Fast Facts for June 9, 2021
We can forget about the TikTok and WeChat bans. They’re over. Yeah – those were still a thing.
Today President Biden officially revoked the Trump era executive orders that I talked about a lot last year – those orders would have banned the use of both WeChat – and TikTok – in the United States, because of the potential threat to national security.
But that doesn’t mean things are all good. The Biden Administration basically shares the same concerns as the Trump Administration when it comes to the potential risk posed to “American data” on platforms owned by China and other countries deemed as “foreign adversaries.”
The two presidents just handle things differently.
President Biden’s orders *could* lead to restricting those apps in the future. The orders do *not* do that right now. Instead, the EOs —
Order an analysis to be done by government intelligence and commerce departments looking at how safe “American data” really is on platforms owned by so-called “foreign adversaries.”
It orders government officials to take another look at those platforms operating in the US now — using a new set of criteria when determining American data safety. Then the order gives the government authority to “take action, as appropriate.”
What action? What’s appropriate? We just don’t’ know yet. But we do know, TikTok *is* on the list to be reviewed by the Feds.
And speaking of TikTok, these new actions by the Biden Administration, do *not* impact the other Trump-era order that was forcing Bytedance to “divest” its interest in the u-s operations of TikTok. Apparently, those negotiations are still ongoing with the committee on foreign investment in the us (CFIUS).
But what *is* over — all those federal appeals court cases involving the Trump era orders. The Biden Justice Department asked the courts back in February to just forget about all that.
Read the executive order here.
Read the executive order fact sheet here.
PLUS
The IRS just dropped more than 2 million EIP3 stimulus payments.
No this is *not* a new stimulus payment. This is EIP3 which was signed into law in March.
Payments were sent in the form of paper checks and direct deposits.
900,000 payments went to eligible individuals who just got their information to the IRS and another 1.1 million “plus up” payments were issued.
If you still missing a payment
Do *not* stress.
The IRS will issue missing payments on a weekly basis.
More info here.
