In what became the latest in years, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday stated charges against a group of celebrities promoting crypto assets without properly disclosing that they paid for their endorsements.

Among the defendants are Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Austin Mahone, Kendra Lust, Lil Yachty, Ne-Yo and Akon, according to a statement from the SEC.

The SEC charges focus on Justin Sun, described as a “crypto-asset entrepreneur,” who owns a few crypto companies, “for the unregistered offering and sale of crypto-asset securities Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), the SEC said. at its release.

Meanwhile, the celebrities Named by the SEC, whose backgrounds range from music to social media to influencer pornography, they are accused of “illegal promotion of TRX and/or BTT without disclosing what they were compensated for doing so and how much they were compensated.”

The complaint was filed in federal district court in New York. In a statement, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said that Sun “induced investors to buy TRX and BTT by organizing a roadshow in which he and the popular promoters hid the fact that the celebrities got their tweets.”

With the exception of Soulja Boy and Mahone, the celebrities agreed to pay a total of more than $400,000 to settle the charges, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, the commission said.

Fellow journalists who spoke to TikTok press representatives told me that company representatives open my emails to request comment with trepidation. One reporter said a rep told them I would always ask them to comment on an internal policy, a leaked document, or a new feature they didn’t even know existed. I am currently working on more challenging stories about the platform. (If you have any tips, please Call me for my Signal number.)

But these tough stories won’t focus on the company handing over data to Chinese authorities, or the security risks associated with its relationship with the Chinese state. Because I couldn’t find any evidence of either. I want to find that link, because like any journalist, I’m an egoist and I want to be the one to break a story like this. I’ve been trying for years to find any links to the Chinese state. I’ve spoken to dozens of TikTok employees, past and present, seeking such a connection. But I didn’t discover it.

I can not say that this link does not exist. But I can say that I and other more talented journalists have been walking away from the TikTok edifice. We now know that the company has Spy on journalists and has Workplace harassment issues. TikTok’s finances are constantly being leaked. But neither of us found the smoking gun. And I don’t think my fellow reporters are any less excited to find it than I am.

We are in a strange political situation. Donald Trump’s legacy continues in the way we have our own personal fantasies, which we either firmly believe are true or repeat so often that we forget the truth. Among those fantasies: TikTok is a sure risk. TikTok is a puppet of the Chinese state. TikTok is a Trojan horse waiting for Chinese President Xi Jinping to bring down the West.

trump She launched a series of advertisements online In 2020 it says, “TikTok is spying on you.” It’s a sentiment echoed by other politicians, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who is concerned about TikTok’s links to China.

None of this is true. At least as far as I can tell. However, hearing politicians on both sides of the aisle talk about it, it’s a verifiable fact. And they want to ban the app because of that.

These American politicians are taking a curiously Chinese approach: suppressing and censoring it in the interest of harmony, rather than allowing free enterprise from a corporation that has shown itself willing to bend over backwards to try to answer concerns, and has made it appear that it is. Good faith efforts to address issues as they arise.

We’ll likely see a lot of heat, not a lot of light, from Thursday’s congressional hearing. There will be the usual objections from TikTok that it has no connections to the Chinese government, and the usual threat from politicians that TikTok’s answers aren’t good enough. but for 150 million Americans Now with the app, we have to hope TikTok answers will suffice.

New York prosecutors are believed to be about to file an indictment against Donald Trump over hush money payments to a former adult movie star. Stormy Daniels. This will be the first time in US history that a president, former or current, will face criminal charges.

Many imagine – some of them elated – what it would look like to arrest Trump. Among them is Eliot Higgins, best known as the founder of the open source investigative journalism website Bellingcat. This week, Higgins used the AI ​​image generator Midjourney to film Trump’s arrest. he Share 50 photos on TwitterAnd soon they spread rapidly.

As a result, he said on Wednesday, Midjourney appears to have suspended him from the service. Medjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (The word “suspended” is now banned on the platform.)

Higgins, 44, told BuzzFeed News that he “was juggling a lot of prompts to see what’s possible and how complex you can make it.” He pushed Midjourney to capture what Trump would look like if he were Overrun by the police On the streets of New York outside a building that looks eerily like Trump Tower, how His kids will reactAnd What will his life be like in prison?.