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Tik Tok Ban

Jan 18, 202539 min
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Episode description

Gary Tanguay Fills In On NightSide with Dan Rea

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company. What does this mean and what’s next? New users won’t be able to download the app and updates won’t be available, which will eventually render the app unworkable. Joe Luppino-Esposito, Deputy Legal Policy Director, and Federal Policy Chief for the Pacific Legal Foundation, joined Gary to discuss!

Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!

Transcript

Speaker 1

It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w BZY Boston's new video TikTok, TikTok, TikTok, TikTok.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Nicole, no pun intended. Right. The clock is ticking on TikTok. I know you've heard it before. Sorry, dad joke had to do it. This is quite a thing that the Supreme Court up held. We are going to talk about TikTok going away. The financial impact is staggering for some people. And I'm more concerned because my thirteen year old daughter is going to go out of her mind. And if she goes out of her mind, that goes That means I go out of my mind.

So which am I more concerned with? National security or my teenage daughter not having a meltdown? I don't want to answer that. It ends with us terrific movie. A lot of controversy regarding the two stars. We're gonna get into it with Cooper Lawrence. She's our entertainment guru. That's

coming up at nine o'clock. Taani Ray, Fox Football Expert, Fox Sports and FS one joins us at ten o'clock talking about Vrabel and the new look Patriots, plus your calls throughout the evening at six one, seven, two, five, four to ten thirty Gary Taguay and for Dan Ray. Tonight we kick things off with TikTok as I try to understand all of it. It's joining us right now, is Joe Lopino Esposito, the deputy Legal policy director at

Federal Policy Chief for the Pacific Legal Foundation. You must have a card that's the size of a billboard, Joe, Welcome to night Side.

Speaker 3

I sometimes do yes, Thanks.

Speaker 2

So much for having things Okay, this seems so strange to me, And full disclosure, I don't do TikTok. This radio station with Matt Scherra has done very well on TikTok Okay, so TikTok is really not just for kids anymore. There's a lot of business people make a lot of

money on it, and we'll get to that. But what is so strange for me as an American citizen, as someone who has always taken pride in the fact that this is a country of free speech, no matter how insulting, no matter how racist, no matter how homophobic, no matter how awful something may be spewed out of somebody's mouth, they can say it. But this thing is being shut down. It is so foreign to me that something within these forty eight states would be cut off. It's so weird to me. It's weird.

Speaker 3

Yeah, you know, it's a unique situation. You know, in this particular case where the US government really attacked TikTok, wasn't from the perspective of the First Amendment, because obviously that was their best defense, and that's what the court dealt with today when they they have their opinion, right, and in the unsigned opinion, what they said was, look, there is a compelling interest of regarding national security notwithstanding

the First Amendment concerns. So, you know, there's the things that we talk about often you have these levels of scrutiny of scrutiny, So you have strict scrutiny and intermediate scrutiny, which is the two that we're talking about now, And when you can judge how closely, essentially, you need to look at other good reasons for the government's reduced for

doing what they're doing. So in this case, they said, look, because this is a content neutral decision, right, it's not saying because of certain things on the app is why we're banning it. What they're saying is our concern is actually over national security, so it's a content neutral ruling, and therefore it comes under intermediate scrutiny, which is a much easier bar for the government to reach versus strict scrutiny. And that's why we have the band staying in effect.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean, and I understand that, and I get it, and I think we're just at the point now because of technology, is this is a reality we will probably see be implemented again, right exactly.

Speaker 3

And it's funny you mentioned with the changes in technology. The court actually starts its opinion by saying, look, we know things are going to change, but we're hopeing not to screw this one up too much in so many ways. Right, So that's what they say, kind of from the outset, knowing that they are going to be things that come

along and that could be very different. And Justice Gore such it is conturned with the opinion said, look, there's a chance this will just get replaced with some other app that will be just as damaging according to the United States government, and then like guess won't cross that bridge when we get there. So they can't know everything, but they are looking at it here and you know, to his credit as well, and frankly that just thee so of my Earth's credit as well. They were pretty

clear that they don't like that. The court overall said, look, we can't say for sure. We're just gonna assume that the First Amendment is involved here. We haven't really had time to look into that enough, just as so of my ars said, no, of course it does. Of course it implicates the First Amendment. That's not even let's get rid of the weasel words. Of course it does. But now that said, I still agree with the decision, and just this course that's said similar that, Look, you know,

I don't really care for these levels of scrutiny. We spend a lot of time caring about exactly which level it should it ought to sit into to me, if there is a good enough compelling interest like this is, and really backing with the US government presented as evidence in their public evidence regarding all this, they said, look, this is enough, and therefore I agree with the judgment as well.

Speaker 2

How do you feel you agree? I understand what you're saying, But as a person, as a United States citizen, do you feel that our national security is threatened because of TikTok, give me a number seven eight, Because the way I look at it here is in order for the Supreme Court to do this, it's got to be pretty.

Speaker 3

Serious, right, And that's the thing, you know, I ultimately, you know, the blame if if somebody's uphosted this, the blame goes to Congress and as well as President Biden, although he also strangely has said he's not going to enforce the law when it goes into effect on Sunday, so I'm not quite sure why he would have signed the bill. But that's beside the point. The point is that Congress has done this and the President signed it, so now it's up to the Supreme Court really just

make that call. So with the evidence presented to them and with the short time I may had, the decision does make some sense. That said, I think overall, the discussion that's in play is what is really the national security threat? Is it that you know, if they're stealing data? And one of the things that Justine Scoresu specifically points out as well is that, look, it gives them access to your contact list, so that includes third parties that

did not consent to this. So you know, if I have TikTok and you're in my phone well, and you have your photo and your home address and everything on my contacts on my phone. You know, TikTok can now access that data. And because they refuse to divest from the Chinese government, they're saying, look, this seems to be what the Chinese government is after after this information. So

if that's the case. Again, I don't know enough about national security to know what all the concerns are there, but they're talking about things like blackmail and who knows what else. If there's other information that could be found from other third parties on say my phone, and they're looking into you, right, So I understand where they're coming

from there. So I don't think it's without cause. But it's tricky because they had such a tight deadline and frankly, it really wasn't enough to the Supreme courts at decide on this. It was that Congress made a determination and the evidence was frankly good enough.

Speaker 2

Yeah right, and the Supreme Court upheld it. Call me apathetic, I'm just lazy. I just feel that my information is out there. No matter what I mean. I do the best I can. I protect my social Security number I'm not stupid. I get a lot of phishing emails and texts all the time. I do the best I can.

But I also realize that with the data flying through the air and how we're so addicted to technology, if somebody says to me, yeah, China can get Gary Tanger's home address, I'm like, what am I going to do about it? Like, I think they can get it, whether they use TikTok or not. See know what I'm saying? You know, am I wrong in that? Is my attitude too leisurely?

Speaker 3

No? And I think what you're hitting on is actually sort of part of what the court said and what Justice Coursus said as well. It's like, look, you know what we consider a threat. They're not saying it directly like this, but the way I read it is, you know what we're seeing as a national security threat today? That may very well change for I think some of the reasons you're mentioning, right, it's so ubiquitous that we

have this information. We have so many apps, and frankly, I'm sure I don't know all these and apps, of all the permissions of every app, but I'm sure plenty of popular apps that are in the us have the same types of permissions.

Speaker 2

There's no question, there's no doubt. I mean, you see it, Joe. It shows up in your feed. Like you if you look for a particular product, say I look for I don't know, a coffee maker, whatever, then I'm gonna get next thing. You know, on my Instagram feed, I got fifteen coffee companies sending me stuff. You know. So I'm kind of like, when I look at this, I go and we're so damn lazy. You know, we're just so spoiled. We go, eh, Okay, so you know, China knows where

I live. Okay, I'll put up with it. You know. That's just the way I feel about this. I don't know.

Speaker 3

That.

Speaker 2

I don't know. That's that's just the way I feel about it. But that's why I wonder. I wonder if there's something else we don't know, if there's something else larger at play. Yeah, somebody could you know, we could be in an episode of The Americans, you know, from Fox, where somebody could come to my door and say, okay, Tangue, I'm gonna you have to become a spy for Russia. You know, I don't think that's going to happen, but I don't know if they need TikTok to do that right.

Speaker 3

And actually, it's interesting you mentioned that one of the things that Justine Goresa was pleased with the court overall, and stacisfically called out that the Court did not do that. The US government was trying to offer confidential information and evidence to the court as well and say like, we would love you for you to view this, and by the way, TikTok can't even view it, but we would

like the court to view it. And they rejected that and said, look, we don't know what's going on here, so to your point, there may be something else to play, but that was not part of their decision today. So they were able to do it without that information. The US government was saying, well, the additional information that they have would have been even more convincing.

Speaker 2

Why did the court reject it? I think it when they want to look at it.

Speaker 3

So the court didn't like the idea that they were protecting it from the plaintiffs as well, So I think it Delvin Dow again with the short timeline. They didn't do a full analysis of it, but because of the fact that they said, look, we have this evidence on TikTok, and by the way, TikTok can't even see it. You know, it's not a criminal proceeding, but it doesn't feel quite right. So that I think is one of the issues that

was to play there. But I think very much to your points, there could be something else, but the court got to the conclusion without that.

Speaker 2

Okay, Joe, we got to take a break. Can you hang out for another segment? I want to I have some more questions about the Trump administration in this coming up. Absolutely okay, Absolutely, okay, Joe. The pino Esposito was with US Deputy Legal Policy Director in Federal Policy chief for the Pacific Legal Foundation. Also knows a lot about the big time court. That's all coming up next to WBZ.

Speaker 1

Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World Night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.

Speaker 2

Harry Tangway, but dare tonight welcome back Night's side. W see joining us right now. He's doing the pino Esposito from the Pacific Legal Foundation. We're talking about the banning of TikTok, which is going to begin on Sunday. Of course, it's going to happen over time and when the app doesn't get updated, eventually everyone will lose the power to use TikTok.

Speaker 1

So.

Speaker 2

But this is what I find so interesting, Joe, is the criticism of Trump or the Trump administration was, you know he had the Supreme Court in his back pocket, right, Like okay. This guy has even said one of the reasons he may have been elected was because of TikTok Right, And he doesn't he doesn't want it to go away. So does he when he takes office, does he have any recourse?

Speaker 3

So this is where, of course they can't make it easy. So because of the fact there would have been a way to do this, so they set the deadline for this for the nineteenth, right, so it's before he takes office, and there is a provision in the law that the president can extend it by ninety days if there's significant progress. I believe it's the phrase they use towards a sale

of the company. So the problem is it's unclear if it means on the day of like on the nineteenth, or if when he comes in at noon on the twentieth he says, I think they're really trying. We're going to give them another ninety days. So that may be the first challenge that he faces when it comes to this is can he if he wants to delay it,

can he even validly delay it? Or is that up the President Biden to do it, which again he has said that he doesn't plan to enforce the law, in which case I think he'd be within his rights, according to the law, to certified and give them another ninety days. But the whole thing is very odd. I mean, I think you could have solved this by making it the twentieth, allowing either president to do it, because you would have been talking about noon when the changeover happens, so they're

both president on the twentieth. So to me, that's sort of the fix that you would have given the option. Obviously, when they passed that, they didn't know who the next president would be. But you know, even if it was going from Biden to Harris, you would have had two different people there having the chance to make a decision.

So it's I don't think it was the best choice to make it on the nineteenth because now you have this additional problem where it may not be in the hands of the incoming president.

Speaker 2

Well as far as Trump is concerned, I'm not so sure it would be a priority for him because this is his second term. I mean, I don't know if that's a hill he would die on, do.

Speaker 3

You, Yeah, exactly. But you know, I think, and he said this recently, is that he knows there's going to be a lot of things he's going to go after try to overturn, you know, specifically go We do a lot of work in like property rights and environmental law, and there's a lot of things that President Biden has done in the last couple of weeks that he's claiming sort of you know, lock off certain areas from oil

and gas exploration, things like that. So there are some provisions where he can President Trump could outright just reverse it, and other ones that they're going to go to court.

So I mean, I I think at this point we'll start looking at to how many people they hire at the Department of Justice to go after these issues, and that may determine how higher a priority some of these issues are, particularly this one, because this is such an oddball, you know, dating issue where they could have just be give him the power or perhaps he's you know, not going to be able to do that, and we'll see where it goes.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it just doesn't seem that high on the list for me. But what floored me. And we have a guest coming up at ten o'clock time to Array Fox of Fox Sports. She's a terrific sports personality in California. She makes money on TikTok. She you know, I don't know. I don't want to quote what she makes, but I was floored that the average income on TikTok is one hundred and thirty one thousand dollars a year. Now, I

don't know how many people that. I don't know what the quantity is, right, I don't know if that's one hundred people. I don't know if that's two hundred people. I'm not sure. But I know people supplement their income five hundred bucks here or three under books here, six hundred bucks, shit, whatever. I mean, this is a big deal. This is going to hurt some people.

Speaker 3

Yeah, absolutely, And you know it's you know, the analogy would be that some other businesses or other outlets where they suddenly they're legal and now they're not. We've had that over the years. You know, certain businesses have determined our violation, say the FTC right. You had companies a number of years ago that had, you know, little miniature antennas and you can get your local networks from a miniature antenna at their server. The Supreme Court said, guess

what that's not. That's not allowed to violate the airways laws and therefore that's the end of that, and that def holds the business. So unfortunately, we do see that a lot throughout the law. And yeah, this is one in particular where I think it implicates a lot of the rights of the individuals on there, which you know, the court did try to tackle, but they said, look, this is sort of an issue separate and apart from that.

But you're absolutely right, it is going to affect a number of people in the pocketbook as well.

Speaker 2

Have you heard, because I have not, you know, looking over the web in different news sources. But there must be an entity ready to take over TikTok or take its place. There's got to be somebody, I mean, Bezos has to have somebody, or Apple has to have somebody in the basement with a product ready to go saying you've lost TikTok. But here's your here's the solution.

Speaker 3

Right, you know. And there's been a number of rumors. I mean, I think I saw yesterday that you know, the YouTube personality mister Beast was going to make a play for it. So, I mean, I think we've we've seen everyone who could possibly get engaged on this. We saw some action for more Trump Cabinet secretaries. I think we're engaged in a possible sale earlier in the or I guess last year when we saw that in some of the headlines. So yeah, I mean I wouldn't be

surprised if it's possible. But what being reported is that, you know, the Chinese government is not allowing them to divest from the parent company Bye Dance, which you know to some people. You saw Senator Tom Cotton was out there today saying, look this, here's the proof. Here's all the proof we needed. They want to allow them to dive back. If they're a successful business, I should just let them go. Well look there you go. It's the

spy app. And I proved my point. So, I mean it's not I don't know for sure, but it's not a bad argument.

Speaker 2

Well what about just starting new I mean just saying I'm going to start the tangwe app.

Speaker 3

Right, Yeah, yeah, So somebody else could come along and do a version of this and if you look. I mean a lot of the other social networking sites has tried to do versions of this, right, Like, you know that they all kind of steal from each other and take good ideas, sure, and bad ideas. So I wouldn't be surprised if you suddenly saw a new feature more

prominently on Facebook that looked a lot like TikTok. They seem to be the ones who moved pretty quickly in that regard, so there's definitely a chance that will happen. And I guess we'll just see if the innovation takes over and who really picks it up. You know, obviously they were the leader in the market, but if they do go away, it does open up the opportunity for someone else to take the rings.

Speaker 2

Well, the new Secretary of Entrepreneurship, but whatever his title is. I'm surprised Musk doesn't have like a ready to go I mean, you know, like boom, here it is you. This is the replacement for TikTok. Just go we do exactly what TikTok. Did you pick up right where you left off? I really do. I mean, I'm really surprised that that's not out there. I think people are missing the boat on that one.

Speaker 3

Yeah, good point.

Speaker 2

Yeah, you know that really with all of the technology, with Apple and Facebook and you know, all of these guys, you think they'd be ready to swoop in on it because where we are a country of convenience and that if the China, China does not want to divest, TikTok goes away, you know, we'll just come on. We're technical, we're digital whores, man. You know, we're not loyal. We're not loyal to anyone. Somebody comes in and gives us

as our digital fix, we'll just go to them. We'll just go to that digital pusher, you know what I mean. That's what we are as a society.

Speaker 3

We don't care, right, and that seems the case that we are willing to jump. But at the same time, we saw, you know, some on the last and a number of people just said, look they were going to move away from Twitter, and they try Blue Sky, and they tried threads through Facebook, through Instagram and they haven't gone very far.

Speaker 2

But you could still get it, is my point. I mean, you're not gonna be able to get it. So yeah, oh I agree with that. Like I'm still on X. You know, I think he's crazy. I mean, I don't. I don't believe anybody anymore. I'm an isolationist. I just hide in my house. I just don't want to know, you know, when the world's coming to an end. Don't tell me, don't text me, don't tweet me, don't let me know. But and I think everybody's crazy on both

sides of the aisle right now. So you know, I'm not I'm not in favor of anyone, but you know it when it comes to musking these guys, I mean, I'm surprised. He's just just not ready to go. So my point was, I'm too lazy to get off X because it's still there. But if TikTok's not there, you know, and you have a chance to make money. If you provide an alternative, I think you I would think somebody

would jump on it. I have to ask you a question before you go, And I may be putting in a bad spot, but you know, I just think all lawyers are kind of the same, and you guys just know everything. Do you have an opinion, because what I'm fascinated to see is what happens with the border?

Speaker 3

Right?

Speaker 2

Do you have any Yeah?

Speaker 3

So yeah, you know, it'll be interesting. I think you have a number of issues at play, right. You have that the president is more than likely going to declare a national emergency regarding the border, so that automatically gives them a lot more power to do things. It's still you know, it's not absolute, but it's it gives them a little bit more leeway to take some actions that he may want to do about actually physically securing the border or otherwise. And then there's going to be sort

of the the enforcement within the border now. Right, so everyone who's already here what happens next and what they've been said, and I think where they think they will certainly have the easiest time will be going after people who are here illegally and have committed crimes. Right, so that that will be the easiest one. Anybody has a ICE detainer, on an immigration and customs detainer, that should

be relatively easy to you. You know, finding everybody is not an easy job, certainly, but for the legal aspect, that's the easiest one to do. So it's after that and seeing how long that takes to see what happens next. So does it mean that they eventually come to some sort of deal or agreement in Congress that has some

sort of pathiwlay of citizenship. It's possible, but it's so hard to predict at this point, just not knowing what those first steps are going to take and if that's really going to be seen as enough by not only by Trump officials who have been wanting to get back at this and sort of fix the problem, but also by the American people who certainly voted to take action on these issues. And again we're seeing that red blue and otherwise that there's some general agreement on what should

be done here. So at that point, once you hit the things that are generally agreed upon, your sort of eighty percent issues, to what degree does the president want to go further and saying, look, I want to do more here, because there will always equal people calling for more, right, So it's a matter of a political calculation and certainly a legal calculation. Well, it's how far you want to go.

So at this point I think it's a bit of a wait and see and see what happens when I do their initial enforcement issues and see if there's any problems in the courts or otherwise. But after that we should get some more evidence of stuff where we're headed.

Speaker 2

Well, I think anybody with a reasonable attitude, we'll say we got to do something. Yeah, I mean when when when I hear an argument like well, in the nineteen hundreds we welcomed all on our show, I go, Yeah, it's not nineteen o one anymore, and people are coming from Europe on a steamer. You know, it's a different it's a completely different ballgame. So there has to be some order to the chaos. And I agree with you.

I think both sides of the eye wants it. So if they can get eighty percent there, that's a good thing. What about the birthright thing? Do you think that'll actually go away?

Speaker 3

No, it doesn't seem like it. And frankly, I haven't looked at that closely to the arguments there.

Speaker 2

Seems really to me. I mean I'm not attorney, but I mean I don't know if that's a hill they die on, you know what I mean exactly.

Speaker 3

And that's the thing. I mean, we're going to start looking back at the original intention of why was written, and it's hard to put into the same contact in the same way. Like you mentioned, you know, immigration in the early nineteen hundreds is radically different than immigration now just because of the just the means of how people did it. Frankly as part of the issue that you had an actual checkpoint that had to go through. I mean, you certainly had people that could jump off the vote

in New York Harver. But outside of that, you were coming through Ellis Island, You're going through other gateways, so there were mechanisms and really the issue on all this comes down to what is the overarching immigration policy. I think if we don't look at it as a whole system, that's when you run into problems. If you just look at that, well, here's this spot on the border where everon's running across, Well, sure put up what you need

to do there. But the point is are there more people that we want to take in or do we not want to take people? And that really needs to be the conversation in Congress to say, look, this is within Congress's power to deal with the immigration laws. What do we want to do? So if we want to argue between a couple of weeks ago we had the argument over H one B visus and all their types of work visas, that's those are a louch of people that like seeing all the back and forth on that.

Perhaps that's a useful debate to have, and that's really where the issue is, is that Congress should be deciding what is our actual immigration policy, not just sort of the obvious things that everyone agrees on, Because, like you said, if everyone sort of thinks something should happen about securing the border itself, fine, but then what is the policy past that the security of the border seems like the bare minimum? And of course we haven't had that. But

once that is done, then what do we do? And we're back to the same question we've had for as long as I can remember, is that we don't really have a policy.

Speaker 2

Joe, you're a terrific guest. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate and you have a good weekend.

Speaker 3

Thank you you too, all.

Speaker 2

Right, Joe DiPino Esposito joining us from the Pacific Legal Foundation. We appreciate the time. Six one seven two five. The telephone number, Gary Tagway here for Dan Rang on WBC's Night Side. If you guys do TikTok, if you make money on TikTok, give me a call, tell me about it, and what are you going to do when it goes away? Six one seven two four ten thirty. This is WBC.

Speaker 1

It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZS Boston's news radio.

Speaker 2

All right, tagway for Ray tonight six one seven two, four to ten thirty is the telephone number. And I have friends that make money on TikTok. Make a couple grand a month, make five hundred a month, make a thousand a month. I mean, this is no joke. This is gonna get this. This is going to cost people. I feel bad about that. That really bothers me. I feel terrible about that. It must be serious for the

government to go to this level. I mean, here, the thing that, as I mentioned in the previous conversation, is even Trump wants TikTok to stick around because it works for him. Now, this is a guy who doesn't want to deal with anyone internationally, who wants to put a twenty five percent tariff on China and all other imports. But TikTok, he feels got him elected. So it's like, oh, okay, we'll keep TikTok around because it was good for me. I don't think it's going to necessarily do anything for

him now, obviously, because this is it for him. I just laugh at that. It's just so funny, and the politicians are all the same. You know, how is it going to benefit me at this particular time, How is it going to benefit my reelection, how is it going to benefit my future as opposed to looking at the

big picture, and how does it benefit the constituents. Now for the federal government to go to the Supreme Court and say, we have more information damning information on China, which owns the parent company of TikTok, on why it shouldn't be allowed in the US, and the Court said, no, we don't need to see that, which I that's odd to me. I would think they would want that information. But as Joe pointed out previous guests, she was terrific

by the way. They would want both sides of the aisle to see that, or they would want the people arguing to keep TikTok to have that availability too, And from what I understand, the court just felt that that would well, for lack of a better term, muck up the situation and they were going to uphold Congress's ban on it no matter. They didn't need that. That wasn't

going to make a difference. They were already going to ban TikTok, and this is a country where, man, you could say anything, you can watch anything, you could say anything. It still is so weird to me that we are banning a media channel. That's what's happening. We are banning a media channel, and that stuff happens in Russia, happens in China, happens in North Korea, where I've talked to friends of mine who do business in Russia or Russia

not so much anymore obviously. But while with Putin that said, that's a different animal. But you know, with China, if you go to China and you talk to citizens, they have no idea what's going on in the outside world because the government only wants them to know so much. Now that's not really the case with TikTok. Look, if TikTok goes away, we're still going to be informed, We're

still going to know what's going on. But again, in this country, to ban a media channel is so quite Frankly, I'm American, but I guess it just goes to the show. It just reveals the depths of the dangers of technology. Let's go to andrewid Hero. Andrew, you're up on WBZ.

Speaker 4

What do you have to say, Hey, I just wanted to say that Trump was originally for banning tick Tar.

Speaker 2

But he's not. But he's not, but he's not now because it got him elected, right, Well that's what he says anyway. I mean, so, I mean, that's the thing that's that's funny, Like he should have just kept his.

Speaker 4

Mouth shut, you know, yeah, pretty much.

Speaker 2

What do you think about the whole thing?

Speaker 3

Uh?

Speaker 4

Like, like before you know, there must be something really stressful going on that involves that, and it's probably not something that we know about or nobody is telling us.

Speaker 2

You know, well, it has to involve national security, one would think, because the federal government generally doesn't get involved in oh god, I just generally doesn't get involved in preventing freedom of speech, if you will. That's not really what we do here. So there must be something pretty serious going on. That's what I want to believe that TikTok and it us China to get in and learn some very serious things about the United States government that

we don't want them to know. But thanks Andrew, I appreciate the call. But unfortunately it's going to cost people a lot of money. All right, let's go to more on the Cave Mara. You're up on WBZ, Hey.

Speaker 5

Gary, Yeah, I'm listening to your conversation. And I have to admit when I initially heard the talk about trying to ban TikTok, I uh, I was all in favor of it. Yeah, I don't I want to give the Chinese, you know, into all of our private, h private information. But once once I.

Speaker 6

Heard that, you know, Biden and Pelosi and Schumer and they were all against that move, I was thinking, oh, all right, well, maybe I need to read this. So I don't know. I don't like the idea of banning the free speech.

Speaker 5

I also don't like the idea of the Chinese having the ability to get access to all of our information. I'm a little bit conflicted.

Speaker 2

Well, this is I agree with you one hundred percent, and I have gone back and forth on it because I'm in the media. Obviously, I believe in freedom of speech. I believe that's why this country has been able to exist, and that's why I know everyone in the world wants to live here. They do. Yep, it's a great place to live. What now, I have friends, I have friends that have moved to Europe and it's a laid back lifestyle. I get it. But look look London and France, that's terrific.

You can look, you can have a great time there too. But the United States it's a great place to live because we let you say what you want. I mean absolutely, there are some there are some crazy, disgusting things that if you want to watch them you can so I hear right, I mean really absolutely. I mean the ku Klux Klan freeom of speech. You want to talk about hate, you want to talk about the fact that you don't like Catholics and you don't like African Americans, Well you

can say that and we go okay, okay. So it's got to be so bad that it does infiltrate national security. And I think that one of the things that we have to realize now in this day and age of technology, we have to be prepared for that because with AI and technology we can't control it. We have to be prepared. You know that if the government says that's going to go, because it puts you at risk, we have to believe them. That's what I'm at.

Speaker 5

You know, well, I'd like to be able to truly believe them. I'm so a little bit skeptical, but I do. I worry there are downsides to the technology that's available to us today, and I don't know everybody uses it, you know, properly or for the right reasons, and so that does concern me. I also think, you know, in Trump saying, oh, you know, they helped me get elected. You know, that's great. I also think that's him saying. I don't know that he's making that comment solely for

his own personal benefit. I think he's also shining light on the fact that this is something that can benefit you know, it does benefit people's businesses, and it does benefit their livelihood and there could be some some good in there. We just need to figure out where that happy medium is.

Speaker 2

You know what we have to find out more. We have to find out if Donald Trump Junior has a TikTok account and how much money he makes, because that could be it. Thank you for the phone call, KT, I appreciate it, Paula Plymouth. You're coming up next on w b Z Quick Quick Break that we're back on the Dan Ratio. Now Dan Way live from the Window World.

Speaker 1

Night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.

Speaker 2

Welcome back, Gary Tank waiting for Dan Ray six one seven ten thirty nine o'clock, We're going to talk to our buddy Cooper Lawrence from CBS Entertainment discussing about all the legal action that's going on in the very sad indisturbment situation with the film. It ends with us Paul in Plymouth on TikTok, which is going away or we'll start to go away on Sunday. Paul, you're on Nightside on WBZ. What do you got? Hi?

Speaker 7

How you doing?

Speaker 2

Gary?

Speaker 7

Listen? I'll tell you what I think. You know, let's go back, you know, thirty forty years Radio Moscow and you know you could pick it up on short way if you imagine if radio yeah, Radio Moscow, if they took over CBS and they're broadcasting in the United States.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean it's a fair point. I mean, what's Woar two, Tokyo Rowse, Tokyo Rose.

Speaker 7

Yes, yeah, sure, right, yeah. And and this is you know, this is a media that's controlled by an adversary of

the United States. So and you know, I don't think people realize that, you know, I, for one, would you know I get all these spam advertisements from TikTok trying to get me to sign up, and it's like, no, damn way am I going to sign up for that, Because, as far as I'm concerned, if you sign up for something like that, you're signing up for something that enemy of the United States could be looking into your into

your computer. They're going to they're going to keep pushing their story and it's nothing but a big prop again, the machine, and it's a state run propagain, the machine run by the Chinese government.

Speaker 2

Well, it's a fair point by you, and it's obviously a concern in the United States. Excuse me as far as it being a propaganda machine. Of just likes to look on it and make funny videos with their friends, you know. That's that's the innocence of it. That's the innocence of it. But there is definitely a dark side to it that the United States government feels China is using to their benefit, which does not benefit us. Bill in Pennsylvania, you're up on WBZ, Yeah, Gary.

Speaker 8

Thanks for taking my calls, and that they use it for tracking and uh, and.

Speaker 7

I don't know.

Speaker 8

There was hardly any any conversation over the last month or two months about fault Typhoon. Salt Typhoon has been scarfing up every text that you and I have been sending over the last year, and it's you know, when you find something like this out, you gotta you gotta shut it down. Hell, they had what they had a balloon that that the Chinese flew a balloon completely across a lot of our military. I mean, it's just what the hell are we all this?

Speaker 2

Billions and billions, bill bill You're not wrong, but but I have been doing. I've been been told with people in the government, the defense sector, the balloon thing that's been going on for years. And we have balloons on other countries. Countries have balloons on us. That's nothing new. But what is different here with this is the fact that China's dangling a carrot for us to use, and if we nibble on that carrot, it benefits them to

what degree I don't know. But it was so severe the government went to the Supreme Court and said, we got to shut this thing.

Speaker 8

Down, you know, yeah, and then we get we get you're right, you're right.

Speaker 2

There, and then we yet But I'm also built it's like what do they get, Like, what do they learn? That's the thing, like for me or for you, Like, what do they learn from us what they I don't know they get my identity. Hell, somebody in a basement in New York City could get my identity. I mean, I don't know. I'm so apathetic. I guess they would get things from not necessarily me or you, but governmental information that's damaging. I guess, you know, I would love

to know. I would love to know what exactly it is. I would you know what exactly getting nuclear codes.

Speaker 8

They're not. They're not getting it for you and me, Gary, but they're getting it from people like Hillary Clinton running around with four different uh when she was when she was going overseas, and she was using four different servers, and that's where they're getting the stuff.

Speaker 2

It could be, Bill, I mean, what hell, what the hell, what the hell?

Speaker 8

What the hell is she in jail? Tell me that?

Speaker 2

Yeah, Well, I mean, look, generally politicians will go to jail. Hey, on the other side of things, to be fair, there are people who think Trump should be in jail. So I think there are criminals on both sides of the aisle. Bill, thanks for the phone call. We appreciate it. All right. Coming up next, good discussion, folks on the TikTok thing. It's nuts. My concern is when it goes away, my daughter is going to go bananas. Help Cooper Lawrence on a terrific movie. It ends with Us Would, which has

a terrible, terrible story behind it. That's next wdbs

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