Arkansas Attorney General Sues Chinese Company Temu for Deceiving Arkansans, Illegally Accessing Personal Data

Current Events

Last week Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin sued Chinese e-commerce platform Temu for

The A.G.’s legal team brought the lawsuit under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which carries a penalty of $10,000 per violation.

Temu is marketed as an online shopping platform launched in 2022, and it is widely regarded as similar to Amazon or Walmart.com. In 2023, the Temu was reported to be the most widely downloaded app in the U.S., and its multibillion dollar marketing campaign — which included an advertisement during the 2024 Super Bowl — has contributed to its success.

But as a Chinese-based tech company, the Arkansas Attorney General’s office has pointed out that security and privacy experts are concerned about Temu.

The A.G.’s lawsuit asserts that Temu “collects a shocking amount of sensitive user data” beyond what is necessary for an online shopping app — including users’ GPS locations and fingerprint data. The lawsuit alleges that the Temu app is able to bypass phone security systems, which potentially grants Temu access to a user’s private messages.

The A.G. says these security concerns are compounded by the fact that Temu is owned by a Chinese company subject to Chinese laws — including “laws that mandate secret cooperation with China’s intelligence apparatus regardless of any data protection guarantees existing in the United States.”

The A.G.’s allegations against Temu are very similar to points the A.G.’s office has made in its lawsuits against TikTok — a widely popular social media platform that is also owned by a Chinese company.

Below is a statement from Attorney General Tim Griffin regarding the lawsuit against Temu.

Griffin: ‘Temu is not an online marketplace like Amazon or Walmart. It is a data-theft business that sells goods online as a means to an end’

LITTLE ROCK – After announcing he is suing Chinese e-commerce company Temu for violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (ADTPA) and the Arkansas Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement:

“Temu is not an online marketplace like Amazon or Walmart. It is a data-theft business that sells goods online as a means to an end. Today I have filed a first-of-its-kind state lawsuit against the parent companies of Temu—PDD Holdings Inc. and WhaleCo Inc.—for violating the ADTPA and PIPA. Though it is known as an e-commerce platform, Temu is functionally malware and spyware. It is purposefully designed to gain unrestricted access to a user’s phone operating system. It can override data privacy settings on users’ devices, and it monetizes this unauthorized collection of data.

“While this is the first state lawsuit against Temu over its deceptive trade practices, it is not the first time Temu’s tactics have been called into question. Apple suspended Temu from its digital app store in 2023, prompting multiple investigations into the company’s dealings, including an ongoing investigation being conducted by the U.S. Congress. 

“Temu is led by a cadre of former Chinese Communist Party officials, which raises significant security risks to our country and our citizens. For my part, I will aggressively fight Temu’s efforts to profit at the expense of Arkansans’ privacy rights.”

The lawsuit, filed in Cleburne County Circuit Court, seeks an order enjoining Temu’s deceptive trade practices and violations of users’ privacy, imposing civil penalties, and providing all other monetary and equitable relief to which the State is entitled.

To read a copy of the lawsuit, click here.

For a printer-friendly version of this release, click here.

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KC Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker Encourages Graduates to Live Out Their Faith in Commencement Address

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Last weekend Kansas City Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker received a standing ovation for his commencement address at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas — even though some pundits have oddly criticized his remarks as “controversial.”

Butker, 28, arguably is responsible for the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII victory over the San Francisco 49ers in February. He is a devout Catholic, and he and his wife have two children.

During his commencement address, Butker discussed the many challenges that the Class of 2024 had overcome — such as graduating from high school and enrolling in college during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic and “missing out on so many milestones the rest of us older people have taken for granted.”

What grabbed some people’s attention, however, was Butker’s willingness to criticize abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, dangerous gender ideologies, and “a growing support for degenerate cultural values in media.”

Butker noted how President Biden often professes his Catholic faith, and yet strangely made the Sign of the Cross during a pro-abortion rally in April.

But Butker also pointedly criticized Catholic bishops who fail to take their calling seriously, and he urged ministers to lead in a Christlike manner.

Critics have seized on Butker saying women “have had the most diabolical lies” told to them, and observing, “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”

But Butker also challenged the men in the graduating class to pursue God’s calling on their lives, and he spoke bluntly about the damage that absentee fathers cause.

Most of his address focused on encouraging the graduates to stand strong in living out their faith. “A life without God is not a life at all,” Butker said, “and the cost of salvation is worth more than any career.”

Throughout the speech, Butker was interrupted multiple times by applause from the graduates and their families, and he received a standing ovation at the end.

But pundits have criticized his statements. The radical, pro-LGBT group GLAAD, for example, issued a lengthy press release calling Butker’s remarks “inaccurate, ill-informed, and woefully out of step with Americans.” The Today Show encouraged viewers to watch a rebuttal to Butker’s comments, and the anchors on Good Morning America seemed genuinely puzzled that Butker would receive a standing ovation from the crowd.

The fact is Butker’s speech didn’t appear remotely controversial with his audience. It was very well received, and there are literally millions of Americans who would strongly agree with what he told the graduates. Plenty of people have expressed opinions about what he said, but it seems odd that so many would try to mischaracterize his remarks as “controversial.”

It shouldn’t be shocking when Christians publicly share their convictions. All of this reminds me of something John Stonestreet said in 2022: “Culture is most powerful in what it normalizes, and when lies are normalized, the truth becomes shocking. Thank God for Christian ministers willing to ‘shock’ and speak truth.”

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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The Global Resurgence of Antisemitism: Guest Column

Current Events,

Since October 7, the world has seen a resurgence of antisemitism, open and raw. In America, this has come especially from institutions of higher education though also from secondary schools and at city council meetings in Oakland. In New York, highschoolers brandished signs that read “keep the world clean” with an image of a Star of David in a trash can. 

If anything, the past few weeks should put an end to our decades-old illusion that history won’t repeat itself. Looking back on the horrors of the Holocaust and the historic sickness of antisemitism, we asked questions like, “How could anyone, let alone an entire culture, be overtaken by Jew-hatred?” Many assumed that kind of evil could never happen again. We now know that assumption to be wrong. 

According to University of Massachusetts professor of criminology Arlie Perliger, “The U.S. is currently experiencing one of the most significant waves of antisemitism that it has ever seen.” This wave predates the October 7 massacre that initiated the war between Israel and Hamas. In 2022, “[i]ncidents of harassment rose 29 percent compared to 2021; acts of vandalism surged 51 percent; and physical assaults jumped 26 percent” to an average of 10 reported incidents a day. The week after Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli civilians, antisemitic incidents tripled compared to the same week in 2022.   

Even among historically high immigration numbers in those countries, the immediate plight of Palestinians in the Middle East can hardly explain attacks in Europe, Russia, Africa, and America. This contemporary crisis is the latest chapter of a hatred that goes back centuries, even millennia. Today, what’s often called the world’s “oldest hatred” is found at both ends of the political spectrum. We certainly should not overlook the power of envy. Setting aside the irrational claims about Jewish wealth over the centuries, a simple glance at Nobel Prize winners displays the cultivating power of Jewish culture. 

While envy might explain some of the insanity, there’s more to it. No other groups have faced so many attempts at eradication by so many: Persians, Romans, Crusaders, Nazis, and Islamists. How did the Jewish people survive when history is filled with tribes, nations, and peoples that endured for a time, only to disappear, some with barely a trace of evidence that they’d ever existed? The Jews were already an ancient people by the time of ancient Rome. Yet they remain, though what was considered at the time to be an eternal empire is now a relic.  

A Christian worldview offers additional resources by which to understand historical developments. Beyond sociological and anthropological realities are unseen ones. Whatever one’s views of the end times, the Jewish people embody the promises of God to redeem His world and destroy the works of the devil. They are a painful reminder to Satan that his spoiling efforts to mar God’s good creation will inevitably fail in the end, and that he will be defeated. The prince of darkness can never win his fight with heaven, but in defiant desperation, he incites people to commit evil and inflict pain, especially on those through whom God works His redemption. 

The Jews are also a tangible reminder that humanity’s story is not ultimately a tragedy. They are a link to the apostles and the prophets, to King David and the deliverance from bondage in Egypt. Even when rejecting the Messiah that fulfills God’s promise to them, they’re a reminder to the world that God wins.  

Especially as we approach Advent, the continued existence of the Jews is a powerful witness of God’s faithfulness to His world and to His promises. These promises, given in Eden to our first parents and reaffirmed in Revelation to the saints, declare that He is making all things new, and that nothing, even the insatiable hatred of hell itself, can stop His restoration of all things. 

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org. 

Copyright 2023 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

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