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While the Supreme Court appears likely to uphold a ban on TikTok, President-elect Donald Trump seems to have different plans. TikTok Ban On Sunday, Jan. 19, the app is expected to be banned in the United States under the contingency that its parent company, ByteDance, does not follow a mandate to sell the app to a U.S.-based company, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. “On January 19th, as I understand it, we shut down,” TikTok lawyer Noel Francisco said in January hearing with the Supreme Court, per NPR. What’s The Issue? The potential TikTok ban is a result of concerns related to user data and the spreading of misinformation. However, TikTok, which has more than 170 million active users, argues this is in violation of the U.S. First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech. “The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” TikTok previously said in a...
As the U.S. government inches closer to banning TikTok, its millions of American users are left with pressing questions: Will the app still work? What happens to creators and businesses that rely on it? And what’s the truth behind those rumors about Elon Musk buying the platform? Let’s break down what this potential ban means for TikTok users — and what steps they can take to prepare. Will TikTok Still Work After The Ban? If no one intervenes and the ban goes into effect, TikTok will be removed from app stores like Google Play and the Apple App Store. While current users may still have access to the app, CBS News reports that one likelihood is that they won’t receive updates, which will likely lead to significant performance issues over time. Without updates, key features like bug fixes, video uploads, editing tools, and personalized content recommendations may falter. There’s also the possibility that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) could block TikTok’s servers entirely, making...
Milwaukee Area Technical College’s DEI officer is suing the institution. Eva Martinez Powless took on her newly created role at the Milwaukee, WI-based institution in 2021. Her immediate course of action was to launch a five-year diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plan, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The plan began rolling out in 2022 and was shared with the African American Network, the Anti-Racism Coalition, and the Latinx United Network Alliance (LUNA). Despite these efforts, she claims there was still pushback surrounding DEI efforts on the campus. She alleges that her former manager, Phillip King, the executive vice president of student success at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), had displayed “unprofessional” and “inappropriate” behavior after she voiced observing patterns of misconduct towards employees of color, per the outlet. Martinez Powless claims that she was subsequently excluded from important meetings, King scrutinized her work more closely, and...
A venture capital firm founder has launched a lawsuit against PayPal, alleging that the company’s diversity and equity program excluded her because she is Asian. Nisha Desai, the founder of Andav Capital, claims she applied for consideration in a $530 million financial commitment PayPal announced in 2020 to support Black- and minority-owned businesses , TechCrunch reported. However, she asserts that she was overlooked due to her Asian heritage, as the program primarily focused on supporting Black- and Hispanic-led enterprises. “Funds majority-owned by individuals of other races, including Asian Americans, are not given equal consideration,” Desai stated in the New York lawsuit, per the outlet. “Worse, PayPal and its senior management have repeatedly trumpeted the program’s focus on race, bragging in statements and press releases that PayPal’s program is for some races and ethnicities and not others.” Desai claims that PayPal has violated Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866,...
College basketball coach Leonard Hamilton is being sued for allegedly defrauding several players. According to Yahoo! Sports, former Florida State University (FSU) basketball players Darin Green Jr., Josh Nickelberry, Primo Spears, Cam’Ron Fletcher, De’Ante Green, and Jalen Warley have filed a lawsuit against their former coach. The players claim Hamilton owed them $1.5 million in total through name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments. They say he made promises of payments starting in April 2023, when he held a meeting and allegedly told the players they would receive compensation of $250,000 each. The money was expected to be disbursed by March 2024, but the players claim those funds never materialized even though he continued to assure them that they would be paid. “Every player on the 2023-24 FSU men’s basketball team roster relied on the promises that Hamilton made when they either decided to transfer to FSU or remain enrolled at FSU and play out the season,” the suit said, per...
Nearly 630,000 Fortnite players were reportedly “tricked” into making purchases through the game and will receive a refund. According to a press release, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reportedly accused Fortnite developer Epic Games of leading gamers to make “unwanted purchases” by carrying out tactics through its game button configuration. “For example, players could be charged while attempting to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or by pressing an adjacent button while attempting simply to preview an item,” the press release from the FTC read. It had also been brought to light that Epic Games had allowed minors to accumulate charges without parental approval and blocked gamers who filed disputes of unauthorized charges, preventing them from obtaining items they had purchased. For these reasons, the company received an order from the FTC to refund players in December 2022 who had been subjected to these “unlawful billing practices.” The...
Amazon is facing a lawsuit involving two predominantly Black neighborhoods, according to WTOP. The lawsuit was filed in the Washington, DC, Superior Court. It points to the Amazon Prime membership, which costs its customers $14.99 monthly or a flat rate of $139 annually. Zip codes 20019 and 20020, with 50,000 Prime members who have contributed to 4.5 million orders since 2020, claim Amazon began to rely on UPS and the U.S. Postal Service in 2022 in replacement of their own services. “Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working Ward 7 and 8 residents for an expedited delivery service it promises but does not provide,” Washington, DC, Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement, according to the outlet. Amazon admits the changes were a result of safety concerns. “There have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages” in the two ZIP codes, and the company made the change to “put the safety of delivery drivers first,” Amazon spokesperson...
Byron Allen’s $10 billion lawsuit against a major fast-food chain is heading to trial. Allen Media Group (AMG) filed the lawsuit against McDonald’s in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles in May 2021, per Deadline. The lawsuit alleges that McDonald’s has engaged in racial discrimination by failing to allocate advertising dollars to Black-owned media companies, despite the fact that 40% of its U.S. sales come from the Black community. It claims McDonald’s refused to contract with AMG’s Entertainment Studios and Weather Group and sets Black-owned media at a disadvantage during the bidding process for advertising. Allen and other leaders of Black-owned media companies requested in a letter that McDonald’s commit 5% to 15% of its advertising budget to Black-owned media outlets. McDonald’s said at the time, “Together with our Owner/Operators, we have doubled down on our relationships with diverse-owned partners. This includes increasing our spend with diverse-owned media from...
An end may be near for a lawsuit involving Shaquille O’Neal. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, O’Neal was named in a class action lawsuit filed against the Astrals Project in a Florida federal court in 2023. He was one of the founders of the project, along with music manager Brian Bayati and O’Neal’s son Myles O’Neal. “Plaintiffs in the billion $ FTX class action case just served @SHAQ outside his house,” the Moskowitz Law Firm shared on X at the time. “His home video cameras recorded our service, and we made it very clear that he is not to destroy or erase any of these security tapes because they must be preserved for our lawsuit.” The Astrals Project initially launched the “Shaq Signature Pass,” marketed as the “first consumable NFT of its kind,” per The Hollywood Reporter. It claimed the signing technology had “wide-ranging applications.” In total, Astrals included 10,000 NFT (non-fungible token) 3D avatars and a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) intended for...
Dame Dash’s Roc-A-Fella share is no longer up for sale. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Dame Dash was hit with an $800,000 judgment stemming from a copyright infringement and defamation lawsuit. Soon after, it was announced that his Roc-A-Fella share, valued at $1.2 million, would be put up for auction to cover his debt. The auction generated buzz as the share included partial ownership of Jay-Z’s debut album, “Reasonable Doubt,” and its associated songs. “Based on feedback I have received from interested parties (and I can’t mention names), this auction will likely bring out many household names in the sports and entertainment industries as well as those interested in a piece of a historically significant company, which holds an interest in a timeless debut album,” Dame Dash’s attorney Natraj Bhushan explained to Billboard at the time. The auction attracted attention from artists, including Drake and, unsurprisingly, Jay-Z, who allegedly made public claims that he would obtain...
After a period of separation, Kanye West and adidas have reached an agreement settling all legal disputes. As previously reported by AFROTECH™ , Ye’s partnership with the retailer began back in 2013. According to The New York Times, he secured one of the most lucrative deals ever for a non-athlete. By 2016, the rapper signed a new contract that significantly boosted earnings for the Yeezy brand. That same year, West shared that his shoes were selling out within minutes, moving 40,000 pairs at a time, Forbes notes . The partnership ultimately generated $2 billion in annual revenue for adidas by 2022, according to The Washington Post. Bloomberg reported that Yeezy made up half of adidas’ total profits before they went their separate ways, highlighting the partnership’s success. This achievement helped West reach unicorn status, though he lost it after ties were severed following his antisemitic comments in 2022. “ Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism or any form of hate speech. Ye’s...
Beyoncé is seeking to gain the trademark of her firstborn. Back in 2012, Beyoncé’ had made an effort to secure the trademark through BGK Trademark Holdings LLC. Jay-Z shared his thoughts on the matter in a conversation with Vanity Fair in 2013. “People wanted to make products based on our child’s name, and you don’t want anybody trying to benefit off your baby’s name. It wasn’t for us to do anything; as you see, we haven’t done anything,” Jay-Z told the outlet. “First of all, it’s a child, and it bothers me when there’s no [boundaries]. I come from the streets, and even in the most atrocious sh-t we were doing, we had lines: no kids, no mothers — there was respect there. But [now] there’s no boundaries. For somebody to say, ‘This person had a kid — I’m gonna make a f-ckin’ stroller with that kid’s name.’ It’s, like, where’s the humanity?” In the years that followed, Beyoncé and her team had ongoing issues with a lifestyle event planner, Veronica Morales, as she used Blue Ivy in her...
The Department of Justice has launched a lawsuit over alleged discriminatory practices related to the appraisal of a Black homeowner’s property and the cancellation of her mortgage refinance application. Filed Monday, Oct. 21, in U.S. District Court in Colorado, the lawsuit accuses Rocket Mortgage , Solidifi U.S. Inc., Maverick Appraisal Group Inc., and Maksym Mykhailyna of actions that violate the federal Fair Housing Act. “This lawsuit is part of our ongoing efforts to bring an end to appraisal bias which prevent Black communities and other consumers of color from accessing credit and benefitting from homeownership,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement . “Appraisal bias exacerbates the racial wealth gap, and runs contrary to the principles of fairness, transparency and equity that we need in our housing market today,” she added. “The Justice Department will continue to hold appraisers, lenders and others...
A teen has passed away following ongoing interaction with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. The New York Times reports that Sewell Setzer III developed an attachment to a chatbot from Character.AI named Dany, inspired by the “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen. The 14-year-old would engage in countless conversations with it, developing an interest that fluctuated between platonic and romantic. He sent dozens of messages and began to disassociate from his real-life passions and responsibilities, per the outlet, losing enjoyment in playing “Fortnite” with his friends and in Formula 1 racing . Instead, he would spend hours in his room conversing with Dany. At school, his grades began to drop, and he started getting into trouble. “I like staying in my room so much because I start to detach from this ‘reality,’ and I also feel more at peace, more connected with Dany and much more in love with her, and just happier,” Sewell wrote in his journal, according to the outlet....
At this moment in time, a judge is washing his hands of a decision involving Jay-Z and Dame Dash’s shares. As AFROTECH™ previously mentioned, Dame Dash is soon having his shares in Roc-A-Fella Records sold at auction following an $800,000 judgement from a copyright infringement and defamation of character lawsuit. The auction has been gaining significant attention as the buyer and new stakeholder would have the rights to Jay-Z’s debut album, “Reasonable Doubt.” Even Drake reportedly showed interest in purchasing the shares through a direct message, Dame Dash had said. “Based on feedback I have received from interested parties (and I can’t mention names), this auction will likely bring out many household names in the sports and entertainment industries as well as those interested in a piece of a historically significant company, which holds an interest in a timeless debut album,” Dame Dash’s attorney Natraj Bhushan explained to Billboard at the time. Jay-Z’s attorney’s has since...