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Sources

OneShot: Patty Hearst, The Mysterious Tale Of An Heiress

Detail from Patricia Hearst's mugshot
Detail from Patricia Hearst's mugshot

The story remains a mystery to this day.

On February 4, 1974, the 19-year-old daughter of millionaire newspaper publisher Randolph Hearst was kidnapped from her home in Berkeley, California. The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a revolutionary group, claimed responsibility for Patricia "Patty" Hearst's abduction. As a ransom, SLA demanded that her father donate $70 worth of food to every needy person in the state. The Hearst family gave $2 million (out of the estimated $400 millions) and the SLA refused to release her.

A dramatic turn of events occurred in April when Patty Hearst declared she was joining the SLA on her own free will and was spotted during two armed robberies. Finally, on September 18, 1975 (exactly 43 years ago) police and FBI officers arrested her in San Francisco. She weighed just 87 pounds (40 kg). Though she first claimed her allegiance to the SLA, Hearst later retracted and said she was threatened, raped and brainwashed. She was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison on March 20, 1976.

Hearst was released in February 1979 after her prison sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. In 2001, President Bill Clinton granted her full pardon.

Patricia Hearst — ©San Mateo Sheriff's Office/OneShot


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Future

TikTok Fears Over China Miss The Real Danger: All Social Media

Safety or addiction concerns about TikTok are very real. But would U.S. elected officials seek to ban or control this social network if it were not Chinese? Are U.S. social networks less harmful? For France Inter, Pierre Haski warns us to take a step back when pointing the finger at TikTok.

Tik Tok supporters are seen outside the U.S. Capitol before the House passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, that could ban TikTok in the U.S.

Tik Tok supporters are seen outside the U.S. Capitol before the House passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, that could ban TikTok in the U.S.

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/ZUMA
Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — When the first threats to ban the social network TikTok appeared in the United States, one U.S. lawmaker worried about being "hated by an entire generation!”

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Founded in 2016, TikTok is indeed the singular standout social network of recent years, with more than one billion users around the world, the majority of whom are young people, with another one billion if we count the Chinese version Douyin. The United States, meanwhile, counts 170 million TikTok users, compared to the 20 million in France.

But TikTok is Chinese, and that's the problem. And those same problems are spreading outside the United States. India and its billion-and-a-half inhabitants banned TikTok in 2020, two weeks after a deadly incident on the Chinese border. For Delhi, the app posed a security risk.

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