I Won't Miss TikTok & Pre-Inauguration Festivities
Marked safe from downloading the app.
Good afternoon,
For you newbies out there, welcome to Outsider on the Inside. I hope this dispatch from in and around the nation’s capital on underreported topics finds you well.
If you’re just discovering my musings, here’s a backgrounder and make sure we’re connected on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Quick Thoughts
Support and follow the work of IWF’s Center for Energy and Conservation today if you haven’t already.
I’m going to have to cheer for and watch Commanders games again: They just clinched their first NFC title since 1991. Woohoo!
Lithuania is putting Europe to shame pledging to dedicate upwards of 6% of its GDP for defense spending by 2030.
I’ll miss attending SHOT Show and Safari Club International Convention this week. Have fun, everyone!
Congrats to my IWF colleague, May Mailman, on her new position with the Trump administration.
ICYMI: I’m one of 50 individuals announced as a 2025 Club for Growth Foundation Fellow.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for next Friday’s dispatch.
TikTok Shuts Down in the U.S.
I never understood the appeal of TikTok. Its predecessor, Music.ly, didn’t interest me. I’m not a lip synch and dance kind-of-girl. Good riddance. I won’t miss this spy app.
On Friday, Supreme Court upheld a federal law to requiring TikTok to divest from its parent company, ByteDance, in a 9-0 vote as a condition for operating in the U.S. It’s a pretty straightforward decision. Free speech was not the contention; CCP-ownership was.
ByteDance responded by shutting down instead of complying. That says more about them and confirms our worst suspicions about the app. Now they’re claiming their first amendment rights are being infringed on. Ironic to hear a CCP entity, which bans the U.S. TikTok version and doesn’t respect free speech, decry this. Tough luck!
Over the last nine months, ByteDance refused to sell to American investors because their algorithm is designed to—hold my beer—spy.
I’m surprised to see elected officials, like Senator Rand Paul, join TikTok in an act of “civil disobedience.” Really, Senator? It’s obvious mega donors with ties to TikTok are wielding big influence over him.
President-elect Trump, who has flipped flopped on TikTok, said he’ll take executive action on Day One (tomorrow) to give TikTok a 90-day extension for ByteDance and the U.S. to reach a deal.
But today at 12:01am ET is when the extension deadline ended. Whoops. As journalist John Hasson noted on X/Twitter, “Per the TikTok law, Trump can only extend the window if he certifies to Congress that TikTok has "binding legal agreements to enable [its] execution" of a "qualified divestiture." Seeing as TikTok has no such agreement in place…Trump can’t do this.”
The corresponding meltdowns by TikTok “dissidents” and “refugees” have ranged from comical to downright concerning. Some of these “dissidents” are running into the arms of the CCP in the RedNote app. Laughable.
Is TikTok the hill to die on? No. There are far bigger issues for the new administration to address than appeasing ByteDance.
Nevertheless, this is a test for President-elect Trump. Will he make a deal that’s, as he says, America-First, or bend the knee to the CCP? Let’s hope it’s the former.
UPDATE: TikTok’s “death” didn’t last 12 hours. LOL.
Scenes from the Week
Pre-inauguration festivities with WMAL and Washington Times.
ICYMI
Articles/commentary/media appearances from the past week.
MEDIA MENTIONS
JustTheNews recycled my Conservation Nation report on water infrastructure in wake of California wildfires breaking out.
Fox News Digital heavily quoted me in a piece about the environmental consequences of outgoing President Biden blocking offshore oil and gas leases. It was picked up by MSN, Yahoo!, FOX8 (PA), WFIN (Ohio), and WSCI 1010 NewsTalk.
New York Post also picked up my Biden speech comments.
And I previewed energy policy under Trump 2.0 with Tony Kinnet on his Daily Signal show.
ARTICLES/BLOGS
Townhall: Let's Clear the Air: Climate Policies Are Undermining the Environment
IWF: Net-Zero Asset Managers Initiative Suspends Activities After BlackRock Exit
District of Conservation
Catch up on District of Conservation episodes below.
And check out a new episodes of The Sportswoman Show with outdoor host Jana Waller Bair and CarbonTV CEO Julie McQueen.
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—Gabriella