allow the company’s name to be used.
Gress said his measure addresses concerns with the ability of China’s ruling Communist Party to capture “crucial details about personal, private Internet activity.”
TikTok spokesman Jamal Brown said it is working to “meaningfully address” security concerns from US and state officials and said states’ bans do not improve security.
“State legislatures are pressing ahead with bans of TikTok based on nothing more than the hypothetical concerns they’ve heard on the news,” Brown said in email to The Associated Press.
Despite TikTok’s popularity among young people, some public university systems also are banning TikTok on their devices. The Kansas Board of Regents has done so at its main offices, but the state universities under its supervision have not. Regents CEO Blake Flanders said Thursday that such a step is “much more complicated.”
“There are so many users,” he said. “You have thousands of devices at residence halls.”
Woodard and other critics of the Kansas bill said Kelly’s executive order on TikTok is sufficient to address concerns about the app.
State Rep. JoElla Hoye, a fellow Kansas City-area Democrat, suggested that naming a specific company in Kansas law is at odds with the name of the sponsor of the bill — the House Committee on Legislative Modernization.
She said after voting no, “How many decades from now will we even know what TikTok is?”
Amid US TikTok bans, a few balk at writing its name into law
https://arab.news/zb64f
Amid US TikTok bans, a few balk at writing its name into law
- A proposed law in the US state of Kansas want to extend the ban on Chinese-owned TikTok to cover state universities and the Insurance Department
Meta to charge Arab advertisers extra fee for reaching European audiences
- US tech giant told advertisers it will add fees ranging from 2 to 5 percent on image and video ads delivered on its platforms to offset digital service taxes
- Charges are determined by where the audience is located, not where the advertiser is based
LONDON: Meta will from July 1 impose location-based surcharges on advertisers targeting audiences in six European countries, a move that will directly affect Arab businesses that run campaigns across the continent.
The US tech giant announced it will add fees ranging from 2 to 5 percent on image and video ads delivered on its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to offset digital service taxes imposed by individual governments.
Crucially, the charges are determined by where the audience is located, not where the advertiser is based.
That means Saudi, Emirati, Egyptian or other Arab companies paying to reach consumers in the UK, France or Italy will face the additional costs regardless of their own country’s tax arrangements with Meta.
Fees will apply at 2 percent for ads reaching UK audiences, 3 percent for France, Italy and Spain, and 5 percent for Austria and Turkiye.
“If you deliver $100 in ads to Italy, where there is a 3% location fee, you will be charged $100 (ad delivery), plus $3 (location fee), for $103 total,” the company wrote in an email to an advertiser initially reported by Bloomberg. “Note that any applicable VAT will be calculated on top of the total amount.”
The taxes have been introduced at different points, starting with France in 2019, though not the EU as a bloc.
Many tech companies report substantial sales in Europe and millions of users but pay minimal tax on profits. The goal is to claw back locally derived economic value, Bloomberg reported.
The move follows similar decisions by Google and Amazon, which have also begun passing European digital tax costs on to advertisers.
For Arab brands with growing European footprints, particularly in fashion, travel, hospitality and media, the new fees add another layer of cost to campaigns already subject to currency and targeting complexities.
Digital services taxes, levied as a percentage of revenues earned by major tech platforms in individual countries, have drawn criticism from Washington, which argues they unfairly target US companies.
Meta has been reached for comments.
