A federal judge ruled on Thursday that a lawsuit attempting to stop the Department of Government Efficiency from obtaining records on millions of Americans may proceed.
In conjunction with privacy watchdog the Electronic Frontier Foundation and two labor unions, more than 100 current and former federal employees sued DOGE, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and Elon Musk in February.
The government filed a motion to dismiss, but on Thursday the judge denied that motion.
The suit seeks to block OPM from disclosing records to DOGE as well as agents of DOGE. It also wants any information already shared to be returned. This ruling doesn’t mean the lawsuit itself will result in victory for the plaintiffs, but it does allow them to carry on.
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Apple lost more than $250 billion in market value Thursday, with shares down as much as 8.5% as a result of President Donald Trump’s tariff spree.
The iPhone maker took one of the biggest hits on Wall Street, where tech stocks dropped as investors shifted money away from volatile assets. Tesla, Nvidia, and Meta were down 6%, and Amazon shares fell by 7.2%.
Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs Wednesday afternoon of at least 10% across the board, and even higher for some countries – China’s total tariff rate soared to 54% – that will go into effect April 5. Wedbush Securities analysts said the tariffs are “worse than a worst case scenario” for tech investors.
The White House insists the tariffs aren’t a negotiation tactic but a necessity to boost domestic manufacturing. The president called them a move to “liberate” the American economy.
Trump’s huge tariffs on imported goods to the U.S. affect all of Apple’s biggest suppliers and manufacturing hubs in Asia, from China to Taiwan, India to Vietnam, despite CEO Tim Cook’s efforts to court the administration. That means every model of iPhone, iPad, Mac, and accessory that Apple sells will be impacted.
Cook will either choose to hike up the cost for consumers or have Apple take the losses, wiping out tens of billions in potential profits.
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Starting Wednesday, Meta says it will begin combining the Instagram accounts of the Second Lady of the United States, Usha Vance, and the former Second Gentleman of the United States, Doug Emhoff.
As a result, the 1.2 million people who were previously following the Instagram account of Kamala Harris’s husband, @secondgentleman46archive (recently archived by the government), will now be following J.D. Vance’s wife on her newly created account, @SLOTUS. As of the time of writing, her account has less than 66,000 followers.
“Following the White House creating an account for the Second Lady, we are transitioning the Second Gentleman account to @SLOTUS,” said a Meta spokesperson in a statement to TechCrunch. “This is consistent with our process for presidential transitions and with the process we followed for the President, VP, FLOTUS, and The White House accounts earlier this year.”
When Trump took office in January, a lot of users were confused as to why they were suddenly following President Trump on Facebook and Instagram when they hadn’t explicitly requested to do so. At the time, Meta explained this was part of a regular process in which White House social media accounts, including their followers, are handed over to the new administration when a new President takes office.
Usha Vance is obtaining the former Second Gentleman’s Instagram followers now because the White House only recently created her @SLOTUS account, according to Meta. The first post on the Second Lady’s Instagram account is dated March 10th, and Meta says she does not have an official Facebook account at this time.
Be aware that if you try to unfollow @SLOTUS on Instagram, your request may not immediately go through.
Meta says it may “take some time” to process follow and unfollow requests around the @SLOTUS account during this transition. It seems likely that users flood Meta with a barrage of follow and unfollow requests in these account transitions, which slows things down.
Meta insists it never forces users to “auto-follow” accounts without a user’s consent. In this case, Meta says the White House itself controls these official accounts, and it’s simply assisting them in the Presidential transition.
While these White House social media accounts change hands every four years, they tend to create widespread confusion every time. Many users forget they ever followed an official White House account in the first place, especially if they had done so four years ago when the previous administration took office.
However, it becomes much more evident which White House accounts you’re following when the new administration, which may not be the party you voted for, takes over.
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TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been at the center of controversy in the U.S. for four years now due to concerns about user data potentially being accessed by the Chinese government. Earlier this year, the app experienced a temporary outage in the U.S. that left millions of users in suspense before it was quickly restored.
TikTok returned to the App Store and Google Play Store in February.
Nonetheless, TikTok’s future remains uncertain, and a potential second ban on April 5 is looming. A number of investors are competing for the opportunity to purchase the app, and if a deal were to go through, the platform’s U.S. business could have its valuation soar to upward of $60 billion, as estimated by CFRA Research’s senior vice president, Angelo Zino.
To fully understand this high-stakes drama, we’ll first revisit the timeline of TikTok’s tumultuous relationship with the U.S. government, which resulted in various legal battles and negotiations.
The drama first began in August 2020, when Trump signed an executive order to ban transactions with parent company ByteDance.
A month later, Trump’s administration sought to force a sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a U.S.-based company. The leading contenders included Microsoft, Oracle, and Walmart. However, a U.S. judge temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order, allowing TikTok to continue operating while the legal battle unfolded.
Things began to progress even more last year following the transition to the Biden administration. The U.S. House of Representatives, in an overwhelming 360-58 vote, passed the legislation against TikTok. On April 23, 2024, the Senate passed the bill.
Shortly after, President Joe Biden signed the bill requiring TikTok to be sold or banned. In response, TikTok sued the U.S. government, challenging the constitutionality of the ban and arguing the app and its American users were having their First Amendment rights violated. The company has consistently denied that it poses a security threat, asserting that its data stored in the U.S. complies with all local laws.
On December 27, 2024, Trump opposed the potential ban of TikTok in a court filing, stating he could find a way to keep the app in the U.S. This stance was a stark contrast to his approach during his first presidency and presented a surprising turn of events for TikTok.
In January, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), commonly referred to as “the TikTok ban.” TikTok made a formal announcement that it would likely have to go dark on January 19.
Although TikTok indeed shut itself down in the U.S. when the act came into effect, it didn’t last long. The app came back online less than 12 hours later. The platform noted, “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.”
On January 20, Trump signed an executive order that postponed the TikTok ban for 75 days. This extension provides the app with additional time to either sell a stake in the platform or reach an agreement with Trump. His goal is to achieve a 50-50 ownership arrangement between ByteDance and a U.S. company.
More recently, in early March, Trump told reporters that his administration was in talks with four different groups that are interested in buying the platform, per Reuters.
No definitive deal has been reached yet for the sale of the platform, but we could find out very soon.
Below is a list of the investor groups and companies rumored to be potential buyers of TikTok’s U.S. operations. (Surprisingly, Elon Musk is not among them.)
The People’s Bid for TikTok is a consortium organized by Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt, who is also the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Investment firm Guggenheim Securities and the law firm Kirkland & Ellis are helping to assemble the bid. The main mission of The People’s Bid to acquire TikTok is to prioritize privacy and data control, taking an open source approach.
Supporters involved include:
Jesse Tinsley, the CEO and founder of Employer.com, is leading a consortium of American investors. Last month, Tinsley announced a $30 billion all-cash offer to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations.
The story has been updated after publication to include new interested parties.
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