A Year Later, Arkansas A.G.’s Court Battle Against Chinese-Owned Temu Continues

China,

It’s been more than a year since Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office filed a lawsuit against Chinese e-commerce platform Temu for allegedly violating Arkansas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act — and it does not look like the case will be resolved very soon.

Temu is an online shopping platform launched in 2022, and many people see it as similar to Amazon or Walmart.com.

In 2023, Temu was reported to be the most widely downloaded app in the U.S., and its multi-billion 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 alleges Temu collects excessive user data — including users’ GPS locations and fingerprint data — risking potential access by the Chinese Communist Party.

The lawsuit also alleges that the Temu app is able to bypass phone security systems, potentially granting Temu access to a user’s private messages.

In the lawsuit, the A.G. says these 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.”

In other words, the app may let Chinese authorities secretly collect sensitive data on U.S. citizens.

The A.G.’s allegations against Temu mirror allegations the A.G.’s office has made against TikTok — a popular social media platform that is also owned by a Chinese company.

The A.G.’s lawsuit against Temu has continued in court for the past year, and the judge presiding over the case has issued a briefing schedule indicating that attorneys for Temu and the A.G.’s office will continue filing arguments until late September.

Family Council is not aware of any attorney general in America who is doing more to hold tech companies accountable than Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin. Bad actors like the Chinese Communist Party should not be able to secretly harvest American’s private data. We appreciate Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin taking this issue so seriously in court.

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

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Preschools Close as China’s Family Crisis Deepens

China, ,

A recent article at The American Spectator highlights how anti-family policies have contributed to China’s looming population crisis.

Ellie Gardey Holmes writes,

Data released by China’s Ministry of Education last month revealed an astonishing reality: In the past two years alone, 36,000 preschools across China have shuttered their doors.

This is not due to a decline in the popularity of preschool or consolidation on the part of the Chinese government. Rather, these preschools have closed simply because not enough children to attend them were born.

The article notes that births in China have dropped by nearly half since 2016, and there are some 12 million fewer preschoolers in China today than in 2020. Many of these problems seem to trace back to China’s communist government enforcing a strict “one-child” policy for many years. Even though the government has abandoned that policy, fewer families are forming in China.

This is not the first time pundits have expressed concern over China’s declining population. In 2020, officials from the Chinese Communist Party said China’s fertility rate had fallen to dangerously low levels, with fewer couples marrying and starting families. In early 2023, China’s National Bureau of Statistics released data showing the country’s population had begun plummeting. And last year The Guardian reported that several kindergartens in China had been converted into elderly care facilities as a result of the country’s falling birthrate and aging population.

Most developed nations are dealing with declining birthrates — including countries like Japan and the U.S. — but not to the same degree as China.

Without a growing population, it’s difficult for countries to maintain strong communities, a vibrant workforce, or a healthy economy. The Chinese Communist Party spent decades promoting the idea that having fewer children would be good for China, but that simply is not how society works.

Societies thrive off healthy, stable families. That’s part of the reason Family Council has spent more than 35 years promoting, protecting, and strengthening traditional family values in Arkansas. When families succeed, everyone benefits.

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

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