Image by Nik, from Unsplash
TikTok’s U.S. Ban Fight: Shifts Blame To Shein And Temu In Legal Strategy
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor
In a Rush? Here are the Quick Facts!
- TikTok argues other Chinese apps also collect significant user data.
- TikTok’s defense claims the law unfairly targets its platform.
- Shein and Temu face less scrutiny despite similar data concerns.
TikTok has launched a new legal strategy to avoid a U.S. ban, pointing fingers at fellow Chinese companies Shein and Temu, as reported today by WIRED .
The popular social media platform is facing pressure after the House passed a bill to ban TikTok in the United States , citing growing national security concerns. TikTok has since been in a legal battle to block the law , claiming it unfairly targets the platform while ignoring data risks posed by other Chinese companies.
WIRED reports that in a court hearing on September 16, Andrew Pincus, a lawyer representing TikTok, argued that the platform is being singled out, while other Chinese companies like Shein and Temu—both massive e-commerce players—collect equally sensitive data.
Pincus did not name the companies directly in court, but previous filings by TikTok referenced their privacy policies, highlighting that these firms also gather significant amounts of user data without facing similar scrutiny.
TikTok’s legal team has also framed the law as a violation of the First Amendment, arguing that it prioritizes e-commerce over political or entertainment content, potentially restricting free speech, as noted by WIRED.
This isn’t the first time TikTok has made this argument. In May, eight TikTok creators sued the U.S. government arguing that the law infringes on their First Amendment rights.
However, Judge Douglas Ginsburg dismissed this, stating that the law targets a category of companies posing security threats, said WIRED.
In addition to its legal troubles in the U.S., TikTok recently faced regulatory pressure in Europe. On August 5, TikTok agreed to permanently remove its Lite Rewards program from the European Union following concerns raised by the European Commission about its potential addictive effects.
Further complicating TikTok’s legal battle is another issue: the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission recently filed a lawsuit against TikTok , for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
While TikTok is fighting to stay in the U.S. market, Shein and Temu have not yet responded to the legal debate, notes WIRED.
However, TikTok’s strategy of deflecting attention onto other Chinese companies could have broader implications, potentially leading to increased scrutiny of these firms as well.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
AI Can Crack CAPTCHA with 100% Accuracy
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor
In a Rush? Here are the Quick Facts!
- AI can now solve CAPTCHAs with 100% accuracy.
- reCAPTCHA v2 relies heavily on cookies and browser history.
- Developers need to create more robust CAPTCHA technologies.
A recent study reported today by New Scientist (NS) reveals that AI can now solve CAPTCHAs with 100% accuracy.
Conducted by Andreas Plesner and his team at ETH Zurich, the research fine-tuned an AI model called YOLO (You Only Look Once), demonstrating its effectiveness in employing advanced machine learning techniques to tackle Google’s reCAPTCHA v2 system.
The researchers evaluated the performance of this automated system in solving CAPTCHAs using YOLO for image segmentation and classification.
The key finding is that YOLO can solve 100% of the CAPTCHAs, while previous models achieved only 68-71% success.
Moreover, the study indicates that there is no significant difference in the number of challenges humans and bots must complete to pass reCAPTCHA v2. Additionally, the study sheds light on the limitations of reCAPTCHA v2’s security mechanisms.
The researchers found that the system heavily relies on cookie and browser history data to determine whether a user is human or a bot. This approach, known as device fingerprinting, can be easily exploited by sophisticated AI systems, as reported by NS.
According to NS, to train the model, the researchers provided approximately 14,000 pairs of images with corresponding labels, focusing on various road objects like cars, buses, bicycles, and road crossings.
They tested YOLO’s performance in different scenarios, considering factors such as mouse movement and the presence of browser histories and cookies.
NS notes that a success rate of 100% does not imply that it answered correctly for every image presented; rather, it could reject certain images and be given alternatives, similar to human behavior.
The implications of these findings are significant. If AI can consistently bypass CAPTCHAs, it could open the door to a new wave of automated attacks, including spam, phishing, and account hijacking.
To counter this threat, the researchers emphasize the urgent need for CAPTCHA technologies to evolve proactively in light of rapid advancements in AI to ensure the ongoing reliability and security of online environments.
