TikTok, a social media app
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TikTok’s Time in Congress

United States Congress met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew last week in his first appearance defending the use of the mobile app (application) in the United States. TikTok is a social media service for sharing videos. The mobile app enables users to instantly post (publish online) short videos set to music or other sound. While TikTok is a Chinese company, it is not accessible in China. However, it is extremely popular in the United States. The main concern over TikTok is that the app collects data from users that could be sent to Chinese authorities. Lawmakers also stated that the app is unhealthy for children since the algorithms can show dangerous videos to young users. Shou Chew maintained the technology is not different than other United States tech giants like Instagram and Facebook. Some people have skyrocketed to fame through TikTok, including Addison Rae, Charli D’Amelio, and Lil Nas X. Many popular users in the United States defended TikTok on their platforms, reaching millions.

TikTok, which is called Douyin in China, was created in 2016 by the Chinese company ByteDance. TikTok has since become internationally popular. ByteDance purchased the lip-syncing app Musical.ly in 2017 and merged it with TikTok in 2018.

TikTok has several features that allow users to slow down, speed up, or otherwise edit videos. Users can enhance (improve the appearance or quality of) their videos with special camera filters, stickers, text, and video clips. Several TikTok videos are often joined together to make the person on camera appear to instantly shift locations, clothing, or makeup. Users can respond to other videos in a duet. In a duet, two videos are posted side by side and run simultaneously. Duets encourage TikTok users to collaborate (work together).

TikTok videos are often informal and silly. They frequently involve lip-syncing, a style of performance in which the performer’s mouth moves in time with a recorded musical track. The service makes use of hashtags to organize similar videos. A hashtag is a keyword or phrase preceded by the hash symbol or pound sign (#). Hashtags enable users to participate in trends or challenges. In a challenge, users copy a particular video topic or theme—such as a specific visual gag, dance, or song—and post their version on TikTok with the challenge hashtag. Trends and challenges rapidly rise and decline in popularity on TikTok.

Each user has a custom home page that presents select content based on the user’s watching habits. TikTok uses a computerized mathematical procedure called an algorithm that learns a user’s preferences and interests to suggest video content. Users also can become followers of other users, or search for videos by hashtag or username. They can send messages directly to other users and post comments about videos. Some users have gained or increased their fame through the app. The rap and country singer Lil Nas X, for example, was discovered after he began lip-syncing on TikTok. Many songs have grown in popularity after being featured in TikTok videos, trends, and challenges.

March 13, 2019

March is Women’s History Month in the United States. In honor of the celebration, World Book looks at U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In 2018, AOC—she is often referred to by her initials—became the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress. She turned 29 less than one month before her election victory in November 2018. Ocasio-Cortez is a Democrat from the Bronx borough of New York City.

In 2018, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She is 29 years old. Credit: U.S. House of Representatives

Ocasio-Cortez was born on Oct. 13, 1989, in the Bronx. Her father was from the Bronx, and her mother came from Puerto Rico. The family later moved to Westchester County, New York. Ocasio-Cortez graduated from high school in 2007. She received a bachelor’s degree in international relations and economics at Boston University in 2011. While a college student, she worked as an intern for Senator Edward Kennedy, focusing on immigration issues. After college, AOC returned to the Bronx, where she worked for a nonprofit organization promoting education and literacy. She also started a company that published children’s books emphasizing positive aspects of the Bronx, much of which has historically been troubled by crime and poverty. For several years, Ocasio-Cortez also worked as a waitress and bartender.

Ocasio-Cortez later became an organizer for the 2016 presidential campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. In 2017, AOC announced that she would challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Joe Crowley for the party’s 2018 nomination for New York’s 14th Congressional District. The district includes parts of Bronx and Queens counties in New York City. During the campaign, Ocasio-Cortez described herself as a democratic socialist. In democratic socialism, a democratically elected government enacts policies that encourage private companies to act in the public interest. Millions of users of the social media site Twitter followed AOC because of her lively, confident personality and her criticisms of both President Donald J. Trump and her own Democratic Party.

Ocasio-Cortez defeated Crowley in the Democratic primary held in June 2018. As a candidate for Congress, she advocated for universal health care, tuition-free public college, and increasing the income tax rate paid by Americans who earn more than $10 million per year. Since taking her seat in the House in January 2019, AOC has promoted a number of major reforms, including a platform known as the “Green New Deal,” which calls for a system in which all the nation’s electricity would be produced by renewable sources such as the sun and wind.

July 30, 2014

The United States House of Representatives passed a resolution yesterday to sue President Barack Obama for allegedly exceeding his constitutional powers. The vote–225 Republicans for and 196 Democrats joined by 5 Republicans against–authorized House lawyers to draft legal documents to launch a lawsuit in federal court.

Republicans in Congress have complained that the president has on numerous occasions exceeded his constitutional authority by issuing executive orders that purposely bypass the will of the legislative branch of government. In particular, House Republicans claim that President Obama exceeded his powers when he twice delayed requirements in the Affordable Care Act that businesses over a certain size provide workers with health insurance. They also object to presidential authorization of an exchange of Guantanamo detainees for Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier held captive for five years by the Taliban. Republicans also cite an executive order that eased deportations of some young illegal immigrants. Most recently, the president issued an executive order making it unlawful for businesses with government contracts to discriminate against members of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community. “This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats. It’s about defending the Constitution we swore an oath to,” declared House Speaker John Boehner during the House debate.

President Barack Obama (The White House)

Speaker of the House John Boehner (United States House of Representatives)

President Obama has dismissed the law suite “as a political stunt” that will cost taxpayers million of dollars. He noted that he has been forced to issue executive orders to circumvent a gridlocked Congress. He cites the Republican-controlled House, under Speaker Boehner, for refusing to even to hold votes on such Senate-passed legislation as raising the minimum wage and much-needed immigration reform.

Democrats in Congress point out that every U.S. president since George Washington has issued executive orders and that President Obama has, in his six years in office, issued only 183. By comparison, George W. Bush issued 291 in his eight years in office; Bill Clinton issued 364; and Ronald Reagan issued 381.

Political experts note that the lawsuit–the first ever brought against a president by Congress–may be a maneuver by Speaker Boehner to tamp down a Tea Party move to impeach President Obama, an action that would likely prove highly unpopular with the electorate in the face of congressional elections in November. They also point to the irony of the House suing the president over not implementing parts of the Affordable Care Act after House Republicans voted 54 times in 4 years to repeal “Obamacare.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Tempest in a Tea Party (a special report)
• Health 2013 (a Back in Time article)