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The CEO of TikTok faced a grilling Thursday from a U.S. congressional committee in a rare public appearance where made his own case for why the hugely popular video-sharing app shouldn’t be banned.
Shou Zi Chew’s testimony came at a crucial time for the company, which has acquired 150 million American users but is under increasing pressure from U.S. officials. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have been swept up in a wider geopolitical battle between Beijing and Washington over trade and technology.
“Mr. Chew, you are here because the American people need the truth about the threat TikTok poses to our national and personal security,” Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, said in her opening statement. “TikTok has repeatedly chosen a path for more control, more surveillance and more manipulation.”
Chew, a 40-year-old Singapore native, told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that TikTok prioritizes the safety of its young users and denied allegations that the app is a national security risk. He reiterated the company’s plan to protect U.S. user data by storing all such information on servers maintained and owned by the server giant Oracle.
“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said.
On Wednesday, the company sent dozens of popular TikTokers to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers to preserve the platform. It has also been putting up ads all over Washington that tout promises of securing users’ data and privacy and creating a safe platform for its young users.
TikTok has been dogged by claims that its Chinese ownership means user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government or that it could be used to promote narratives favorable to the country’s Communist leaders.
In a rare, bipartisan effort to reign in the power and influence of a major social media platform, Republican and Democratic lawmakers pressed Chew on a host of topics, ranging from TikTok’s content moderation practices, how the company plans to secure American data from Beijing, and that it admits spying on journalists.
Watch the Hearing Below:
In 2019, the Guardian had reported TikTok was instructing its moderators to censor videos that mention Tiananmen Square and other images unfavorable to the Chinese government. The platform says it has since changed its moderation practices.
ByteDance admitted in December that it fired four employees last summer who accessed data on two journalists, as well as other people connected to them, while attempting to track down the source of a leaked report about the company.
For its part, TikTok has been trying to distance itself from its Chinese origins, saying that 60% percent of its parent company ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors such as Carlyle Group. ByteDance was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs in Beijing in 2012. Responding to a Wall Street Journal report, China said it would oppose any U.S. attempts to force ByteDance to sell the app.
But Chew pushed back against the idea that TikTok’s ownership was an issue in itself.
“Trust is about actions we take. We have to earn that trust with decisions we make for our company and our products and potential security, privacy content, manipulation concerns raised about TikTok are really not unique to us” Chew said. “Ownership is not at the core of addressing these concerns.”
A U.S. ban on an app would be unprecedented and it’s unclear how the government would enforce it.
Experts say officials could try to force Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, preventing new users from downloading it as well as preventing existing users from updating it, ultimately rendering it useless.
The U.S. could also block access to TikTok’s infrastructure and data, seize its domain names or force internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon to filter TikTok data traffic, said Ahmed Ghappour, a criminal law and computer security expert who teachers at Boston University School of Law.
But a tech savvy user could still get around restrictions by using a virtual private network to make it appear the user is in another country where it’s not blocked, he said.
To avoid a ban, TikTok has been trying to sell officials on a $1.5 billion plan called Project Texas, which routes all U.S. user data to domestic servers owned and maintained by software giant Oracle. Under the project, access to U.S. data is managed by U.S. employees through a separate entity called TikTok U.S. Data Security, which employs 1,500 people, is run independently of ByteDance and would be monitored by outside observers.
As of October, all new U.S. user data was being stored inside the country. The company started deleting all historic U.S. user data from non-Oracle servers this month, in a process expected to be completed later this year, Chew said.
Generally, researchers have said TikTok behaves like other social media companies when it comes to data collection. In an analysis released in 2021, the University of Toronto’s nonprofit Citizen Lab found TikTok and Facebook collect similar amounts of user data valuable for advertisers.
To block such tracking, Congress, the White House, U.S. armed forces and more than half of U.S. states have banned the use of the app from official devices.
But wiping away all the data tracking associated with the platform might prove to be difficult. In a report released this month, the Cybersecurity company Feroot said so-called tracking pixels from ByteDance, which collect user information, were found on 30 U.S state websites, including some where the app has been banned for official use.
Other countries including Denmark, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand, along with the European Union, have already banned TikTok from devices issued to government employees.
David Kennedy, a former government intelligence officer who runs the cybersecurity company TrustedSec, agrees with restricting TikTok access on government-issued phones because they might contain sensitive information. A nationwide ban, however, might be too extreme, he said. He also wondered where it might lead.
“We have Tesla in China, we have Microsoft in China, we have Apple in China. Are they going to start banning us now?” Kennedy said. “It could escalate very quickly.”
TikTok is ramping up a public relations campaign to fend off the possibility of a nationwide ban by the Biden administration, and it’s bringing some unconventional advocates to help: online influencers.
Dozens of TikTok creators — some with millions of followers on the video-sharing app — came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lobby in favor of the platform, one day before lawmakers are slated to grill the company’s chief executive about concerns over user data falling into the hands of the Chinese government.
Shou Zi Chew plans to tell Congress on Thursday that TikTok, which was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, is committed to user safety, data protection and security, and keeping the platform free from Chinese government influence. He will also answer questions from U.S. lawmakers worried about the social media platform’s effects on its young user base.
At the heart of TikTok’s trouble is a Chinese national intelligence law that would compel Chinese companies to fork over data to the government for whatever purposes it deems to involve national security. There’s also concern Beijing might try to push pro-China narratives or misinformation through the platform.
At a media event coordinated by TikTok on Wednesday, some content creators acknowledged that concerns about data security are legitimate, but pointed to precautions the company is taking, such as a $1.5 billion plan — dubbed Project Texas — to route all U.S. data to domestic servers owned and maintained by the software giant Oracle.
TikTok has been attempting to sell that proposal to the Biden administration, but skeptics have argued it doesn’t go far enough. The administration is reportedly demanding the company’s Chinese owners sell their stakes or face a nationwide ban.
“I don’t know much about politics, but I know a lot about fashion, and I know a lot about people,” Ok said. “And just to be here and share my story is what TikTok has invited me to do.”
Tensions around TikTok have been building on Capitol Hill, reaching a boiling point late last year when a proposal to ban the app off of government phones passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Joe Biden. House Republicans are pushing a bill that would give Biden the power to ban the app.
Other bills have also been introduced — some bipartisan — including a measure that would circumvent the challenges the administration would face in court if it moved forward with sanctions against the social media company.
The effort to target TikTok is part of a larger, tougher approach that Congress has taken in the past several months as China’s relationship with two U.S. adversaries — Russia and Iran — has come into focus. A recent incident with a spy balloon forced even some wary congressional Democrats to join Republicans in opposition, and there is now a strong bipartisan concern in Washington that Beijing would use legal and regulatory power to seize American user data or use the platform to push favorable narratives or misinformation.
TikTok’s response to the political pressure can be seen all around the nation’s Capitol, with the company putting up ads in area airports and metro stations that include promises of securing users data and privacy and creating a safe platform for its young users. Last year, the company spent more than $5.3 million on dispatching lobbyists to the Hill to make its case, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks lobbying spending.
On Thursday, Chew will be sticking to a familiar script as he urges officials against pursuing an all-out ban on TikTok or for the company to be sold off to new owners. TikTok’s efforts to ensure the security of its users’ data go “above and beyond” what any of its rivals are doing, according to Chew’s prepared remarks released ahead of his appearance before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Chew pushed back against fears that TikTok could become a tool of China’s ruling Communist Party because its parent company, ByteDance, was founded in Beijing and also operates from there.
“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said.
He distanced TikTok from its Chinese roots and denied the “inaccurate” belief that TikTok’s corporate structure makes it “beholden to the Chinese government.” ByteDance has evolved into a privately held “global enterprise,” Chew said, with 60% owned by big institutional investors, 20% owned by the Chinese entrepreneurs who founded it and the rest by employees.
It’s “emphatically untrue” that TikTok sends data on its American users to Beijing, he said.
“TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, U.S. user data with the Chinese government,” Chew said. “Nor would TikTok honor such a request if one were ever made.”
Whether those promises will alleviate concern is another matter. TikTok has come under fire in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific, where a growing number of governments have banned the app from devices used for official business. India, Afghanistan and Indonesia have banned it nationwide.
Chew, a 40-year-old Singaporean who was appointed CEO in 2021, said in a TikTok video this week that the congressional hearing comes at a “pivotal moment” for the company, which now has 150 million American users.
Chew said TikTok’s data security project is the right answer, not a ban or a sale of the company.
“No other social media company, or entertainment platform like TikTok, provides this level of access and transparency,” he said.
The company started deleting the historical protected data of U.S. users from non-Oracle servers this month, Chew said. When that process is completed later this year, all U.S. data will be protected by American law and controlled by a U.S.-led security team.
“Under this structure, there is no way for the Chinese government to access it or compel access to it,” he said.
He said a TikTok ban would hurt the U.S. economy and small American businesses that use the app to sell their products, while reducing competition in an “increasingly concentrated market.” He added that a sale “would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access.”
Live Nation president/CFO Joe Berchtold might have been the sole defender of his company’s 2010 merger with Ticketmaster at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January, but behind the scenes, he wasn’t alone.
Advising Berchtold and managing key relationships on Capitol Hill is a small army of over 30 lobbyists, deployed to defend the company from growing criticism by senators like Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Klobuchar, who serves as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, has made repeated calls to the Department of Justice to investigate Ticketmaster and break up the company if any wrongdoing is uncovered during a DOJ review of the consent decree it created to foster competition in ticketing. That review is expected to wrap up soon.
While Live Nation’s lobbying spending has been historically low for a company of its size and domi- nance, that’s changing. Last year, the company spent nearly five times as much on lobbying as it has in the past, according to data from Open Secrets, which uses public records to track such spending. From 2012 to 2018, Live Nation spent an average of $225,000 annually to lobby federal officials. In 2022, its annual lobbying expenses had increased to $1.1 million.
The company’s agendas include defending criticism regarding Ticketmaster’s handling of the Swift presale last November.
One of those insiders is Seth Bloom, a former longtime general counsel for the Senate’s antitrust subcommittee and advisory board member for the American Antitrust Institute. Another is Jonathan Becker, a former chief of staff and chief counsel to Klobuchar who now serves as a partner at law firm Mayer Brown and represented a dozen big-name clients in 2022, including Meta, Microsoft and Phillip Morris.
Live Nation now spends significantly more than its competitors in the touring sector. Last year, enter- tainment conglomerate AEG spent $140,000 on federal lobbying, according to Open Secrets, while secondary-market ticketing competitor SeatGeek spent $170,000 and Viagogo, the British company that bought StubHub in 2020, spent $140,000. Live Nation partner company Oak View Group spent $570,000 on lobbying, while Spotify, which has rolled out a new ticketing offering for concert promoters and is hoping to broaden its reach within the live space, spent $710,000.
Live Nation could spend even more this year as it ramps up efforts to exit the consent decree once the five year extension ends in 2024. The company now has more than seven lobbying firms working for it on issues that include ticketing, event safety and Federal Aviation Administration rules on the use of drones at events.
When it comes to Taylor Swift, even Attorney General Merrick Garland is a bonafide fan. The head of the Department of Justice cleverly put his Swiftie status to the test when testifying before the Senate on Wednesday (March 1).
Speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding DOJ oversight, Garland told the committee that he’s “pretty familiar” with the superstar and her music, but according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, the federal government’s chief law enforcement officer has almost all of Swift’s CDs on display in his office and even counts “Shake It Off” as his favorite song in her discography.
Apparently, Garland’s entry point into the Swiftian musical universe came courtesy of his two daughters, who would listen to 2006’s Taylor Swift and 2008’s Fearless on repeat as he drove them to school every morning. But even since then, he’s stayed on top of the singer’s discography. “My daughter sent me Midnights right away as a CD, which I appreciate is a little prehistoric at this point,” he quipped to the WSJ. “And then she told me the playlist order in which I should listen to the songs.”
During his testimony, the attorney general also couldn’t resist sneaking a lyrical reference into the proceedings. When pressed about Senator Amy Klobuchar — who counts Red single “I Knew You Were Trouble” as her favorite Taylor song — having anti-trust material regarding the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and LiveNation in her possession, Garland cleverly responded, “I know that all too well.”
While the ticketing mess that prompted every politician and government figure to sneak her lyrics into the public record continues to play out in Congress, Swift herself is preparing to kick off The Eras Tour with back-to-back shows in Glendale, Ariz. on March 17 and 18.
Irving Azoff teed off on scalpers, Stubhub and the federal government in a no-holds-barred panel Wednesday during the Pollstar Live conference at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. Azoff, along with artist Garth Brooks, MSG Entertainment chairman James Dolan and former top Department of Justice antitrust official Makan Delrahim, took the federal government to task for the way it handled last month’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on ticketing. Despite evidence that the problems linked to the ticket sale were the result of a massive bot attack, most senators at the hearing blamed Ticketmaster for service disruptions and tried to link customer dissatisfaction with the ticket sale to antitrust allegations that the company is operating as a monopoly.
Delrahim, who investigated Live Nation and Ticketmaster on behalf of the Department of Justice in 2019, told his fellow panelists that Congress was convoluting two separate issues and “were well intentioned, but didn’t understand the issues” facing the primary ticketing business. Azoff was more aggressive in his comments. He said most problems in ticketing were “likely perpetrated by scalpers” who “steal massive amounts of tickets” and pay lobbyists to “to demonize Ticketmaster, and actually make laws to support and protect scalpers instead of artists or fans.”
The panel was a call for unity within the music business after the senate hearing left many in live entertainment feeling rattled, including many of Live Nation’s own competitors.
The touring community has stayed silent through most of the sector’s controversies in the post-pandemic period – including consumer frustration over high prices for Adele, Bruce Springsteen and Blink-182 tickets – leaving Ticketmaster to take most of the incoming barrage. And the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed — to many people’s surprise — how angry and often misinformed politicians are with Ticketmaster, and by extension, the concert industry writ large.
The panel was held during an annual conference sponsored by Pollstar, a long-running trade publication now owned by Azoff, Tim Leiweke and the Oak View Group. Wednesday’s panel was the concert businesses’ first attempt to create a unified voice between buildings, artists, promoters and ticketing companies and to launch a new offensive targeting scalpers who, as Brooks pointed out, are becoming increasingly effective at using bots to “slow the system down so people get frustrated and immediately head to the secondary markets.” Dolan noted scalpers have made it very difficult to get tickets into the hands of people “who don’t have seven figure incomes.”
No artist “wants their fans to have to pay for a ticket that is exponentially higher than face value,” Azoff said. “I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that Washington isn’t focused on the real issue — screwing artists and their fans. Our government has a long history of screwing artists.” Add in the explosion of fraudulent and misleading ticketing sites and the scourge of speculative ticket listings, and it’s easy to see why Azoff, Dolan and the other panelists are alarmed about the growth of the secondary ticketing business.
They’re not wrong, but the situation may also not be as dire as Azoff and his compatriots want to make it seem. Unlike sports ticketing where nearly all non-season-ticket sales are handled by a small cadre of elite brokers, the concert business has been highly effective at delegitimizing the secondary ticketing industry and preventing sites like StubHub from gaining direct access to ticketing inventory. Brokers have further been stymied by initiatives like Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan and SafeTix, which have proven effective at reducing the number of tickets sold on the primary market. In fact, the primary ticketing business’ success at stopping the secondary industry less than a decade ago is why most scalpers are now resorting to such extreme measures to procure tickets.
This is mostly good news for Azoff. His worst fears about the growth of the secondary ticketing market have not materialized, and today the industry has been marginalized and to the point that some actors have resorted to illegal acts to procure tickets.
As Delrahim explained, there are already existing laws on the books and “all sorts of limits” the government can place on scalpers. Existing securities law regulating the short selling of stocks could be applied to speculative ticket listings, noting that prosecutors with the Southern District of New York have “already brought a number of prosecutions” for what he calls “naked short selling.” There are also Federal Trade Commission laws banning “deceptive and unfair practices” that could be better enforced.
“The FTC should open an investigation against speculative ticket sellers who go online and try to sell tickets way before they have been sold – that’s a clear violation of the artist rights,” he added.
Compelling the government to enforce its own laws is difficult, though, and Live Nation and Ticketmaster are not equipped to slow down the bad behavior of the secondary ticketing industry on its own. Instead, Azoff made a rare plea to the audience of touring business professionals for help.
“If you agree with us,” he said, “you all have work to do because there’s a lot of weird bills being proposed out there and the people in this room have a chance to go out and let fans be heard. Ultimately, this is going to be decided at the local and municipal level and that’s where all of us need to bring the fight.”
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Maxine Waters, a battle-tested member of Congress, has long been a fierce champion for the American people while representing California and other members of the Democratic Party. During a House Rules Committee hearing, Waters handled the false accusations from Republican Party opponents that she embraces socialism, doing so with expert ease.
Rep. Maxine Waters of California was present at the Tuesday (Jan. 31) hearing for a debate to sign a resolution against socialism, a long-running crusade for conservative members of Congress still worshipping at the feet of McCarthyism and threats of the “Red Scare.”
Waters, who sits as a ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, pushed back at the charges of socialism levied against her by Rep. Nick Langworthy of New York, after the congressman asked Waters to address a 2019 declaration issued by former President Doandl Trump that America will never fall under socialist rule.
“One of the problems I have with this resolution is, I don’t know everything that you’re talking about when you talk about socialism,” Water fired back. “There are things that you embrace that fall within that so-called socialism definition.”
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania then went on a half-baked attack against Waters in demanding she condemns socialism, but it failed spectacularly.
“The American public is going to wonder why Republicans are wasting our time today with this divisive resolution instead of focusing on the real threats to our economy and democracy,” Waters said. “What is this all about? Is it about saying you want to cut Social Security? You want to cut Medicare? You don’t care about the debt ceiling? Please.”
Rep. Reschenthaler then stepped in a steaming pile of horse puckey of his party’s own doing.
“You can’t condemn socialism?” Reschenthaler asked. “In your opening remarks, you were talking about Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi. You know what they all have in common, right?”
Waters simply fired back, “Trump.”
Classic Auntie Maxine.
Check out some of the reactions of Rep. Maxine Waters expertly PWNING the GOP MAGA Cultist Crew below from Twitter.
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TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, will testify in front of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in late March in his first appearance before Congress, according to a statement from the committee’s chair, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
The Republican representative from Washington said Chew is expected to comment on TikTok’s data security and user privacy policies, its impact on children and the company’s ties with China’s Communist Party.
The popular short-form video app and influential music discovery tool has become a lightning rod for political controversies as lawmakers on both sides have questioned the company’s handling of U.S. users’ data and whether it’s obligated to share user data with China’s ruling Communist Party. The app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
In an emailed statement, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed the hearing was to take place on March 23 and said they welcome the opportunity to “set the record straight about TikTok, ByteDance, and the commitments we are making to address concerns about U.S. national security.”
“We hope that by sharing details of our comprehensive plans with the full committee, Congress can take a more deliberative approach to the issues at hand,” the spokesperson said.
Congress is currently considering a bill introduced in December by Senator Marco Rubio (R-Flor.), Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) that would effectively ban TikTok and any other social media company headquartered in China, Russia or a handful of other countries from operating in the United States.
In addition, a number of U.S. states and large state universities have issued orders restricting access to TikTok on state-issued mobile devices and over campus internet.
In her own statement, Rodgers said that Bytedance has “knowingly allowed” the Chinese Communist Party to access U.S. users’ data, and her committee aims to ask TikTok for “complete and honest answers for people.”
“Americans deserve to know how these actions impact their privacy and data security, as well as what actions TikTok is taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline harms,” Rodgers said.
A TikTok spokesperson refuted Rodgers’ statement.
“There is no truth to Rep. McMorris Rodgers’ claim that TikTok has made U.S. user data available to the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party has neither direct nor indirect control of ByteDance or TikTok,” the spokesperson said. “Moreover, under the proposal we have devised with our country’s top national security agencies through CFIUS, that kind of data sharing—or any other form of foreign influence over the TikTok platform in the United States—would not be possible.”
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Rep. Cori Bush is currently making waves in the U.S. House of Reprensativies amid the ongoing debacle that is the Speak of the House selection process. After Rep. Kevin McCarthy repeatedly failed to gain support from his Republican Party cohorts, Bush claims that a Black Republican congressman is being used as a “prop” by the MAGA faction of the party.
Rep. Cori Bush, 46, is one of the rising star members of Congress after assuming office back in 2021 and is known for her outspoken views and unwavering critique of the GOP. The Democratic Party congresswoman fired a shot toward the opposing party after McCarthy failed yet again to assume the Speaker role due to some fringe members of the Republican Party withholding their vote over dissatisfaction with some of his positions.
Bush took to Twitter to blast Republican Congress members for attempting to push a Black candidate among its ranks for the Speaker role in Rep. Byron Donalds. In the tweet, Bush wrote, “FWIW, @ByronDonalds is not a historic candidate for Speaker. He is a prop. Despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy.”
Bush continued with, “His name being in the mix is not progress—it’s pathetic.”
Donalds’ little feelings were hurt and tweeted back, “FWIW, nobody asked @CoriBush her opinion on the matter. Before you judge my agenda, let’s have a debate over the policies and the outcomes. Until then, don’t be a crab in a barrel!”
Rep. Dan Bishop, getting in the middle of Black people’s business uninvited, called Bush racist for her jab at Donalds.
And as of this writing, Rep. McCarthy is still not the Speaker of the House.
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Photo: Getty
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As Republicans continue to hold up the congressional duties of our elected officials due to their reluctance to vote in Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House, newly elected member of U.S. Congress Robert Garcia already knows how he plans on being sworn in once things get back to normal, and it’s a pretty interesting way of going about his inauguration.
Earlier this week the California congressman took to Twitter to reveal that when it comes time to get sworn into the 118th United States Congress, Robert Garcia will be using three items that mean the world to him including a photo of his parents whom he lost to the COVID pandemic, his certificate of citizenship, and an original copy of Superman #1 from the Library of Congress.
While the picture and certificate of citizenship makes sense, it’s interesting that he chose the priceless comic book as an item to use as he prepares to work for the people of the United States. Still, the first Latino and first openly gay mayor to ever be elected to be Mayor of Long Beach, California told Buzzfeed that the reason he chose the comic book is because he “learned to read and write English reading comics as a kid,” and ultimately “Never stopped reading.” Neither have we.
As for why he chose the Man of Steel over other superheroes, Garcia said, “I’ve read almost all genres, but Superman is always the character that stood out and spoke to me the most.”
He must’ve been heartbroken like the rest of us when he found out that Henry Cavill wasn’t going to be returning as Superman in James Gunn’s reboot of Warner Bros. DCEU.
Unfortunately for Garcia, he won’t be taking that Superman oath anytime soon as far-right MAGA Republicans and Conservative Republicans continue to bicker over who’ll be the next Speaker of the House and begin swearing in the next members of congress. But when that time does come, y’all know Robert Garcia will be flying high like his favorite superhero.
The Recording Academy is celebrating a “major global victory” for music as the PEACE For Music Diplomacy Act passes through the House and the Senate as part of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The Senate voted Thursday (Dec. 15) to approve the massive defense bill, which includes The PEACE (Promoting Peace, Education, and Cultural Exchange) Act. This follows the House’s bipartisan passage of the paperwork last week.
The Recording Academy has thrown its advocacy efforts behind the bill since it was first introduced January in the House by 2022 Grammys on the Hill honorees Rep. Michael McCaul and former Rep. Ted Deutch.
The act, it has been said, would use music and music-related global exchange programs as a tool to build cross-cultural understanding.
Specifically, the Recording Academy notes, the bill leverages partnerships with the private sector when designing and implementing its music-related exchange programs, and authorizes music-related exchanges that “advance peace abroad.”
At October’s District Advocate Day, almost 2,000 Recording Academy members met with Congressional reps to discuss pending legislation affecting creators, including the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act.
The behind-the-scenes advocacy work and passage of the bipartisan $858 billion defense bill is a reminder of “the power of music and its capacity to increase understanding between diverse cultures and people around the world,” comments Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr.
The legislation is now on President Joe Biden’s desk awaiting his signature.
“The Recording Academy is grateful to Rep. McCaul, former Rep. Deutch, and Senators Leahy and Tillis for their support of this important legislation, and we look forward to championing future cross-sector partnerships that will allow music creators to promote peace across the globe.”
Read more here on the NDAA.