D.C. Memo: Former FCC Chairman Pai Backs TikTok Sale in Court Brief
D.C. Memo: Former FCC Chairman Pai Backs TikTok Sale in Court Brief
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TikTok: Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last week co-signed a brief in support of the federal law requiring Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok over national security concerns. "A company should not be able to use the mere fact that it engages in expressive activity to invoke the First Amendment to avoid both Congress’s and the Executive Branch’s considered judgment that its corporate structure and its relation to an adversary of the United States poses an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security," said Pai's 45-page brief submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Pai's brief said the law was constitutional because it "targets ByteDance’s conduct and is based on the government’s longstanding concerns about that conduct." He added, "Congress’s decision to determine that TikTok presents sufficient national security risk to require divestiture, rather than leaving that determination to executive judgment, does not offend our constitutional scheme." ByteDance has until Jan. 19, 2025 to complete the sale of TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users. President Biden could extend the deadline another 90 days.
Prison Cell: FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the FCC does not have authority to allow state prison officials to jam cell phone signals to prevent inmates from engaging in criminal behavior. "Without a change in the underlying law, the FCC is not at liberty to authorize the use of jamming devices in prisons and jails. Moreover, we recognize that jammers can pose serious risks to public safety by compromising authorized communications by, for example, interfering with emergency calls to 911," Rosenworcel said in a Aug. 2 letter to Georgia Attorney General Christopher M. Carr. In a June 4 letter to Rosenworcel, Carr complained that inmates with contraband cell phones have been orchestrating crimes. "Recently, an incarcerated leader of the infamous street gang, 'Yves Saint Laurent Squad,' used a contraband cell phone to order a hit which resulted in the death of an 88-year-old Georgia veteran." Carr also argued that the jamming ban applying to “persons” in federal law did not apply to "government agencies, departments, or instrumentalities ..." He urged Rosenworcel to adopt a new view of the law. "The easiest way to protect persons from the harms caused by contraband cell phones is to allow prison officials to use existing cell phone jamming technology," Carr said.