nnncer: building a better bay area for a safe and secure future, this is abc7 news. good afternoon. i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program called "getting answers." we're asking experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers for you in realtime. today, we have a packed show for you. we'll be soon joined by the president of the league of women voters to protect mail-in ballots and questionable election mail you might have already gotten. san mateo high school journalist doing something fascinating. documenting his own distance learning experience. but first, it's the story everyone's talking about. tiktc tick tok. banning from further downloads

on the app store, after raising fears of national security and users' data security given its chinese ownership. the app has exploded over the past year or so and completely taken over teen and young adult culture. so to get to the bottom of what this means for tiktok or if it means your kids will be having to say good-bye to the app, daniel castro, vice president of the information technology innovation foundation. that's a think tank based in dc. thank you so much for joining us. daniel, how are >> good. >> for us over age 40, not gen z or millennials, what's tiktok? >> it's a platform, very short videos. small clips, and they're usually set to music. >> so why has it taken off, you think? what exactly about this app is so, you know, appealing that is, compared to other social media

platforms? >> i think a lot of users get on tiktok for the first time and their reaction is, what is this? they're not sure what they're looking at or the entertainment value is, but after a it's a fun way of tsharing information and being creative. with lockdown, different generations have found a new way to connect and engage online. >> now let's get to this tug of war. that's t what's the reasons, publicly given ones, that the trump administration would like a ban on it? >> the initial executive order calling for a ban came out this summer and it really came out of nowhere. people were not expecting this and their rationale, this tiktok, operating as a company in the united states, has a chinese owner, which everyone knew about. and the concern that the administration raised was that because it has a chinese owner,

the data from these u.s. users could be going back to china. now, tiokor a long time, denied this. publicly said your data is stored in the united states, like any company that makes those kind of claims, they are subject to legal reviews by, you know, organizations like the federal trade commission who can enforce those laws. but the concern was there. the concern was raised that this information might be going back to china, that there might be some kind of security threat and for that reason, the trump administration issued this executive order saying that there would be a ban of this app along with the chat. >> is it only chinese apps? what about apps that orange nig from russia which we sometimes have a contentious relationship with this? >> we've seen the concern before, the fact that the software or hardware is coming from a foreign country. we might not be able to trust it. the problem we'veith that, of

course, you can't trust most of the software unless it's been through review and the software doesn't go through that. so most companies rely on their reputation and in this case, we haven't seen significant security threats raised by the tiktok app any more than we have with other social media apps that are out there. >> how is this equivalent or perhaps not at all to the fact that china does ban lots of u.s. social platforms, if you will, right? from its country. >> that's right. pretty much across the board, china has told the u.s. social media platforms they're not welcome, and they're doing that to protect their own domestic companies. they're giving them first access to their market, or only access to the market. the problem with the trump administration's ban here is they're not saying they're doing this for trade for tat, ongoing trade for with

china. they said it's for security reasons. the problem with that, other countries can use the same excuse saying there's a potential national security risk and having a u.s. company enter their market across the board. that would hurt u.s. companies significantly if it was done. >> this is why tech companies raised concerns over this. it validates the idea you can ban an app simply because of who its owner is. that's very bad news for most u.s. tech companies. >> account federal government actually force tiktok's removal from the app store? is it not up to apple? >> well, this is where there's a lot of new questions that are being raised. the congress and administration came out with this directive for the app stores, google and apple, to remove the app on sunday. but they also came up with a

number of other policies that by november, content delivery networks, all the different network services that we use to actually download the content, we have to stop providing access to tiktok. and that raises a lot of questions because we've never had a kill switch for the internet and a way to ban the app in the united states. china and russia have done that. united states has never done that. the question is whether this will go through and the legality of it. >> what do you think will actually happen come sunday? do you think it will poof, be gone? >> that's the way it looks right now. i mean, this was announced on friday, that these companies have the weekend to now scramble and figure this out. unless there's a new announcement that comes out. i suspect these app stores will take it down. but what that means for the individual user, the app stays on your phone if you've already downloaded it, but you won't be

getting anymore updates and if you get a new phone or trying to download it for the first time, you won't be able to do that. >> ironically, i downloaded it a few nights ago to see what my kiddo is posting with the fortnite videos. right now, we understand oracle is in talks to take a majority stake or large stake in tiktok. doesn't this come at a time that could benefit oracle in these negotiations, isn't it leverage? >> that's a possibility. right now, two offers to take over tiktok from microsoft this deal with oracle would be to have oracle become the trusted technology partner. it's not exactly clear what that would mean, we've seen some reporting suggesting a 20% stake in the company and walmart might be involved in the partnership.

but the open question is whether or not that deal could even go through with this ban, makes it more likely or less likely. there's a lot of uncertainty. so for any deal to go through, it's going to have to get approval from the u.s. regulators and chinese regulators. very difficult. >> we only have 90 seconds. i have two questions for you. we'll move on quickly. i think we need to mention that we chat is another chinese app that could be gone as of sunday included in this executive order. tell us about wechat. >> the fact so many social media platforms are banned in china, wechat is used by many chinese americans as well as business people. >> we'll see what happens with that. and last question, this is a comment from one of our viewers, kyenna, said the kids will get

ballistic and vote blue. could this actually hurt the president's prospects with young voters? >> well, so i think that's one reason we saw two parts of the order announced today. the ban on downloading the app goes into effect on sunday but the more substantial ban that would really hobble the service doesn't go into effect until after the election in mid november. that timing is likely because of the impact it would have on the election. >> of course, people have also said that, who do people who use tiktok? tiktokers. but to tank one of the president's rallies, all the slots and nobody goes, that started as a tiktok thing. do you think there's more talk of this being political retribution? >> that's certainly one of the rumors that's going around. and the problem is, the whole process has been a very closed

door back deal. a andrew dymburt see something like that happen because the speech of not only the platform or users on them as well. >> political ramifications as well. daniel castro, vice president of the information technology and innovation foundation. thank you so much for joining us today. >> thanks for having me. >> we'll take a short break on the air. when we come back, something so many of you are skeptical about. the safety and security of mail-in voting. we'll get to the truth behind that and plus, talk with a san mateo high schooler documenting his

a month and a half away from the presidential election with stakes like we've never seen before but the major question when it comes to choosing who will sit in the white house has to do with the mail coming to your home. carol moon goldberg, the president of the league of women vote voters. >> helping people understand the election process. the claims we've been hearing including from the white house that mail-in voting somehow lays the groundwork for election fraud. >> there are repeated studies that show the incidence abroad is quite low. if you look at the five states that have completely vote by mail elections at all times, not guilty just this time but at all times, they don't have a problem

with fraud. it doesn't happen. i was going to say, it's very rare. put it that way. >> dawn does want to point out, many states are not adequately prepared for this ballot harvesting. is there no truth to that? >> i can only speak about california. and california is not having an issue with that. i'm not really sure what ballot harvesting is but there is a procedure where a person can give the completed ballot in the envelope to a designated person who has identified on the envelope as having permission to do so. there are penalties on the person if they don't return the ballot as they're supposed to. >> there seems to be information

on it that doesn't match what the secretary of state is telling us about the california process, could you clear that up? >> you're right, it doesn't match. first of all, active registered voters will receive a vote by mail ballot. don't need to ask for it. trying to think of the other thing they said. there's no need for an application for it. >> also says, receive instructions add postage if needed. you don't need to add that? >> postage is prepaid. i'm afraid some of our younger voters don't know what stamps are anyway, but it doesn't seem right to have to pay in order to exercise your right to vote and so california has taken care of that issue. there is no need for a stamp. >> how about where it says we recommend you mail your ballot

at least seven days before election day. do you need to do that? >> you don't need to do that. it's not a bad idea, but in california as long as the ballot is postmarked on election day, and arrives in the elections office, up until november 20th, it will be counted. it still doesn't hurt to do it early. it relieves the stress and the processing and gets things moving a little bit more quickly. so it doesn't hurt to mail it early but it's not a requirement. >> so how do we register and when do we expect to get the ballots in the mail? >> i believe the ballots are going to be put in the mail on october 4th or 5th, so we should receive them shortly thereafter. in order to register to vote, you can do that online by going to registertovotecalifornia.com and it will take you online to the voter registration form. if you go online, you can give permission, they can use your

dmv records. your driver's license or maybe a california id as a signature, so that you don't have to physically prepare a registration form, but if you want to do that anyway, go to a post office. usually they have them, libraries if they have them are open. county registrar's, the paper registration forms. >> what are some recent actions or changes at the postal service that have had >> i don't know if there has been so far. so far, it's speculative. the fear you won't receive it in time to cast it. that's the cas getting nervous, you can go to your local registrar's office or county election's office and ask for a ballot. they can arrange that for you.

if you really want to see when it is put in the mail to you, there's a tracking service called where's my ballot? you can register yoursel you kn when the ballot has been received in the elections office once you return it. and when it's been counted. >> wow. >> it's a good thing to do. >> that's nice. >> where the drop boxes near them and vote by mail info, what do you advise? >> there are two locations for you. the polling place address that will tell you where your polling place is. there's general information about that, also, the secretary of state's office has general information for you and so does your local county elections office. so there are places online to

find it. >> good information. carol moon goldberg, thank you so much forfeitu all that information. take care. >> you're welcome. thank you. >> san mateo

and we're back. we're just a few weeks into a most unusual school year. most bay area students are doing distance learning. for high schooeniors, misd portunits,academically, socially and athletically but for student journalists, it's an opportunity to document their experience during these times. joining us to share his story, edward wong. good to see you. >> nice to see you too. >> remind our viewers who you are. your dad is a navy reservist who answered the call on the uss mercy floating hospital when

covid first began. how's he doing? >> my dad is doing pretty good. he returned probably in late may, i think, and he's been back at home and he just resumes his job as an anesthesiologist at a local hospital and yeah, it's been great. >> we thank him. a picture we're trying to bring up. oh, there he is. you're wearing a full on scuba mask of some sort. he did not die. was that your way of protecting yourself and the family when he first got home? >> i guess that was a way to protect myself from him. >> glad you're all safe. the san mateo district union over zoom. how is that going so far? >> it's going okay. it's not the same as having school in person, but so far, it's been okay. it's been around six weeks into

the semester, which i was very surprised to learn. time seems to be passing by very fast. obviously, i'm very fortunate to have a good remote learning set-up. i have a laptop and stable internet, but for a lot of kids, remote learning isn't that option. >> drawing out the social inequality aspect. the economics. so how about the friendships? academics are hard over zoom but how are you maintaining that because socializing is really important for teens, right, so i'm wondering if the way you socialize, if that's evolved over time. >> a lot of activities we normally engage in, we don't anymore. during the first month of the pandemic, something i noticed was that as everything was like shutting down, it felt like the entire world was ending around us. a lot of our normal activities were online and we were doing a lot of facetiming, virtual hangouts and absolutely nothing

in person. but as we've learned more about the virus, we're finding ways to communicate and ways we didn't before. we're going to local parks and social distancing with our masks on, of course. we're bringing hand sanitizer and getting it through together. >> you mentioned socially distanced walks where you try to keep it safe, keep a mask and distance apart but do you see all teens doing that or do you think more and more are kind of abandoning, you know, the protocol? >> yeah. i definitely am seeing a lot of laziness in the ways teenagers, young people are

as long as they can socially distance, they should. >> another aspect to senior life, applying to colleges right now. it's challenging enough in normal times. what about now? >> applying to college this year is pretty difficult as a senior because a lot of the normal advice that we've been given doesn't really apply anymore. entirely through junior year, we're told to study hard for the s.a.t. and now, no credit last semester. so a lot of grades last semester, they didn't matter at all. it's uncleefr how they'll

measure and test students with valid grades. >> a lot of uncertainty. that's scary, but i do want to share with our viewers. you're making the best of a bad situati situation, check this photo. a career, h, h, h, and reporting on a situation where a lot of things are uncertain and try to make sense of what's going on right now. >> edward, we thank you for sharing your story and we wish you luck and we hope to have you back on to report on your quarantine experience soon. take good care. >> don't

we talked about the possibility of a tiktok ban on sunday and a full ban likely won't take effect until after the november election and confirmation there's virtually no incidence of voter mail-in fraud in the u.s., an important distinction to repeat this year and we'll be here every day at 3:00 for you on air and live stream, all sorts of topics. world news tonight is next and we'll see you back here for today's top headlines on abc7 news at 4:00, abc7news.com for our free apps for your phone, and connected tv devices. all right, thank you so much. and have a great weekend. i'll see you back ear on monday.

tonight, several developing headlines as we come on the air. the new tropical threat heading toward the u.s. after the deadly hurricane sally, tonight the newest threat. three named storms today alone. what we're watching in the gulf and when it could hit the u.s. and hurricane headed toward bermuda. ginger zee tracking several storms. let the voting begin. the massive lines today. voters in their own words. why they're in line, some for hours to vote in person be early in this presidential election. and tonight, the list of states. your questions answer about early voting, mail-in voting in your state. the president tonight and coronavirus as the u.s. approaches 200,000 lyes