United States Intelligence Community

• The U.S. government moved closer to banning the video social media app TikTok after the House of Representatives attached the measure to an emergency spending bill on Apr.
• The move could improve the bill’s chances in the Senate, and President Joe Biden has indicated that he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
• The bill would force ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to either sell its American holdings to a U.S. company or face a ban in the country.
• For one, ByteDance can be required to assist the Chinese Communist Party in gathering intelligence, according to the Chinese National Intelligence Law.
• The fact that China, a country that Americans criticize for its authoritarian practices, bans social media platforms is hardly a reason for the U.S. to do the same.
• Here’s why I think the recent move against TikTok misses the larger point: Americans’ sources of information have declined in quality and the problem goes beyond any one social media platform.

The deeper problem

• But the proposed solution of switching to American ownership of the app ignores an even more fundamental threat.
• The deeper problem is not that the Chinese government can easily manipulate content on the app.
• It is, rather, that people think it is OK to get their news from social media in the first place.
• In other words, the real national security vulnerability is that people have acquiesced to informing themselves through social media.

Media and technology literacy

• Research suggests that it will only be alleviated by inculcating media and technology literacy habits from an early age.
• My colleagues and I have just launched a pilot program to boost digital media literacy with the Boston Mayor’s Youth Council.
• Some of these measures to boost media and technology literacy might not be popular among tech users and tech companies.

The Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston receives funding from the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Nir Eisikovits serves as the data ethics advisor to Hour25AI, a startup dedicated to reducing digital distractions.

• Blersch will lead delivering Clearspeed's AI-powered risk assessment solutions across agencies, drive strategic development to meet stakeholder needs, and empower a team of government relations experts.
• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240305247898/en/
  Blersch brings over 35 years of deep public sector experience in developing, implementing, and advising on technology-led programs to address the nation’s top global security challenges.
• “I’m honored to join the remarkable team at Clearspeed and eager to advance its mission to build trust faster with a reimagined approach to risk assessment,” says Blersch.
• Recently, Clearspeed appointed ex-U.S. Federal Government executive, Parker Wise , and retired British Army Brigadier General, Lance Mans , to its advisory board.

• Evolv Technology was founded in 2013 as a next-generation physical security company committed to making the world a safer place.
• Over the past year, Evolv believes it has been the target of a short seller campaign, coordinating with certain media outlets, who are incentivized to discredit the company, misrepresent facts, and promote misinformation.
• Evolv is committed to our mission of making the world safer and stands behind our technology as vetted by hundreds of security professionals in real world environments.
• Evolv is upfront about the tradeoffs and customers regularly call out this as a key source of trust in Evolv and across the Evolv customer community.

• "Additionally, we extend our congratulations to Barry, Julie, Ivan, and Louis on their well-deserved promotions."
• Prior to joining Beacon, Mr. Hall served as Senior Director for Growth at Peraton, overseeing growth pursuits at the National Security Agency (NSA) across three business units.
• Before joining BGS, Ms. Grundman was a Senior Manager at PwC UK, where she led the Cybersecurity in Mergers & Acquisitions team.
• Prior to IronNet, Ms. Grundman oversaw the cybersecurity portfolio at Business Executives for National Security (BENS), working closely with government partners.