News of the Cyber World

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TikTok

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Trump discussing TikTok purchase with multiple people, decision in 30 days

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, Jan 25 (Reuters) - (This Jan. 25 story has been refiled to add the missing words 'some of' in paragraph 9)
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was in talks with multiple people over buying TikTok and would likely have a decision on the popular app's future in the next 30 days.

"I have spoken to many people about TikTok and there is great interest in TikTok," Trump told reporters on Air Force One during a flight to Florida.

Earlier in the day, Reuters reported two people with knowledge of the discussions said Trump's administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle (ORCL.N), opens new tab and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app's operations.

Under the deal being negotiated by the White House, TikTok's China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok's Web infrastructure, one of the sources told Reuters.

However, in his comments to reporters on the flight, Trump said he had not spoken to Oracle's Larry Ellison about buying the app.

Asked if he was putting together a deal with Oracle and other investors to save TikTok, Trump said: "No, not with Oracle. Numerous people are talking to me, very substantial people, about buying it and I will make that decision probably over the next 30 days. Congress has given 90 days. If we can save TikTok, I think it would be a good thing."

The sources did say the terms of any potential deal with Oracle were fluid and likely to change. One source said the full scope of the discussions was not yet set and could include the U.S. operations as well as other regions.

National Public Radio on Saturday reported the deal talks for TikTok's global operations, citing two people with knowledge of the negotiations. Oracle had no immediate comment.

The deal being negotiated anticipates participation from some of ByteDance's current U.S. investors, according to the sources. Jeff Yass's Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Sequoia Capital are among ByteDance's U.S. backers.

Representatives for TikTok, ByteDance investors General Atlantic, KKR, Sequoia and Susquehanna could not immediately be reached for comment.

Others vying to acquire TikTok, including the investor group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and another involving Jimmy Donaldson, better known as the YouTube star Mr. Beast, are not part of the Oracle negotiation, one of the sources said.

ORACLE RESPONSIBLE

Under the terms of the deal, Oracle would be responsible for addressing national security issues. TikTok initially struck a deal with Oracle in 2022 to store U.S. users' information to alleviate Washington's worries about Chinese government interference.

TikTok's management would remain in place, to operate the short video app, according to one of the sources.

The app, which is used by 170 million Americans, was taken offline temporarily for users shortly before a law that said it must be sold by ByteDance on national security grounds, or be banned, took effect on Jan. 19.

Trump, after taking office a day later, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law that was put in place after U.S. officials warned that under ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans' data being misused.

Am I being censored? Some US TikTok users say app feels different after ban lifted

U.S. TikTok users who once saw the app as a haven for free speech say they see signs of censorship after the platform, which is owned by China's ByteDance, was revived by an executive order from President Donald Trump.

TikTok users are noting a difference in the short-video app following its revival after going dark on Saturday under a new law -- enacted over national security concerns during the Biden administration with bipartisan support -- that requires it to be sold to a U.S. buyer. Trump has vowed to find a solution to the ban, with several bidders in the mix, including people with close relationships to the new Republican president.

Users say they are seeing fewer livestreams, and some activity is being removed or flagged at higher rates for violating community guidelines, including for behavior that was previously permitted.

"Our policies and algorithms did not change over the weekend," TikTok said in a statement to Reuters. "We are working hard to restore our U.S. operations back to normal and expect some temporary instability as we restore our services, which could impact TikTok features or users' access to the app."

But some users said they now see more content moderation, like limited search results, as well as warnings about misinformation and prompts for users to check their sources.

Some claimed TikTok was striking comments that used phrases like "Free Palestine" and "Free Luigi," a reference to Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing a UnitedHealth executive, which had been previously allowed.

TikTok said it does not allow content that promotes violent or hateful individuals on the platform.

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order that he said aims to restore freedom of speech and end censorship, referring specifically to social media platforms.

Content creator, comedian and veteran Pat Loller, 36, said a satirical video he created in response to billionaire Elon Musk's hand gesture at an inauguration event that appeared to some as a Nazi salute was first tagged as misinformation. Loller was then limited in how widely he could share the video, which garnered over a million views.

"I've never seen this before, and it is still there. It says 'sharing is limited to one chat at a time,'" said Loller, who has 1.3 million followers.

Trump on Tuesday said that he was open to Musk, who is a close ally of the president and helping oversee his new initiative on government efficiency, buying TikTok, if he wanted to do so.

TikTok user Lisa Cline said on Meta's (META.O), opens new tab Threads that she was having issues posting a video to TikTok criticizing Trump.

Google Defends AI

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Google pushes global agenda to educate workers, lawmakers on AI

Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google, already facing an unprecedented regulatory onslaught, is looking to shape public perception and policies on artificial intelligence ahead of a global wave of AI regulation.

A key priority, one executive told Reuters, comes in building out educational programs to train the workforce on AI.

“Getting more people and organizations, including governments, familiar with AI and using AI tools, makes for better AI policy and opens up new opportunities – it's a virtuous cycle,” said Kent Walker, Alphabet's president of global affairs.

As Google races to best Big Tech rivals including Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O), opens new tab OpenAI and Meta (META.O), opens new tab in the AI arena, it is mindful of the heavy regulatory scrutiny it faces in its existing businesses in advertising and search.

In the European Union, Google has offered to sell a part of its ad tech business to appease regulators, Reuters reported. In the U.S., the Justice Department is attempting to force a breakup of its Chrome Web browser — though it may shift course under the administration of President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, governments globally are drafting new regulations on issues that could be exacerbated by AI, such as copyright and privacy. The EU AI Act, which seeks to assess risk and require disclosures from general-purpose AI systems, has received pushback from tech giants that could find themselves in the crosshairs of multibillion-dollar fines.

The DOJ has also sought to curtail Google’s advances in AI as a remedy in a federal case that found its search business to be an illegal monopoly.
Google executives see an opportunity to shape the narrative around a technology that has stoked emerging fears of mass job loss.

CEO Sundar Pichai announced in September a $120 million investment fund to build AI education programs. Deputies including Walker and Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer, are increasingly traveling globally to discuss policy recommendations with governments.

“There’s a lot of upside in terms of helping people who may be displaced by this. We do want to focus on that,” Walker said.

Efforts include expanding Grow with Google, a combination online and in-person program that provides training tools for businesses and teaches workers skills like data analysis or IT support that are meant to expand their career prospects in technical fields.

In December, the company said 1 million people had obtained a certificate for the program. It is adding specialized courses related to AI, such as one geared toward teachers, said program head Lisa Gevelber.

Subaru's Security Issues

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Subaru Security Flaws Exposed Its System for Tracking Millions of Cars

About a year ago, security researcher Sam Curry bought his mother a Subaru, on the condition that, at some point in the near future, she let him hack it.

It took Curry until last November, when he was home for Thanksgiving, to begin examining the 2023 Impreza's internet-connected features and start looking for ways to exploit them. Sure enough, he and a researcher working with him online, Shubham Shah, soon discovered vulnerabilities in a Subaru web portal that let them hijack the ability to unlock the car, honk its horn, and start its ignition, reassigning control of those features to any phone or computer they chose.

Most disturbing for Curry, though, was that they found they could also track the Subaru's location—not merely where it was at the moment but also where it had been for the entire year that his mother had owned it. The map of the car’s whereabouts was so accurate and detailed, Curry says, that he was able to see her doctor visits, the homes of the friends she visited, even which exact parking space his mother parked in every time she went to church.

“You can retrieve at least a year's worth of location history for the car, where it's pinged precisely, sometimes multiple times a day,” Curry says. “Whether somebody's cheating on their wife or getting an abortion or part of some political group, there are a million scenarios where you could weaponize this against someone.”

Curry and Shah today revealed in a blog post their method for hacking and tracking millions of Subarus, which they believe would have allowed hackers to target any of the company's vehicles equipped with its digital features known as Starlink in the US, Canada, or Japan. Vulnerabilities they found in a Subaru website intended for the company's staff allowed them to hijack an employee's account to both reassign control of cars’ Starlink features and also access all the vehicle location data available to employees, including the car’s location every time its engine started, as shown in their video below.

Curry and Shah reported their findings to Subaru in late November, and Subaru quickly patched its Starlink security flaws. But the researchers warn that the Subaru web vulnerabilities are just the latest in a long series of similar web-based flaws they and other security researchers working with them have found that have affected well over a dozen carmakers, including Acura, Genesis, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Kia, Toyota, and many others. There’s little doubt, they say, that similarly serious hackable bugs exist in other auto companies' web tools that have yet to be discovered.

In Subaru's case, in particular, they also point out that their discovery hints at how pervasively those with access to Subaru's portal can track its customers' movements, a privacy issue that will last far longer than the web vulnerabilities that exposed it. “The thing is, even though this is patched, this functionality is still going to exist for Subaru employees,” Curry says. “It's just normal functionality that an employee can pull up a year's worth of your location history.”

When WIRED reached out to Subaru for comment on Curry and Shah's findings, a spokesperson responded in a statement that “after being notified by independent security researchers, [Subaru] discovered a vulnerability in its Starlink service that could potentially allow a third party to access Starlink accounts. The vulnerability was immediately closed and no customer information was ever accessed without authorization.”