politics

The US is about to undergo a rather historic political transition in a few days but it seems that the outgoing Trump administration is hastily doing all that it can before that day comes. While there is no clear assurance that president-elect Biden will reverse the US government's stance in relation to Huawei's sanctions, what is clear right now is that not only the company but its dozens of suppliers as well are being left in limbo after the Commerce Department denied en masse 150 license requests that have been pending for months.

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In light of safety concerns surrounding the upcoming US presidential inauguration, Facebook has decided to ban events on its platform that would take place near the US Capitol building and White House. As well, the platform has also banned new events that would take place near state capitols until after Inauguration Day.

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Social media has been a great enabler but has also been criticized and scrutinized for poorly handling the spread of misinformation and inappropriate, not to mention illegal, behavior. It is almost ironic, then, that these networks have been rather quick to take action in the past days following the siege of the US Capitol building at Donald Trump's behest. The ban hammer continues to fall with Snapchat and YouTube following the example of others.

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Twitter has joined several other platforms in permanently banning Trump over recent tweets, the company has announced. The decision comes only hours after Twitter unlocked Trump's account, which had been suspended due to three tweets in particular that the company said needed to be deleted. Twitter joins Facebook, Twitch, Snapchat, and a number of other platforms in banning the president.

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Following yesterday's events on Capitol Hill, during which a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol Building, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that President Trump has been banned from both Facebook and Instagram indefinitely. While there's no indication of when Trump's accounts may be reinstated - if they are at all - Zuckerberg has said that he will remain blocked on both platforms at least through the end of his term on January 20th.

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The US political landscape is again under a tense atmosphere as people count down the days before a critical change in government. Before that happens, however, the current administration under President Donald Trump seems to be making haste to implement orders and make new rules that have been in the making for months. The latest in that list is an executive order that finally does what Trump has long threatened to do and ban transactions with certain Chinese apps, including those used for money transfers like WeChat Pay.

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The year is far from over and, as far as the current US government is concerned, there is still plenty of time for actions that have long-lasting effects. One of those is expanding the US' notorious "Entity List" to include not just SMIC, China's largest chipmaker, but also, surprisingly, popular drone company DJI. That said, the latter was already rumored to be on the country's hit list, giving it time to make a bold response assuring customers in the country that they will still be able to buy DJI's products as normal.

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It seems that the year won't be ending well for Huawei and ZTE even though the two's smartphone businesses remain somewhat stable for now. The Chinese companies' networking businesses, on the other hand, might be dealt with a rather devastating blow based on the FCC's latest orders. Removing Huawei's and ZTE's networking equipment will hurt rural carriers the most but the FCC promises help will be coming, provided the US Congress finally gets the funds needed to subsidize the costs.

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Social networks have repeatedly come under scrutiny by the US government but few are in danger of going out of business as TikTok is. Granted, the popular short video sharing platform would be able to continue its operations outside of the US in the worst-case scenario but losing such a large market could be fatal to the fledgling company. Thrice it has escaped a complete ban in the US but even as the final deadline lapses, TikTok remains in limbo even more than before.

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The political landscape in the US hasn't yet stabilized almost a month after one of the most important elections in its recent history. It is perhaps because of that state of flux that government officials under the current administration are moving quickly to wrap things up while they can. Last month saw Google formally sued for monopolistic business practices and TikTok's fate could very well be decided this Friday. Next week will see yet another high-profile legal drama when the US government slaps Facebook with an antitrust lawsuit of its own.

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Some might presume that recent political changes in the US government might weaken the campaign against certain US companies but it is far too early to count those eggs. The current government still holds the power and, as far as the Trump administration is concerned, nothing has really changed. Huawei is still on its entity list and TikTok still risks getting banned next month. And according to a recent FCC order, ZTE remains a national security threat because of its potential to be used for state-sanctioned espionage.

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Almost like some of the smooth dance moves you can see on the social network, TikTok has again narrowly dodged what could be the fatal deadline that would end it, at least in the US. As the new November 27 deadline approaches, owner ByteDance was given another week to convince the US government not to ban it outright. That remains a quest of Herculean proportions as the Chinese company's multiple proposals have been repeatedly rejected already.

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