Posts Tagged: banning
Montana’s governor signs bill banning TikTok
Montana’s TikTok ban is now official. Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill banning the app in the state, one month after it was passed by the state’s legislature. The law is scheduled to take effect in 2024, though legal challenges could potentially delay that timeline.
The law prohibits the company from operating in the state and requires app stores to block users in Montana from downloading TikTok. The app’s users won’t face repercussions for using the service, but app stores and TikTok face daily fines of $ 10,000 for violating the law.
The statewide ban, and the expected legal challenge to it, offers a preview into how future attempts to ban the app could play out around the country. In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said the Montana law “unlawfully” violates the First Amendment rights of its users.
“Governor Gianforte has signed a bill that infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok, a platform that empowers hundreds of thousands of people across the state,” the spokesperson said. “We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.”
Like other officials who have proposed bans or restrictions on TikTok, Montana lawmakers have claimed that TikTok’s ties to ByteDance, a Chinese company, puts the personal data of US users at risk. The company has long denied that it would turn over such data to the Chinese government, and has invested more than $ 1 billion into Project Texas to address data security concerns raised by US regulators.
But officials have reportedly said those efforts don’t go far enough, and the US government is now trying to force ByteDance to sell TikTok. If it doesn’t, TikTok will face a nationwide ban and, likely, another massive legal fight.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/montanas-governor-signs-bill-banning-tiktok-225326086.html?src=rss
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England is banning the sale of some single-use plastics
England will ban businesses from selling and offering a variety of single-use plastics, including plates and cutlery, by the end of the year, the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced on Saturday. The government will begin enforcing the legislation in October 2023. In addition to some plastics, the ban will cover single-use trays and certain types of polystyrene cups and food containers but will exempt plates, trays and bowls included with supermarket-ready meals; the government intends to target those through a separate plan that incentives manufacturers to meet higher recycling standards.
According to one estimate cited by the environment ministry, English consumers use about 2.7 billion items of single-use cutlery every year, and only about 10 percent of those are recycled. The department said 95 percent of people it consulted before today’s announcement were in favor of a ban. "We have listened to the public and these new single-use plastics bans will continue our vital work to protect the environment for future generations," said Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey.
Per AFP, Scotland and Wales previously passed similar legislation. It’s also worth noting, England already restricts the sale of other single-use items, including straws and cotton swabs. Additionally, the environment ministry is considering measures that would target other “problematic plastic items.” Specifically, the government could also ban wet wipes and tobacco filters or mandate package labeling designed to show consumers how to dispose of those items correctly.
The ban on disposable plates and cutlery is part of a broader push by governments across the world to curb the production and use of single-use plastics. Last March, the United Nations began working on a first-ever global plastic pollution treaty. While the agreement won’t be complete until 2024 at the earliest, it could be among the most significant efforts to curb climate change since the Paris agreement in 2015.
EU proposes banning encryption backdoors
The European Union might want it to be easier for police to obtain data, but that doesn't mean it'll be easy for officers to read that data. The European Parliament has proposed amended regulation that would not only require end-to-end encryption wh…
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