The US push to force TikTok to divorce from its Chinese parent company or else be banned entirely had faded from public discussion for almost a full year. In the course of just over a week, it jumped suddenly from the pile of forgotten ideas to getting halfway through the process of becoming enshrined in law.
Technology
How the House revived the TikTok ban bill before most of us noticed
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25332833/STK051_TIKTOKBAN_CVirginia_A.jpg?ssl=1 "How the House revived the TikTok ban bill before most of us noticed")
But the road to the blockbuster vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday was months in the making. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), who chairs the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and is a lead author of the bill, said he’d worked for eight months with colleagues including Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) to prepare it.
“The fact that we didn’t leak the content of those negotiations to the media, it’s just a function of how serious our members were,” Gallagher told a group of reporters after 352 members voted in favor of passing HR 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (just 65 voted against it). “We had multiple iterations. We invited technical assistance from the White House, which improved the bill.”
The legislation is now heading to the Senate where it faces an uncertain future. But how did it get this far in the first place? The bill slid through an unusually fast process in Congress, and a classified hearing last Thursday may have been a major factor in convincing some representatives.
“Students in near tears”
But the clincher was an in-app congressional call-in campaign that backfired spectacularly. When TikTok rolled out notifications to its users urging them to call their representatives, phone lines immediately became clogged across Capitol Hill. Congressional staffers told The Verge about the calls of “students in near tears” with the “chatter of the classroom behind them.”
”They’re flooding our offices, often from kids who are about as young as nine years old, their parents have no idea that they’re doing this, they’re calling in, and they’re basically saying things like, ‘What is Congress? What’s a congressman, can I have my TikTok back?’” Krishnamoorthi told The Verge.
“One person threatened self harm unless they got their TikTok. Another impersonated a member of Congress’ son, scaring the bejesus out of the congressman, by the way,” said Krishnamoorthi. “And this is exactly the kind of influence campaign which, in the hands of a foreign adversary in a moment of national peril, could sow chaos and discord and division in a way that could really harm our national security to the benefit of a foreign adversary.”
“I can’t tell you how many people had the ‘aha’ moment just because of that particular push notification,” Krishnamoorthi said.
The road to the ban
The new legislation is not the first time Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi have tried to ban or force a sale of TikTok. The pair introduced the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act alongside Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in late 2022, which would empower the president to ban social media companies from countries of concern, invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
But that statute comes with legal hurdles, and Gallagher acknowledged after the vote Wednesday that approach “wasn’t the right bill.” HR 7521 takes a different approach, making it illegal for app stores or web hosts to distribute social media services that are “controlled by a foreign adversary.” It also gives covered companies six months to divest from the foreign adversary ownership or stake to remain in the US.
The authors worked with stakeholders and the White House and Department of Justice for months to address concerns — including concerns about whether the legislation could violate the constitution. Even after all the work, Krishnamoorthi told reporters that the 352 votes the bill received “was not predicted.”
“That’s a testament to the power of the bill and the concern about ByteDances’ ownership of TikTok,” he said.
Some members expressed concern about the speed with which the bill made its way to passage
Still, some members expressed concern about the speed with which the bill made its way to passage. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a member of the Select Committee on the CCP alongside Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi, voted against it and called the process “rushed” in a statement. “Congress needs to listen and work instead on a broader data privacy bill to address real concerns without a ban,” he said.
“It was a 12 page bill,” Gallagher said of the speed right after the vote. “I mean, it wasn’t like an omnibus that we just shoved in people’s faces. Even a member of Congress could read 12 pages in a matter of hours.”
TikTok’s ‘number one worst public relations stunt’
Apparently caught off guard by the bill’s introduction last week, TikTok scrambled to activate its enormous US user base to fight it. The app featured a full-screen prompt for users to enter their zip codes and receive the number for their congressperson to call and urge against a TikTok ban.
Lawmakers’ phones began ringing off the hook just ahead of the committee’s vote.
A Democratic staffer for an Energy and Commerce Committee member said their office had hardly seen lobbying engagement of any kind from TikTok since its CEO’s testimony last year. The onslaught of calls took them by surprise.
For four hours, the office’s four phone lines were constantly full, with others going to voicemail. Staffers would take turns handling the phones when others had to get up to use the bathroom.
“It was so bad we had to turn off the phones,” the staffer said.
Several staffers estimated that callers sounded like they were 14, 15 years old
The callers were also unusual as far as congressional call-in campaigns go, based on conversations with five congressional staffers who were not authorized to speak on the record about internal matters. For one, they didn’t seem to have any sort of script. Some would hang up soon after they realized they got through to a live person. And even stranger, most sounded extremely young. Several staffers who spoke to The Verge estimated that callers sounded like they were 14, 15 years old, and sometimes even younger. TikTok has said the notification went to users over 18.
“Kids at recess, kids at lunch,” the Democratic staffer said. “Some kids would pass the phone around … it was a total debacle.”
A senior staffer for a Democratic member on the House Intelligence Committee said their office had gotten calls of “students in near tears, ‘What are you doing, why are you taking TikTok away from me?”
“They’re in class calling our office, you can hear the classroom chatter happening behind them,” the senior staffer added.
“They’re in class calling our office, you can hear the classroom chatter happening behind them”
After this staffer asked a caller to give their name to record their message, the young caller asked if they could leave their comment without giving out their information. The senior staffer recalled explaining that protecting the caller’s private information was exactly the point of the legislation they were calling about.
“I saw the lightbulb go off through the phone,” the senior staffer said.
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), an E&C member, told The Verge her office had received about 200 calls on the legislation last Thursday but only about eight to ten had left any information. “When the others heard someone answer the phone, they hung up.”
“If that was their lobbying effort, it was a bust,” she said.
Rather than convincing lawmakers of the affection their constituents have for the app, it seemed to prove to politicians how much power TikTok has as a service with direct access to 170 million US users.
“This was a preview of what could happen if the CCP wanted to use the app to prevent Congress from acting, say, on a debate over authorizing force to defend Taiwan. Or removing China’s permanent normal trade relations status,” Gallagher told reporters after the vote. “The possibility for dangerous propaganda is too immense to allow one of our foremost adversaries to have this control over what is increasingly becoming the dominant news platform in America.”
Many members have already looked skeptically at the proliferation of pro-Palestinian messages on the app in the wake of the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas, and the subsequent Israeli response that has killed tens of thousands of Gaza residents. Some lawmakers have accused the app of boosting these messages at the behest of the Chinese government. TikTok has denied this, saying that between October 7th and November 2nd, “#standwithisrael” had 1.5 times more views than “#standwithpalestine.”
But TikTok hasn’t seemed to convince many House members. “I think the full court press last week backfired,” Gallagher told reporters after the vote. “I think that actually proved the point to a lot of members who may have been on the fence before.”
“It was probably the number one worst public relations stunt that TikTok pulled,” Krishnamoorthi told The Verge. “That was kind of the secret, not-so-secret reason why, for instance, the House Energy and Commerce Committee had a number of lean-yeses on the day of the vote that became hell-yeses by the time of the vote.”
In a letter to Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi on Monday, TikTok’s vice president of public policy Michael Beckerman wrote, “It is offensive that you would complain about hearing from your constituents and seek to deny them of their constitutional rights. One would hope, as public servants, that you would be well acquainted with the constitutional right to petition the government for redress of grievances.”
Eshoo said she understands why TikTok users would be upset, but that as a member of Congress, she has to factor in other considerations, too.
“If something presents a national security threat to the United States of America, I damn well better pay attention to that as a member of the Congress.”
“I doubt that TikTok’s 170 million users, I don’t think they’re concerned about our national security. That’s not something that they deal with day in, day out. They have their businesses, communications, and all of that with TikTok and they love it,” Eshoo said. “But if something presents a national security threat to the United States of America, I damn well better pay attention to that as a member of the Congress of the United States.”
A classified hearing
Members had access to classified briefings ahead of the vote to better understand the risks. For some members, these sessions seemed instrumental to their decisions to vote for the bill’s passage. Immediately before the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 50–0 to pass the legislation last Thursday, they heard from representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a classified hearing.
Eshoo, who noted she’s attended many intelligence briefings after spending about a decade on the House Intelligence Committee, called the one ahead of Thursday’s committee markup “excellent.” She said hearing from intelligence officials helped ease any concerns she might have otherwise had about the process. “If it was brought up without additional, updated briefing, I would have objected,” she said. “But it was, I thought, a very thorough briefing, layered over other briefings that we have had.”
Krishnamoorthi told The Verge that it wasn’t necessarily “any one single revelation” that made the classified briefings impactful. “I think that it’s probably the level of seriousness with which people addressed the topic. And the way it was done, which was not partisan in any way.” He added that the opportunity for lawmakers to have “candid conversations” with each other in a bipartisan, classified setting was also helpful.
“One of the key differences between us and those adversaries is the fact that they shut down newspapers, broadcast stations, and social media platforms. We do not.”
Still, members who opposed the legislation said they either saw it as a rushed process or the wrong tool to fit the concerns. Notably, Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was one of the members who opposed the bill. He said in a statement that, due to his position on the committee, “I have more insight than most into the online threats posed by our adversaries. But one of the key differences between us and those adversaries is the fact that they shut down newspapers, broadcast stations, and social media platforms. We do not. We trust our citizens to be worthy of their democracy. We do not trust our government to decide what information they may or may not see.”
Himes added that he believes “there is a way to address the challenge posed by TikTok that is consistent with our commitment to freedom of expression. But a bill quickly passed by one committee less than a week ago is not that way.”
E&C Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) also expressed concern about the speed of the process ahead of the committee’s classified hearing and vote last week. Pallone said he wanted to hear from the witnesses before making his decision. After emerging from the classified hearing, he joined the rest of his colleagues on the panel in voting for the legislation to pass. He later advocated for it on the floor before casting a vote in favor there, too.
The path ahead in the Senate
Now that the legislation’s fate is in the hands of the Senate, the process could slow down considerably. There’s not yet a companion bill in that chamber, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has not yet committed to a course of action besides reviewing the bill.
But the bill’s sponsors in the House are hopeful that Wednesday’s vote will send a message.
“The number we posted today, I think, makes it impossible for the Senate to ignore the effort,” Gallagher told reporters.
Cantwell has served as a roadblock to popular bipartisan tech legislation in the past
To move forward, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) will need to usher the legislation through her panel. But Cantwell has served as a roadblock to popular bipartisan tech legislation in the past. She was the only one of the “four corners” of the relevant committees (the top Republicans and Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Senate Commerce Committee) to withhold support for the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, the most concrete and comprehensive piece of privacy legislation to reach such an advanced stage. It passed out of the House committee by a vote of 53–2 in 2022.
In a statement after the House vote on the TikTok bill, Cantwell said she’d try to find “a path forward that is constitutional and protects civil liberties,” but did not necessarily commit to advancing that exact legislation.
“I’m very concerned about foreign adversaries’ exploitation of Americans’ sensitive data and their attempts to build backdoors in our information communication technology and services supply chains,” Cantwell said. “These are national security threats and it is good [that] members in both chambers are taking them seriously.”
Another potential speed bump is former President Donald Trump’s new opposition to a TikTok ban.
Trump surprised some by coming out against the TikTok bill last week, despite his own previous efforts during his time in office to ban the app. He said on Truth Social and CNBC that banning TikTok would only help Facebook, which he considers to be “an enemy of the people.”
Speaking with reporters after the vote, Gallagher tried to downplay Trump’s opposition. “If you actually read what Trump said, the goal of the bill is not to shut down TikTok and force its users onto Facebook. That would be a bad outcome,” he said. “So in that sense, I agree with what Trump said. But our bill allows for a divestiture.”
Gallagher also appealed to Trump’s ego and self-crafted image as a dealmaker, saying, “Trump may, if he gets reelected, have an opportunity to consummate the deal of the century.”
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Anthropic just released Claude Fable 5, calling it the most powerful AI model it has ever made widely available and praising its skills in biology, among others. But the model won’t answer basic biology questions — the kind you’d expect a high schooler to handle. Instead, it hands off the query to the former flagship model, Claude Opus 4.8.
It isn’t because Fable doesn’t know the answers. It’s because Anthropic won’t let it, by design.
Fable is a public-facing, Mythos-class model, a family so capable at cybersecurity tasks Anthropic said it was too dangerous to release publicly. But while Anthropic has spent much of the extended Mythos rollout warning about cybersecurity, it is biology where Fable’s guardrails are the most obvious — and most limiting.
When I tried the model, it refused to answer a range of basic biology questions, many that felt about as far away from any plausible safety risk as any question could be. It would not respond to “tell me about cell membranes” or answer “what are mitochondria,” that famous powerhouse of the cell. It refused to explain “what is a prion,” the proteinaceous particles behind mad cow disease, or “how mRNA vaccines work.”
“We made this tradeoff so customers could benefit from the model’s capabilities sooner without the risks.”
The restrictions applied to ordinary and objectively rather harmless medical queries too. Fable would not answer “what causes hay fever,” explain how asthma medicine works, explain how antibiotic resistance arises, or tell me what Ebola is and how it spreads. Some of my basic queries occasionally got through, with Fable answering questions like “what is cancer” and “what is DNA.” When Fable refused, Opus 4.8 generally answered perfectly well.
Anthropic says the broad biology filters are an intentional choice and are deliberately conservative, with bioweapons the primary concern. “With the launch of Claude Fable 5, our first Mythos-class model, we believe models now have a greater ability to accomplish real-world scientific tasks and for malicious actors to potentially use our models for highly risky biological research,” spokesperson Paruul Maheshwary told The Verge. “We have always used classifiers to block our models from helping with bioweapons-related requests. To deploy Fable 5 safely, we believe it was necessary to be overly conservative with our safeguards so they block most queries tied to biology work.”
Anthropic has previously highlighted four key areas where it would throttle Fable’s responses for safety: chemistry, biology, cybersecurity, and distillation, a technique for training smaller AIs using the outputs of larger ones. The company has accused Chinese rivals like DeepSeek of using distillation on its models on an “industrial” scale.
While I could not meaningfully test distillation, Fable seemed more willing to answer questions about chemistry and cybersecurity. For example, it gave a basic overview of the explosive TNT, though withheld synthesis instructions “for obvious reasons.” It readily answered questions on the use of chlorine gas as a chemical weapon, common password threats, and nuclear fusion and fission, as well as explaining how to secure an iPhone from hackers. It still limits: Fable deferred to Opus when I asked it about sarin gas, a highly toxic nerve agent. Fable and Opus both refused the prompt “how to make anthrax,” and Claude paused the chat entirely. That made sense. The mitochondria prompt refusal seems like a false positive.
“We made this tradeoff so customers could benefit from the model’s capabilities sooner without the risks,” Maheshwary explained, adding that Anthropic is working hard to improve its detection and reduce the false positives. “We intend to make Mythos-class models available without these safeguards to the broader biology and life sciences community so these capabilities can be used to accelerate biomedical research and drug discovery.”
Anthropic did not answer questions about whether this kind of restricted release will become the new norm for future models.
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Texas mom jailed over dirty water Facebook post
Jennifer Combs says she was arrested on a felony charge after using Facebook to collect reports about water concerns in Trinidad, Texas. A grand jury later declined to indict her. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
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Jennifer Combs says she never set out to become the face of a fight over free speech, dirty water and small-town power. She says she was simply trying to help people in Trinidad, Texas, report problems with their water. Some residents had complained about discoloration, sediment, odors and health concerns. So Combs used her Southern Belle Watch Facebook page to collect reports and send them to the state.
Then, according to Combs, the situation took a turn that still sounds hard to believe. She says police came to her home and arrested her on a felony warrant over a Facebook post.
“I’ve never even had a speeding ticket,” Combs said. “I’m a mom of four kids. I have one grandbaby right now. I have two more grandbabies on the way.”
Now, Combs says her arrest has become about something much bigger than one Facebook post.
HOW I WAS TRICKED AND LOCKED OUT OF FACEBOOK AFTER BEING HACKED
Jennifer Combs says she was arrested on a felony charge after using Facebook to collect reports about water concerns in Trinidad, Texas. A grand jury later declined to indict her. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
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Why Jennifer Combs started asking about Trinidad water
Jennifer sat down with me for my CyberGuy Report podcast at CyberguyPodcast.com to explain what happened, why she started asking questions and what she wants other communities to learn from her ordeal.
Combs says she got involved after seeing a post from an older woman who needed help buying bottled water. According to Combs, the woman was on a fixed income and had already spent part of her monthly money on bottled water. Combs said the woman claimed her doctor had told her not to cook with or drink the tap water. That moment stuck with her.
11 EASY WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR ONLINE PRIVACY IN 2025
“I’m a firm, firm person on transparency,” Combs said. “I stand on it. I think if you’re going to be in government, there should be zero reasons for you not to be transparent with your people that elected you to be there.”
So she started collecting complaints. Her plan was simple. If residents shared their water issues, she could pass those reports to the state. That way, inspectors would know where to look.
Trinidad water complaints had been building
Combs says the water issue had been going on for years in parts of Trinidad. “That’s real. That’s not AI. That is absolutely very real,” Combs said when asked about images of the water.
She said some residents did not want to speak publicly because they feared backlash. “A lot of them wanted to be able to message me anonymously, because the retaliation in Trinidad is very, very real,” Combs said.
That is why she created a place where people could quietly share reports. She says she wanted to collect the information, map the affected areas and send everything to the state.
The Facebook post behind the arrest
Combs read the Facebook post during our conversation. In it, she said her page had received reports that some citizens had been hospitalized due to bacteria in the water. She called it “a serious public health concern that deserves immediate attention.”
The post asked residents to message the page if their water looked discolored, contained sediment, had a strong odor or if they had related health concerns. It also asked for general neighborhood areas, photos, videos, dates and times.
Combs says the post was later removed by Facebook after it was reported by a select group of people from the community and flagged, though she says Facebook did not tell her why. But before it came down, she says, then-Trinidad Police Chief Charles Gregory had taken a screenshot of it and posted it on the Trinidad Police Department Facebook page, accusing her of making a false report.
“I never filed a report with the police department,” Combs said. “I only filed a report with the state of Texas with the water.” She says she was gathering community reports about the water and sending them to the state. That distinction is important because it raises questions about why a public health complaint on Facebook became a police matter. We reached out to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, for comment, but did not hear back before our deadline.
Trinidad hired a contractor to handle water issues
Combs says the city had hired a contractor to help manage the water problem. She said boil notices listed his number, so residents were often directed to call him instead of City Hall when they had water concerns. According to Combs, that created even more frustration. She said residents still felt they were not getting clear answers, and some began sending complaints to her instead.
Later in our conversation, Combs said the person who made the complaint that led to her arrest was the same contractor paid by the city to address the water problem. “Do you want to know who that someone is?” Combs said. “That someone that made the call report is the contractor that’s paid by the city to fix the water.”
That detail adds another layer to the story. The person hired to help solve the water issue, according to Combs, was also the person who reported her for collecting complaints about it.
FACIAL RECOGNITION JAILS INNOCENT GRANDMOTHER, ATTORNEY SAYS
Police arrested Jennifer Combs at her home
Combs says this all came to a head on April 6. Two officers came to her home in Kearns, Texas, about eight miles from Trinidad. She says they told her she had a felony arrest warrant from Henderson County.
“I said, ‘Oh, what? What do you mean?’” Combs said. “And they said, ‘Yeah, you have a felony arrest warrant. We have to take you to Navarro County Jail.’”
Then she was handcuffed in her front yard. “To be handcuffed in my front yard and taken to jail and spend 23 hours in jail before I could get out was very traumatic,” Combs said. “It was insane.”
Combs says she was charged with a felony false report tied to public panic over the water system. “I was just in disbelief, in absolute disbelief,” she said.
Residents said the water reports were real
Combs says Gregory later doubled down on Facebook and defended the decision to arrest her. But Combs says the part that still bothers her is what happened after Gregory posted about her online. According to Combs, some of the same residents who had contacted her then commented on the police department’s post to say the reports were real.
“The people that had made the reports to me commented on there, and they never even interviewed them,” Combs said. “They never even talked to them. But they literally commented on his own post saying, ‘Hey, this really happened.’”
That raises a basic question. If residents were saying the reports were real, why treat the person collecting those reports like a criminal?
Grand jury declines to indict Jennifer Combs
After Combs arrest, the costs started adding up. She says her husband had to bail her out, and the legal bills started soon after. “It’s $2,500,” Combs said about the bail amount. “So he had to pay 300 and something to get me out of jail. And then we’ve had to pay attorney fees.”
Combs says the felony charge eventually went before a grand jury. The grand jury no-billed the case, meaning it did not indict her. “The grand jury said no bill. Absolutely no part of this,” Combs said. “No bill, not enough evidence.”
That meant the charge was no longer hanging over her head. Still, Combs said her attorney had to keep working through the process of getting it removed. By then, the damage had already been done. Combs had spent nearly a day in jail. Her husband had to bail her out. She had to hire a lawyer. And her name had been tied to a felony allegation over a Facebook post about water.
Trinidad water fight took another turn
Combs says the fallout did not stop with her arrest. After she was arrested, a man she identified as Otto the Watchdog protested outside Trinidad City Hall. Combs says he was handcuffed and put in a police car for disorderly conduct because officials claimed he offended a water clerk.
Then, according to Combs, the water clerk said she was not offended. “The water clerk is fired because she would not sign a statement that said she was offended,” Combs said.
Combs says a judge later dropped the disorderly conduct issue involving the protester. Then, she says, the city fired that judge. “The judge dropped it. They fired the judge,” Combs said.
She also said the city attorney was fired the same night. Yet Combs says it happened during a recorded city council meeting with cameras in the room.
MICROSOFT CROSSES PRIVACY LINE FEW EXPECTED
A Texas mother says her effort to document residents’ complaints about discolored and contaminated water led to a felony arrest and nearly a day in jail. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
City of Trinidad responds to request for comment
CyberGuy requested comment from the City of Trinidad. Zachary Smith, an associate attorney with Iglesias Law Firm, responded on behalf of the city and said the firm represents Trinidad. “We recognize that the public wants answers, and that is not lost on us or our clients,” Smith wrote.
Smith said the city is leaving the details to the legal process. “Because lawsuits have been filed, our clients are not able to comment on the specifics at this time. As you know, this is standard practice in active litigation,” Smith wrote.
He also defended the city’s position. “The claims against the City of Trinidad will be answered where they belong, in a court of law,” Smith wrote. “The officials who serve this community have acted, and continue to act, in the best interests of the people of Trinidad. We look forward to addressing these claims fully during the litigation process.”
Why the Trinidad water story raises free speech concerns
People complain online about local problems every day. They post about roads, trash pickup, schools, taxes, crime and public utilities. Some posts are emotional. Some include claims that still need to be checked. But that does not mean a citizen should be treated like a criminal for asking questions.
Combs said it best. “You have the right to question what anybody is doing,” she said. “You have the right to figure out what is in your water, what you’re drinking.”
Then she added one line that says a lot about her. “I’m never going to tell people, ‘Oh, just keep your mouth shut. Don’t say anything and just be quiet.’ That’s not me. I don’t hush very well.
Jennifer Combs wants answers for Trinidad
Combs says the water problem still needs outside attention. She said the mayor went on national TV and asked for the Texas Rangers to step in. Combs also said she had reached out for support.
“I need someone to help,” Combs said. “It’s insane. It’s not going to get fixed the way it is.” She said people in Trinidad have waited long enough.
“They’ve had all of these years to do it,” Combs said. “And now you’re putting people in jail for talking about it.” That is the part that should make all of us pay attention. If people are afraid to speak up about water, what else will they stay quiet about?
What Jennifer Combs wants people to know
At the end of our conversation, I asked Combs what message she has for people who speak out online about local issues. Her answer was direct.
“I think people that speak out for their communities are extremely brave,” Combs said. “So I’m never going to not tell people to speak out.”
She also said people should not let her experience scare them into silence. “You can’t let what happened to me prevent you from standing up and doing what’s right to people,” Combs said. “You can’t because then there’s no good people left.”
How to protect yourself when posting on Facebook
Facebook can be a powerful way to raise local concerns, but you should think carefully before posting. If your goal is to alert the public, a public post can help more people see it. If you are still gathering information, a private group or direct messages may be safer while you verify what residents are reporting.
Before you post, save screenshots of your draft, your final post and any comments that support what you wrote. If Facebook removes the post or someone reports it, you still have a record of the exact wording.
Also, protect people who contact you. Ask for photos, dates, times and general locations, but avoid sharing exact addresses, phone numbers or medical details without permission. You can show a pattern without exposing someone’s private information.
Finally, be clear about what you know and what you are still trying to confirm. Use phrases like “residents reported,” “according to messages sent to me,” or “we are asking the state to review this.” That can help show you are collecting community concerns, not claiming every detail has already been proven.
HOW SURVEILLANCE TECH LED POLICE TO ACCUSE THE WRONG PERSON
Jennifer Combs argues her arrest over a Facebook post raises broader concerns about free speech, government transparency and public accountability. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
Kurt’s key takeaways
Jennifer Combs says she wanted clean water, transparency and answers. Instead, she says she was handcuffed in her front yard and spent the night in jail. That should concern anyone who has ever posted a complaint about a local issue online. When people question public officials, those officials should respond with records, facts and accountability. They should not turn criticism into a police matter. This story also shows why local journalism and citizen watchdogs still have power. Small towns can have big problems. Sometimes the person asking the uncomfortable question is the one doing the public a favor. The bigger question is simple: If a Facebook post about dirty water can lead to a felony arrest, what would stop another local government from trying the same thing? To hear Jennifer tell her story in her own words, check out The CyberGuy Report podcast at CyberguyPodcast.com.
Have you ever spoken up about a local problem and felt ignored, intimidated or brushed aside? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.
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Microsoft’s Office 2019 apps for Mac will stop working next month, because the company isn’t renewing a certificate that validates Office licenses. Owners of Office 2019 for Mac are being warned they’ll have to purchase Office 2024 or a Microsoft 365 subscription if they want to continue editing documents.
Microsoft previously promised that “all your Office 2019 apps will continue to function,” when it announced end of support in 2023. The company then quietly updated that support note last month to remove the mention of apps continuing to function, replacing it with “Rest assured that all your Office 2019 apps won’t lose any data.”
Starting on July 13th, Office 2019 for Mac and Office 2021 for Mac will both run in “reduced functionality mode,” allowing people to open files but not edit, save, or create new documents. The reduced functionality will impact Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.
While Microsoft is providing a certificate update for Office 2021 as it’s still supported until October 13th, 2026, the company is leaving Office 2019 for Mac users out in the cold as support for these apps ended a few years ago. “Office 2019 for Mac reached end of support on October 10, 2023, and no longer receives updates,” says Microsoft. “Because Office 2019 cannot be updated to the required version, this issue cannot be resolved by updating or reinstalling Office 2019 for Mac.”
JimmyTech points out that old versions of Microsoft 365 apps on Mac and iOS will also be affected by this certificate issue, but a simple update will fix it for those users.
Microsoft regularly ends support of software and there’s always the risk you could run into issues running older apps or versions of Windows. It’s still surprising to not see Microsoft make an exception here though, particularly because this certificate issue breaks the main functionality of an app you’ve paid a one-time license fee for.
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