10 children sent to a hospital over TikTok challenge at Massachusetts grade school



Officials are warning parents about a TikTok challenge after ten children were sent to a hospital for treatment at an elementary school in Massachusetts.

The incident resulted in a massive reaction from first responders to the Dexter Park School on Tuesday in the city of Orange in the western part of the state.

A student apparently brought extremely spicy gum to the school and gave it to others during recess.

Orange Fire Chief James Young Jr. said the gum was rated at about 16 million Scoville heat units, which is a measurement of the pungency of spices.

“Which is equivalent to basically what’s commonly referred to as pepper spray, so a very spicy or hot agent that the kids were exposed to,” Young said. “It can cause skin irritation, as well as respiratory and airway inflammation.”

Officials believe the student brought the gum to the school because it has become popular as a part of a social media challenge on TikTok.

Amelia Dynice, a parent of a student at the school, said she was shocked to find out the gum was available on Amazon.

“That’s scary,” said Dynice. “Shouldn’t be able to buy that on Amazon.”

The superintendent of the school said that they were investigating the incident and that appropriate "disciplinary action" would be taken at the end of their probe.

Young said parents should speak to their children about these kinds of incidents.

“Kids are curious and they are going to investigate things like this, but not to bring things like this to school,” he said.

“Don’t share products amongst each other, and if you see something, say something to the adults that are in charge of the school, so they can prevent something like this from happening," Young concluded.

Lawmakers in some states have banned TikTok from official government applications over concerns about Chinese communist surveillance. Some members of the U.S. Congress have also called for a nationwide ban on the application.

Here's a local news report about the incident:

TikTok gum challenge to blame for 10 students' trip to hospital www.youtube.com

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Bipartisan lawmakers introduce legislation to ban TikTok over threat of Chinese communist spying



A group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced legislation to ban the social media platform TikTok in the U.S. over communist Chinese spying concerns.

The popular application is used by about 80 million people in the U.S. but is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company with very close ties to the communist government.

“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok. This isn’t about creative videos — this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, one of the sponsors of the bill, in a statement.

Experts say the application is invasive and collects far more information from users' cellphones than other social media apps. The threat that information gathered from users' phones might be passed on to the Chinese Communist Party has led many state governments to ban TikTok from devices provided to state employees and agencies.

"We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections," Rubio continued in his statement. "We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok for good.”

The bill was also sponsored by Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois.

TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement to The Hill that the legislation was politically motivated.

“It is troubling that rather than encouraging the Administration to conclude its national security review of TikTok, some members of Congress have decided to push for a politically-motivated ban that will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States,” said Oberwetter.

She went on to say that the company has plans to "further secure" the platform in the United States.

The stock price for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, jumped by 4.74% partly based on the news of the possible ban.

Here's more about the ban on the communist spying app:

Is the U.S. moving towards a TikTok ban?www.youtube.com

Gov. Greg Abbott bans use of TikTok on Texas gov't issued devices over communist Chinese surveillance concerns



Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a ban of the use of the popular TikTok social media application among Texas state employees and agencies over concerns about communist Chinese surveillance.

TikTok boasts over 80 million users in the U.S., but experts have warned the public that the company that owns the platform has strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party and has very invasive digital behavior.

Abbott issued a press release about the order Tuesday.

“TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users’ devices—including when, where, and how they conduct Internet activity—and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government,” wrote the governor in part.

"While TikTok has claimed that it stores U.S. data within the U.S., the company admitted in a letter to Congress that China-based employees can have access to U.S. data. It has also been reported that ByteDance planned to use TikTok location information to surveil individual American citizens," he explained.

Abbot has ordered that TikTok be removed from all government-issued devices used by officers and employees, including all computers, tablets, and desktop computers.

"Further, under China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, all businesses are required to assist China in intelligence work including data sharing, and TikTok’s algorithm has already censored topics politically sensitive to the Chinese Communist Party, including the Tiananmen Square protests," he concluded.

Abbott is not the first governor to ban the app for state employees. Republican Gov. Kristi Noem banned TikTok in South Dakota in November.

"South Dakota is banning TikTok for state government. We will have no part in intelligence gathering for China, a nation that hates America," she tweeted at the time.

Maryland has also similarly banned TikTok.

Experts have warned that TikTok might be used by the Communist Chinese Party to obtain sensitive and personal information from the cellphones of U.S. citizens that it can use later to blackmail or otherwise undermine its victims.

Here's more about the communist Chinese spying app:

How China Uses TikTok To Spy On Youwww.youtube.com