Morning Wire - U.K. Tik Tok Trouble & Sanctuary City Bussing Blame | 9.30.22

Episode Date: September 30, 2022

Social media app TikTok is under fire in the UK, NYC’s Democrat mayor blames Texas’ GOP governor for the city’s immigration crisis and retailers are forced to lock up merchandise as theft increases. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Social media platform TikTok is coming under more fire over the issue of privacy, this time from the British government. There are regulators somewhere in the world holding TikTok accountable, but we need legislation that is up to date. What is the Chinese social media platform being accused of now? And what actions are U.S. lawmakers considering to rein in damage from the app? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howl. It's Friday, September 30th, and this is Morning Wire. New York City's Democratic mayor is attempting to blame his city's struggle with an influx of illegal migrants on the Republican governor of Texas. Crisis requires coordination.

Governor Abbott did not coordinate at all. We discussed the latest on the bruising political feud over the border. And the increase in organized and sometimes violent gangs of shoplifters are forcing major retailers to lock up merchandise. We've allowed criminal networks to create a business model selling, stolen goods online, and that is what's put this problem on steroids. What's causing the rise in retail theft? And what are stores doing about it? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. You buy homeowners insurance to protect your house and auto insurance to protect your car, but what measures have you taken to protect the future of your children? Start with a will from Epic Will. A Will gives you the power to decide who will raise your kids should something happen to you and your spouse. Without one, the state decides. It only costs $119 for a single person to create a will.

And when you use promo code wire, you'll save 10%. Go to epicwill.com and use promo code wire to save 10% on Epicwill's complete will package. That's epicwill.com promo code wire. The social media app, TikTok, continues to face security concerns from governments around the world. The latest example comes from the UK, where the company is looking at a $29 million fine for failing to protect the privacy of children. Joining us now to tell us more about why the British government may impose financial penalties on TikTok is Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham. So, Megan, I know this fine is over violating children's privacy, but what exactly does that mean?

Hey, Georgia. Well, essentially, the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, that's the department that regulates online privacy, investigated TikTok for collecting the data of children under 13 without their parents' permission. Now, this investigation covered the period from May 2018 to July 2020. So specifically, the ICO believes TikTok may have breached protections for what they call special category data. What that means is that they gathered information on the ethnic and racial origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation of users. And the ICO issued the platform a notice of intent.

Now, that's a legal notification alerting the company that they're being investigated and could face a fine. In this case, as John said, a fine of nearly $30 million. A separate investigation conducted earlier by the UK's media regulator found that about a third of five to seven-year-olds in the country use TikTok. Yet in the past, TikTok has denied it has any users under the age of 13. So how can they make that claim? Well, essentially it's a legal distinction predicated on the terms of service. So according to internal documents obtained by the tech news outlet Gizmodo, the company's PR department advises employees to say, quoting here, the app is only for users aged 13 and over according to our terms and conditions.

Therefore, in relation to our users, we may speak of young people, but not of children. So kind of a technicality there, but from a legal basis, kids under 13, aren't supposed to be on the platform at all. And some might argue that it's up to parents to make sure that their children aren't in violation of those terms of service. And how has TikTok responded to this? So the company put out a fairly short statement saying,

again, quoting, while we respect the ICO's role in safeguarding privacy in the UK, we disagree with the preliminary views expressed and intend to formally respond to the ICO in due course. And that's all they've said for now. And where do things stand with TikTok in the U.S.? When we talked about this a couple months ago, there was bipartisan calls for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the platform, and the FCC was urging Google and Apple to drop it from their online stores.

Has there been any forward motion on that? No, there really hasn't, and that is pretty concerning. I know you'll remember, Georgia, that the former chief software officer for the Air Force told us TikTok isn't just a national security. risk. It's actually a weapons system for China. And that's not a characterization that leaders on either side of the political aisle have really disputed. And yet, in a New York Times story published this week, several anonymous sources said that the Biden administration is reportedly considering a deal that requires the app to make changes to its data security, but will allow it to continue being owned by a Chinese company. And as we know from leaked documents, TikTok is aware that

China has backdoor access to users data. Experts say the only way that's going to change is if a Chinese company no longer owns it. Morningwire spoke to Will Tebow, policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation's Tech Policy Center. And here's what he had to say about the potential agreement between the White House and Byte dance. Most of the reports I've read about this agreement would not actually change the data at scale or type to which TikTok the app would be able to access U.S. user data. It would change how that data is stored and secured, perhaps, but it wouldn't actually change the information that the application scrapes from American users.

And this includes things like every thumbtap on their phone where TikTok is downloaded. So that really doesn't change. And I think that's part of the frankly warrant. skepticism that many Republicans like Senator Rubio are expressing when hearing of these reports. Well, we still need to find out if they still have access to your information after you delete the app. We've been trying to get a straight answer to that, and it's been difficult. Megan, thanks for reporting.

Anytime. That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. Coming up, New York City Mayor Eric Adams says Texas Governor Greg Abbott's to blame for the city's immigration problem. Hey there. Producer Colton here, do you like to be the first to know about trendy news and current events? If so, you got to get the Daily Wire Plus app. Not only will you receive mobile notifications whenever something's happening,

but you'll also have access to the best commentary to break it all down. Download the Daily Wire Plus app and keep up with the facts no matter where your day takes you. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is blaming Texas Governor Greg Abbott for an influx of illegal aliens that's buckling the city's social and welfare systems. Here to discuss the border. crisis in the feud between Abbott and Adams over the poorest U.S. southern border is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. So Tim, Adams has been sounding the alarm over Abbott's busing program for a few weeks now, and we have some more fireworks here. What do we need to know?

Hey, John. Well, the rhetoric is escalated here, delivered with a bit more urgency now as New York City quickly runs out of capacity to care for these migrants. For a perspective, it's important to know that the numbers of migrants that New York City is dealing with here is a fraction of what border towns and cities have been forced to cope with for years at the this point. That being said, New York City's social services appear to be really strained, and Adams is under pressure to find a solution. And while he does that, he's blaming Governor Abbott for causing the problem. So blaming Abbott, is that fair? How much of this is a direct result of Abbott's busing program? In short, it's not fair. Abbott has bused several thousand illegal aliens into New York City over the past several months. But if you really track where the migrants that Adams is complaining about are coming from, only about 20 percent are coming to the city from Abbott's program.

many of the rest are coming through other means. For instance, the city of El Paso, with federal help, we should note, has transported about 30% of the aliens that Adams is complaining about. But those numbers really only matter if you believe that Abbott is somehow responsible for the illegal aliens being in the U.S. in the first place, which, of course, he isn't. States have no authority over immigration policy. Once migrants are released into the U.S., they are free to travel,

and Abbott says that his busing program is just helping facilitate migrants getting to the places they were going to go anyway. After all, Abbott's program is voluntary and no migrant is transported that doesn't want to be. El Paso's Democratic Mayor Oscar Leezer made a similar point in an appearance on Fox News last week. I think it's important when we're talking about this morning that we take the politics out of this and understand that we have a lot of people coming across into El Paso. But they're not coming to El Paso. They're coming to the United States. And it's important that we sit there and look and see where they want to go.

There's a big difference. You know, you talk about they're being bused. They're being taken to their next. destination, where they want to go. We're not sending anybody where they don't want to go. All right, so the obvious question, why is Adams singling out Abbott? Well, Adam says that the difference between El Paso's and Abbott's busing programs is that Leaser has been in communication with the city, whereas Abbott has singled New York City out for its sanctuary city policies. Adams has also been hesitant to come out hard against President Biden's immigration policies, though the mayor is pushing the

Biden administration for aid to deal with the aliens that the city now has to support. Adams told the New York Post earlier this week that the situation is not fair to New Yorkers and, quote, we should not have to trade off dealing with the needs of New Yorkers and dealing with the needs of migrants and asylum seekers. That sounds a little like something a Republican might say. Right. Tim, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. That was DailyWires, Tim Pierce.

We've seen dozens of viral videos showing mobs of criminals entering retail stores and filling bags with merchandise as employees look on helplessly. The National Retail Federation says that more than 70, 32% of retailers have seen an increase in shoplifting, and they're finally taking action to avoid costly merchandise losses. Here with the details on how this is affecting the consumer experience as DailyWire's Charlotte Pince Bond. So Charlotte, what can you tell us about this rise in crime in retail stores? So if you go into a store lately, you may find yourself asking for assistance to get items normally found on the shelves. That's because the stores are locking up their merchandise to avoid being robbed. As the Wall Street Journal reports Best Buy and Home Deals,

are keeping high cost, high-risk goods locked up in secure areas. If you go to a Best Buy to purchase a FIPID or a high-price speakers, the items are no longer on the shelf. You'll have to pull a card and wait for an employee to help you. Meanwhile, many stores are understaffed. Best Buy said it's not hiding more product as a whole than it did previously, but it's doing so where it's necessary. All right, so we have retailers locking up more stuff than they normally do. What about the customer experience? Is there evidence that this is affecting sales? That's definitely a concern for shareholders and customers. One Best Buy analyst actually said people should sell their stock this summer after he saw how a lot of stores were locking up or not displaying merchandise.

These safety precautions are definitely changing the shopping experience. But sometimes it's a good thing. For example, Scott Glenn, vice president of asset protection at Home Depot, said that sales will go up steadily after a commonly stolen product is protected because stores will be able to maintain their stock. So is this data mainly coming from during the pandemic? or is this problem continuing afterwards? Retail theft definitely spiked during COVID, but it's still higher than it was before the pandemic. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce found in a survey this month

that 56% of small businesses said they were attacked by shoplifters over the past year. 50% thought the issue had gotten worse, and 46% had increased their prices because of it. And a survey released this month by the National Retail Federation found that the amount of retail shrink experienced, which is an industry term for invanagement, loss to theft rose from $91 billion in 2020 to $94.5 billion in 2021.

The uptick in theft has also been associated with increasing violence in retail settings. Around 89% of retailers in the survey said they believe the pandemic led to more violence. Now, we've also reported that changes in law enforcement policies coinciding with the pandemic could also be contributing to these trends. Is that seem correct? Right. For example, things like Proposition 47 and California, California decriminalized theft under $950 back in 2014. But even more importantly, a variety of progressive DAs around the country have shied away from prosecuting petty theft, especially since the death of George Floyd.

The general sense of lawlessness in some parts of the country has led store owners to take security into their own hands. For example, this happened in California in May when workers went after a group of thieves that broke into a jewelry store. We had a idea that it could happen, but it's always different when it actually does happen to you. At some point while I was fighting them, one of them actually hit me in the head with a hammer, just on the side of my left temple. And I didn't even register it until after they left, because I think there's just so much like adrenaline going on. I'm just glad everyone's okay. And I'm glad that our team banded together and able to, like, put up a fight and stop what was happening.

Some employees at Best Buy are even getting trained on how to stand nearby, commonly stolen merchandise likely as a deterrent. Our Workers Union in Colorado and Wyoming even brokered a contract that made sure employees have the right to self-defense if a consumer comes after them. Well, I think most people around the country have experienced at least some of these changes in retail stores. Charlotte, thanks for reporting.

Thanks for having me. That was DailyWire's Charlotte Pence-Bond. Another story we're tracking this week. Six states, all led by Republicans, are suing the Biden administration to halt the president's plan to forgive student loan debt estimated to cost some $400 billion. The lawsuit accuses President Biden of having overstepped his authority in a unilateral move.

Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and you stand with our mission, consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with the news you need to know.