TikTok restoring US service after Donald Trump pledges to delay ban | Is TikTok pushing Taiwan’s young people closer to China? | Brussels orders X to hand over documents on algorithm
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Former US President Donald Trump’s renewed executive order threatens to ban TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells its US operations. Officials claim the app poses national security risks by gathering user data. TikTok denies wrongdoing and plans legal challenges amid bipartisan calls for stricter oversight. ABC News
Taiwanese researchers worry TikTok usage by the island’s youth is eroding pro-independence attitudes. They suspect the app’s pro-China content fosters more tolerant views of Beijing, especially among politically disenchanted youngsters. While officials debate banning TikTok, some warn censorship could undermine democratic trust and broader stability. Financial Times
Brussels has demanded Elon Musk’s X disclose internal documents about its recommendation algorithm, expanding an EU probe into alleged preferential treatment of far-right content. The Commission’s order requires details on moderation, amplification, and future algorithm changes, amid mounting German concerns, heavy political pressure and scrutiny. Financial Times
ASPI
Preparing Australia for Trump’s return: do more, spend more, risk more
The Strategist
James Corera and Malcolm Davis
Australia needs to show Trump a persuasive value proposition around what it’s doing for its own security and, as a result, for regional security and the Australia-US alliance. So, lifting spending on defence and technologies to enhance military and cyber capabilities is the first priority to consider as we look towards a new Trump administration. With almost daily reports about Beijing’s increasing control of the information domain, including through the hacking of US and Australian critical infrastructure, Australia should make addressing Beijing’s malign actions a top-tier joint effort with the Trump administration, using and going beyond AUKUS Pillar 2 on advanced technologies.
Lifting of US curbs on Indian nuclear entities will boost collaboration, get tech access: Experts
The Deccan Herald
PTI
America's decision is positive and reflective of the changed and more strategically-oriented relationship between India and the US, contended Rajeshwari Pillai Rajgopalan, a Resident Senior Fellow with the Canberra-based Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "This should have been done a long time ago. The Indian nuclear establishment remains a mature one, having developed most technologies indigenously. Nevertheless, if India and the US were to meaningfully collaborate in the civil nuclear sector, continuing sanctions on institutions such as BARC were a bit strange and contradictory," she said.
Joining BRICS, Indonesia sticks with multi-alignment strategy
The Strategist
Fitriani
Joining BRICS aligns with Indonesia’s interest to engage with non-traditional markets. However, such initiatives as the BRICS Technology Transfer Center Network, which was proposed by China in 2018, raise concerns about intellectual property protection and equitable benefit-sharing. It is unclear to what extent the arrangements would protect Indonesia’s intellectual property and that of other countries. Jakarta must ensure these arrangements safeguard its interests to maximise the benefits of membership.
Australia
Labor, Coalition and Climate 200 set up unbranded Facebook pages to throw mud at each other
The Guardian
Josh Butler
Australians will be deluged by negative political ads on social media by a string of dedicated attack pages in the lead-up to the federal election, as the two major parties and large campaign groups set up networks of Facebook profiles and pay thousands to promote negativity on their opponents.
China
RedNote Scrambles to hire English-speaking content moderators
WIRED
Yang Zeyi
The Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu—better known internationally as RedNote—is scrambling to boost its ability to moderate English-language content after hundreds of thousands of American users suddenly joined the platform in anticipation of TikTok potentially being banned in the United States on Sunday.
Drivers of China’s science and tech goals revealed as US rivalry intensifies
South China Morning Post
Vanessa Cai
Policy meeting led by Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang unveils China’s tech leadership team, with observer noting focus on military-civil fusion. A high-profile policy meeting has revealed the key official players behind China’s science and technology drive, as the country pushes for more unified leadership in the sensitive sectors.
America
EV sales in Ecuador are surging despite crippling power cuts
Rest of World
Carolina Loza León and Daniela Dib
While EV users have been left in the dark during a prolonged energy crisis, many still prefer dealing with the hassle to the high cost of gas. Frequent electricity cuts have left hundreds of EV users in Ecuador struggling to charge their vehicles. EV sales grew more than 1,000% between 2022 and 2024, due to government incentives and affordable Chinese EVs. Companies have done little to help users during the outages.
USA
TikTok restoring US service after Donald Trump pledges to delay ban
ABC News
Brad Ryan
Donald Trump says he'll issue an order to delay a ban on TikTok, to allow time for negotiations to keep it operating in the US. In response, TikTok says it is restoring services after it went offline to comply with the ban. TikTok's CEO is expected to attend Trump's inauguration on Monday, local time, as a guest of honour.
US Supreme Court upholds law banning TikTok
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
The US Supreme Court has refused to rescue TikTok from a law that required the popular short-video app to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or banned on Sunday in the United States on national security grounds – a major blow to a platform used by nearly half of all Americans.Trump says he will likely grant TikTok a 90-day reprieve from US ban when he takes office
The Guardian
Edward Helmore
Donald Trump has said he will “most likely” give the Chinese-owned TikTok app a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban in the US after he takes office on Monday morning.
US issues sanctions against companies in Laos, China tied to North Korean IT worker scheme
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
The U.S. sanctioned two North Korean nationals and several companies based in Laos and China on Thursday for helping facilitate a wide-ranging scheme that duped American firms into hiring North Korean IT workers who funneled their earnings back home.
Biden to sign executive order on AI and software security
Axios
Sam Sabin
President Biden will sign a wide-reaching cybersecurity executive order today that looks to strengthen the federal government's cybersecurity practices and improve AI-powered cyber defenses. The order comes as the U.S. grapples with several high-profile Chinese government hacks of its systems and top officials' communications. The executive order kicks off the process of setting up a slew of new cybersecurity requirements for government contractors and agency security teams.
US Treasury Department imposes sanctions on Chinese company over Salt Typhoon hack
Reuters
Reuters
The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on alleged hacker Yin Kecheng and cybersecurity company Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology Co., accusing both of being involved in a series of hacks against American telecom companies.
Chinese Hackers Accessed Yellen's Computer in US Treasury Breach
Bloomberg
Jake Bleiberg and Jamie Tarabay
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s computer was infiltrated and unclassified files were accessed as part of a broader breach of the agency by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, according to two people familiar with the matter.
North Asia
Is TikTok pushing Taiwan’s young people closer to China?
Financial Times
Kathrin Hille
A growing number of researchers fear that the controversial app is promoting pro-China content and softening attitudes towards the People’s Republic. How Taiwan tackles these dilemmas will be a valuable case study for many other countries.
Japan's NGK to boost U.S. output of chip equipment parts in Arizona
Nikkei Asia
Yosuke Kawaji
Japan's NGK Insulators will make more components for chipmaking equipment in the U.S., seeing an opportunity to build up its semiconductor-related business. NGK subsidiary FM Industries makes chambers for wafer fabrication equipment in California, and a new production space has been completed in Arizona to increase output.
Southeast Asia
Ring of Chinese scammers used stolen $100M to smuggle iPhones to Asia
USA Today
Michael Loria
A trio of Chinese nationals in New Hampshire pleaded guilty to using stolen gift cards to buy Apple products to ship to East Asia. The cell is one of many expected to be operating in the U.S.
Ukraine - Russia
Russian hackers target WhatsApp accounts of ministers worldwide
The Guardian
Dan Milmo
Russian state-linked hackers have targeted the WhatsApp accounts of government ministers and officials around the world with emails inviting them to join user groups on the messaging app.
Europe
Brussels orders X to hand over documents on algorithm
Financial Times
Javier Espinoza, Andy Bounds and Laura Pitel
Brussels has ordered Elon Musk to fully disclose recent changes made to recommendations on X, stepping up an investigation into the role of the social media platform in European politics.
German defense and foreign ministries suspend activity on Elon Musk’s platform
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Germany's armed forces, as well as its defense and foreign ministries, have suspended their accounts on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, saying that it has become “increasingly difficult” to engage in a “fact-based exchange of arguments” there.
Baltic states' foreign ministers issue appeal on US AI export chip restrictions
ERR
ERR News
Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna, along with the foreign ministers of Latvia and Lithuania, issued a statement expressing grave concern about a recent decision by the United States to restrict exports of Artificial Intelligence chips to the Baltic states and other countries.
Estonian foreign minister: Europe should consider banning TikTok
ERR
ERR News
According to Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, Europe should consider banning the Chinese social media application TikTok, following the example of the United States.
Gender & Women in Tech
3 ways companies can address women’s needs and advance progress for everyone
World Economic Forum
Nigina Muntean
Science and technology have enormous potential to improve people’s lives, but the needs of women are often sidelined when innovations are conceived and brought to market. Women and girls should be top of mind at every stage of the innovation process – from research and development to discovery, design and financing. By prioritizing gender equity, we can build solutions that address the needs of women and girls, and advance progress for all.
Big Tech
As Americans flock to RedNote, privacy advocates warn about surveillance
The Verge
Gaby Del Valle
More than 700,000 US-based users have downloaded RedNote, a popular Chinese social app, as the TikTok ban deadline looms — but they may find themselves looking for yet another TikTok alternative soon. A US official told CBS News that Xiaohongshu, the app more commonly referred to as RedNote, has many of the same issues that caused Congress to ban TikTok and that the app could eventually face a similar ban unless it divests from its China-based parent company.
Apple suspends AI-generated news alert service after BBC complaint
The Guardian
Dan Milmo
Apple is suspending an artificial intelligence feature that made inaccurate summaries of news headlines. The tech company received a complaint from the BBC after the AI-generated service issued a news alert branded with the corporation’s logo falsely telling some iPhone users that Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, had shot himself.
Google won't add fact checks despite new EU law
Axios
Sara Fischer
Google has told the EU it will not add fact checks to search results and YouTube videos or use them in ranking or removing content, despite the requirements of a new EU law, according to a copy of a letter obtained by Axios.
Experts urge Facebook users to be aware of who is running online communities and think about privacy before sharing
ABC News
Lottie Twyford
A recent revelation by some members of Canberra Mums Group that their local support group was not so local after all has prompted experts to issue a word of "wariness and caution" about these communities. They say there are ways Facebook groups can be monetised, and warn these are not always immediately obvious or transparent. Experts urge social media users to be cautious about the kind of information they share online in any forum.
CISA warns of exploited Fortinet bugs as Microsoft issues its biggest Patch Tuesday in years
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
The federal government and multiple cybersecurity firms warned of a zero-day vulnerability in FortiGate firewalls that hackers are actively exploiting. In a sign of the bug’s severity, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) ordered all federal civilian agencies to patch the vulnerability by January 21 — one of the shortest deadlines it has ever issued.
Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol
TechCrunch
Sarah Perez
Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol, he shared in a TikTok video posted on Wednesday. In anticipation of the coming U.S. TikTok ban, which will go through on Sunday unless paused by the Supreme Court, users have been fleeing to other video platforms, including the Chinese app RedNote.
Artificial Intelligence
L’Oréal: Making cosmetics sustainable with generative AI
Artificial Intelligence News
Ryan Daws
L’Oréal will leverage IBM’s generative AI technology to create innovative and sustainable cosmetic products. The partnership will involve developing a bespoke AI foundation model to supercharge L’Oréal’s Research & Innovation teams in creating eco-friendly formulations using renewable raw materials. In turn, this initiative is designed to reduce both energy and material waste.
Misc
Social media as it should be
The Strategist
Robin Berjon
Mathematician Cathy O’Neil once said that an algorithm is nothing more than someone’s opinion embedded in code. When we speak of the algorithms that power Facebook, X, TikTok, YouTube or Google Search, we are really talking about choices made by their owners about what information we, as users, should see. In these cases, algorithm is just a fancy name for an editorial line. Each outlet has a process of sourcing, filtering and ranking information that is structurally identical to the editorial work carried out in media—except that it is largely automated.
To fight disinformation, treat it as organised crime
The Strategist
Meg Tapia
The Australian government’s regulatory approach to tackling disinformation misses the mark by focusing on content moderation and controlling access to platforms. This focus on symptoms is like fighting a flood by mopping the floor: it feels like you’re dealing with the immediate problem, but it ignores the root cause.
Events
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