Did TikTok spy on journalists?
The Justice Department is investigating claims that the Chinese company that owns TikTok has been spying on US tech journalists, according to a report Friday.
The probe into ByteDance stems from the company’s acknowledgment in December that employees had obtained data of US TikTok users, some of whom were reporters, The New York Times said.
Sources told the Times that the Justice Department, along with the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, are looking into how ByteDance employees were able to access that data.
The Justice Department did not respond to an inquiry from the Times or The Post, and the specific scope of the investigation is unclear.
The report comes as the Biden administration has pressured ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok or possibly face a nationwide ban amid increased scrutiny over its national security threat.
TikTok, which has more than 100 million US users, has been talking to potential buyers, sources told The Post this week.
ByteDance had been caught spying on journalists from Forbes magazine last year and admitted to the surveillance following an internal investigation.
Emily Baker-White, journalist for the outlet, said Thursday that the FBI and DOJ were looking at the Chinese company’s surveillance of her.
Baker-White said the app’s owner used her TikTok account to track her location in an effort to find her sources.
After its internal investigation, ByteDance fired employee Chris Lepitak, who oversaw the team responsible for the surveillance, Forbes said.
TikTok condemned the spying publicly, saying the employees “misused” user data.
The social-media app has insisted, however, that the ban wouldn’t solve the concerns of the US government.
WHEN Bill Raftery yells “Onions!” in March, it has a double meaning for me. Yes, there’s the ballsy, clutch late-game heroics. But also: Cue the crying. Give me tears from players, spectators, parents, refs . . . whoever.
Apparently, some fans need a refresher in that March Madness tradition.
On Thursday, as the clock ran out on the Utah State-Missouri game, the TNT broadcast cut to a tearful Aggies cheerleader.
The lens lingered on the pretty blond — her chin quivering as she stifled an incoming sob.
It’s still got heart
It was a quintessential college basketball moment, but some viewers were annoyed that the network was focusing on the sidelines — or, perhaps, exploiting the young woman, who has since been identified as Ashlyn Whimpey.
“Bruh why does TNT keep showing the crying Utah State cheerleader?? Chill,” one fan complained on Twitter.
“Seriously, TNT? Highlighting a crying cheerleader?” another quipped.
Oh, the humanity. Literally, the humanity. That’s the point. This is March.
Whimpey’s tears are an essential part of tournament coverage: She is an avatar for the raw emotion that March Madness delivers — encapsulating in a few seconds of footage what makes this tournament so damn special.
In recent years, college basketball has been subject to numerous shifting norms, from the rule allowing players to profit from their own “Name, Image and Likeness,” to the transfer portal and the oneand-done.
Players don’t have to stick around anywhere for four years anymore, and the musicalchairs rosters have fundamentally changed the game. And then there’s the NCAA, which rakes in over a billion annually.
But when the Big Dance arrives, small moments like this remind us that underneath the big money circus of college sports, there’s still a real beating heart.
Most of the ballplayers aren’t moving to the next level. That buzzer-beater ended not only their careers, but also that of the cheerleaders, the band members and the senior who hyped the student section all season long.
Before Whimpey, there was Villanova’s Roxanne Chalifoux, who became the face of March Madness in 2015.
Dubbed the “crying piccolo girl,” she tearfully played on as her No. 1 Wildcats were bounced by NC State.
Fans were so enchanted with her that she ended up on Fallon and got her own bobblehead.
In 2017, it was the “crying Northwestern kid” whose oncamera meltdown became that year’s meme.
This is what sports — especially the NCAA tournament — do: like a treacly Hallmark card, they make us feel stuff.
And it’s not just about the guys playing.
In March, the tournament showcases, on a national stage, the entire ecosystem that exists around the hardwood. There’s the benchwarmer whose artful towel waving is as captivating as the action on the court, the creepy mascot (yes, I’m looking at you, Friar Dom), the kid in the band with the ridiculous hat, the praying parents in the crowd and, yes, sometimes the crying cheerleader.
The sidelines matter
In 2020, the tournament went on an unthinkable hiatus due to COVID.
In 2021, it returned in a pared-down, nearly crowdfree fashion. While it was good to have B-ball back, there was a palpable void. These authentic, unscripted moments are an antidote to our obsessively filtered online presentations of our lives, where everything has been made to seem flawless.
They go viral because there are no touch-ups, Photoshop or mugging for the camera. Just humans captured in the wild, letting themselves feel human feelings.
But don’t shed any tears for the crying Whimpey, who dates Utah State guard Sean Bairstow. Now, she too can cash in and get an NIL deal to turn her very public tears into some scratch. Kleenex, are you watching?