California is grappling with a growing problem: Too much solar

Table Of Content

• TikTok may be banned in the U.S. Here’s what happened when India did it
• ‘Rivers in the sky’ have drenched California, yet even more extreme rains are possible
• The House votes for possible TikTok ban in the U.S., but don’t expect the app to go away any time soon
• For some, TikTok is a path to riches and the American dream. With a ban, it could all disappear
• From New York to Arizona: Inside the head-spinning week of Trump’s legal drama
• A potential TikTok ban looms

"I feel like Instagram is pushing Reels so hard that it's pretty easy to click on something and fall into the infinite scroll," he added. "If TikTok is banned, I think I might use it as a reason to get off social media completely," he said, apart from X which he needs to use for work. "I hate posting on Instagram now," said Tabitha Mae, a creator who posts storytime videos. In a recent TikTok, she said there had been a "shift" over the past few years where posting on Instagram became "an insanely stressful, nerve-racking process." While they may have an account to document their social lives, like millennials have a Facebook page that's gathering dust, Zoomers have found Instagram pretty cringe for a while now.

TikTok may be banned in the U.S. Here’s what happened when India did it

Filters and Reels remain more popular with millennials than Gen Z, while Zoomers favor stories and DMs, according to a YPulse survey last year. "So I actually have this nice, cozy little open public diary, and I never really feel like I need to be confronted about it in person," she said. As a potential US TikTok ban looms, Gen Zers are contemplating what app might take its place.

‘Rivers in the sky’ have drenched California, yet even more extreme rains are possible

His administration brokered a deal that would have had U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart take a large stake in TikTok. The sale never went through for a number of reasons; one was China, which imposed stricter export controls on its technology providers. It's unclear if such AI tools would convince Gen Z to scroll on Instagram and use it more often. However, Sophie Lund-Yates, from Hargreaves Lansdown, told the BBC that Meta's "substantial investment" in AI has helped it get people to spend time on its platforms.

The House votes for possible TikTok ban in the U.S., but don’t expect the app to go away any time soon

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“Throwing away some amount of renewable energy can absolutely make economic sense,” he said. The U.S. government has not publicly provided evidence that shows TikTok shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government or tinkered with the company’s popular algorithm, which influences what Americans see. Members of both parties, along with intelligence officials, have worried that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over American user data or direct the company to suppress or boost TikTok content favorable to its interests. TikTok has denied assertions that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government and has said it has not shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities.

Dozens of states and the federal government have put in place TikTok bans on government devices. Texas’ ban was challenged last year by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which argued in a lawsuit that the policy was impeding academic freedom because it extended to public universities. The House’s overwhelming vote to ban TikTok unless it is freed from Chinese control suggests that a ban might be coming soon.

From New York to Arizona: Inside the head-spinning week of Trump’s legal drama

(That’s roughly 1 percent of the state’s overall power generation in a year, or 5 percent of its solar generation.) Last year, the state did that in just the first eight months. Since mid-March, TikTok has spent $5 million on TV ads opposing the legislation, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking firm. The ads have included a diverse group of content creators, including a nun, extolling the positive impacts of the platform on their lives and arguing a ban would trample on the 1st Amendment. The company has also encouraged its users to contact Congress, and some lawmakers have received profanity-laced calls. Curtailing solar isn’t technically difficult — according to Paul Denholm, senior research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, it’s equivalent to flipping a switch for grid operators. They sit in dry, desert landscapes in the Central Valley and are scattered over rooftops in Los Angeles’s urban center.

GALLERY INSTAGRAM

TikToker Cassandra Marie, for example, called Clapper the "new TikTok" and praised the app's growth potential, as well as the nostalgic feel of being like TikTok in its early days. However, he said many of his friends are happy to move to Instagram since they are already active users. They use Reels so they don't feel left out of TikTok trends, he said. Kat, who was born in 1998 and works in social media, told BI she doesn't think it's likely young people will flood to Instagram.

The bill’s quick path through Congress is extraordinary because it targets one company and because Congress has taken a hands-off approach to tech regulation for decades. Lawmakers had failed to act despite efforts to protect children online, safeguard users’ privacy and make companies more liable for content posted on their platforms, among other measures. But the TikTok ban reflects widespread concerns from lawmakers about China. TikTok has lobbied hard against the legislation, pushing the app’s 170 million U.S. users — many of whom are young — to call Congress and voice opposition. But the ferocity of the pushback angered lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where there is broad concern about Chinese threats to the U.S. and where few members use the platform themselves.

“The problem we’re seeing out West — nobody else has seen this,” Loutan said. “You don’t want the utility or the grid operator to be overpaying for power when they don’t have to,” Davis said. Nadya Okamoto, a content creator who has roughly 4 million followers on TikTok, said she has been having conversations with other creators who are experiencing “so much anger and anxiety” about the bill and how it’s going to affect their lives. The 26-year-old, whose company, August, sells menstrual products and is known for her advocacy around destigmatizing menstrual periods, makes most of her income from TikTok. He said he thinks there could have been less restrictive ways to go after the company that wouldn’t result in a total ban or threaten free speech.

The company has indicated that it would likely go to court to try to block the law if it passes, arguing it would deprive the app’s millions of users of their 1st Amendment rights. Yap said she's heard whispers of people moving to Discord and Twitch, but these platforms don't have short-form video people can endlessly scroll like TikTok does. A Pew Research Center survey found YouTube is the biggest social media platform among US teens, with 93% of respondents aged saying they used it.

Instagram is "boring, exhausting, and generally not fun" compared with TikTok, Farah said, which boomed during the pandemic and quickly became her most-used social media platform. To cope, CAISO is selling some excess power to nearby states; California is also planning to install additional storage and batteries to hold solar power until later in the afternoon. Transmission lines that can carry electricity to nearby regions will also help — some of the lost power comes from regions where there simply aren’t enough power lines to carry a sudden burst of solar. In the summer, when high air conditioning use strains the grid, solar can be useful even in the middle of the day. Denholm says that as solar continues to drop in price, installing solar that is curtailed regularly can still be cost-effective.

Customers can get more money back if they install batteries and provide power to the grid in the early evening or morning. In response, California has cut back incentives for rooftop solar and slowed the pace of installing panels. But the diminishing economic returns may slow the development of solar in a state that has tried to move to renewable energy. And as other states build more and more solar plants of their own, they may soon face the same problems. In 2020, federal courts blocked an executive order issued by then-President Trump to ban TikTok after the company sued on the grounds that the order violated free speech and due process rights.

TikTok is in second place at 63%, followed by Snapchat with 60%. Josie doesn't share her full name on TikTok, and she said she has everyone in real life blocked on there, including her friends and her boyfriend. "The TikTok ban bill was just passed in the House, which is a bummer," she said. But the idea of posting her TikTok content to Instagram Reels in front of everyone she knew in high school wasn't appealing. California grid operators hope that their experience will teach other states what to expect as renewables grow.