TikTok says that the government didn’t adequately consider viable alternative options before charging ahead with a law that could ban the platform in the US. TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China, claims that it provided the US government with an extensive and detailed plan to mitigate national security risks and that this plan was largely ignored when Congress passed a law with a huge impact on speech.
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TikTok makes its First Amendment case
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25408587/STK051_TIKTOKBAN2_CVirginia_A.jpg?ssl=1 "TikTok makes its First Amendment case")
In briefs filed at the DC Circuit Court on Thursday, both TikTok and a group of creators on the platform who’ve filed their own suit spelled out their case for why they believe the new law violates the First Amendment. The court is set to hear oral arguments in the case on September 16th, just a few months before the current divest-or-ban deadline of January 19th, 2025.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would effectively ban TikTok from operating in the US unless it divests from ByteDance by the deadline. The president has the option to extend that deadline slightly if he sees progress toward a deal. But spinning out TikTok is not entirely simple, given the limited pool of possible buyers and the fact that Chinese export law would likely prevent a sale of its coveted recommendation algorithm.
But lawmakers who supported the legislation have said that divestiture is necessary to protect national security — both because they fear that the Chinese government could access US user information due to the company’s China-based ownership and because they fear ByteDance could be pressured by the Chinese government to tip the scales on the algorithm to spread propaganda in the US. TikTok denies that either is happening or could happen in the future, saying its operations are separate from ByteDance’s.
The broad strokes of TikTok’s arguments have already been laid out in the complaints. But the new filings provide a more extensive look into how TikTok engaged the US government over several years with detailed plans of how it thought it could mitigate national security concerns while continuing its operations.
In an appendix, TikTok submitted hundreds of pages of communications with the US government, including presentations the company gave to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) when it was evaluating national security risks of its ownership setup. One deck explains the basics of how its algorithm figures out what to recommend to users to watch next, as well as a detailed plan to mitigate risk of US user data being improperly accessed. It goes as far as to include a floor plan of a “Dedicated Transparency Center,” through its collaboration with Oracle, where a specific group of employees in TikTok’s US data operations could access the source code in a secure computing environment. According to the slide deck, no ByteDance employees would be allowed in the space.
TikTok called the law “unprecedented,” adding, “[n]ever before has Congress expressly singled out and shut down a specific speech forum. Never before has Congress silenced so much speech in a single act.”
Courts usually apply a standard known as strict scrutiny in these kinds of speech cases — the government must have a compelling interest in restricting the speech, and the restriction must be narrowly tailored to achieve its aim.
TikTok claims that Congress has left the court “almost nothing to review” when scrutinizing “such an extraordinary speech restriction.” The company says Congress failed to produce findings to justify its reasoning behind the law, leaving only the statements of individual members of Congress for the court to go off of. (Many of those statements are included in an appendix filed by TikTok.)
“There is no indication Congress even considered TikTok Inc.’s exhaustive, multi-year efforts to address the government’s concerns that Chinese subsidiaries of its privately owned parent company, ByteDance Ltd., support the TikTok platform—concerns that would also apply to many other companies operating in China,” TikTok wrote in its brief. Lawmakers received classified briefings ahead of their votes, which some said impacted or solidified their final position on the bill. But the public still does not have access to the information in those briefings, although some lawmakers have pushed to declassify them.
The company also said that CFIUS, which was tasked with evaluating its risk mitigation plan in the first place, did not provide a substantive explanation for why it took such a hard line on divestment in March 2023. TikTok claims that when it explained why divestment wasn’t possible and asked to meet with government officials, it received “no meaningful responses.” CFIUS and the DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
TikTok has said it’s already implemented much of its plans voluntarily through its $2 billion Project Texas
The text of the draft National Security Agreement that TikTok presented to CFIUS was included in an appendix that was filed in court. The draft included proposed changes like the creation of TikTok US Data Security Inc., a subsidiary that would be tasked with managing operations involving US user data, as well as heavy oversight by the agencies that make up CFIUS. TikTok has said it’s already implemented much of its plans voluntarily through its $2 billion Project Texas. Still, recent reporting has raised questions about how effective that project really is for national security purposes. In a report in Fortune from April, former TikTok employees said the project was “largely cosmetic” and that workers still engage with China-based ByteDance executives.
Terrence Clark, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, said in an emailed statement to The Verge that the agency and intelligence officials have “consistently warned about the threat of autocratic nations that can weaponize technology — such as the apps and software that run on our phones – to use against us. This threat is compounded when those autocratic nations require companies under their control to turn over sensitive data to the government in secret.”
Regardless, the court will have to consider whether the US government should have considered a less speech-restrictive route to achieving its national security aims, and TikTok says it should have. “In short, Congress reached for a sledgehammer without even considering if a scalpel would suffice,” TikTok wrote in its brief. “It ordered the closure of one of the largest platforms for speech in the United States and left Petitioners — and the public —to guess at the reasons why a wide range of less speech-restrictive alternatives were disregarded. The First Amendment demands much more.”
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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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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