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Tag: tiktok

  • TikTok in talks with Indonesian e-commerce firms about partnerships

    TikTok in talks with Indonesian e-commerce firms about partnerships

    TikTok has been talking with Indonesian e-commerce companies about possible partnerships, an Indonesian minister said on Monday, a month after Southeast Asia’s largest economy banned online shopping on social media platforms.

    TikTok has spoken with five companies including GoTo’s e-commerce unit Tokopedia, Bukalapak.com and Blibli, according to Teten Masduki, minister for small-medium enterprises (SMEs).

    “Some e-commerce companies in Indonesia have talked to TikTok,” he said in an interview, citing what the companies’ executives told him.

    Indonesia’s trade ministry implemented the ban last month, aiming to protect smaller brick-and-mortar merchants and protect users’ data.

    It was a particular blow to TikTok, which was forced to close its e-commerce service TikTok Shop. TikTok has 125 million users in Indonesia.

    Tokopedia declined to comment. A representative for Bukalapak said the company was unaware of such talks. Blibli did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    TikTok and YouTube are considering joining Meta in applying for e-commerce licenses in Indonesia after Southeast Asia’s largest economy banned online shopping on social media platforms, people familiar with the discussions have said.

    The app, owned by Chinese technology giant Bytedance, was also pursuing talks with local e-commerce players, they added.

    Teten, one of the staunchest critics of TikTok Shop prior to the ban, said President Joko Widodo has tasked him to formulate rules on e-commerce.

    He plans to meet TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew later this month.

    “I want them to commit to have a sustainable business that does not harm domestic SME products,” he said.

    Teten also said he has proposed further regulations for the flow of imported goods into the country but did not provide details.

    Until it stopped operations, TikTok Shop delivered about 3 million parcels daily in Indonesia, sources have said.

    Indonesia’s e-commerce market is expected to grow to around $160 billion by 2030 from $62 billion this year, according to a report on Southeast Asia’s internet economy by Google, Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings and consultancy Bain & Co.

    Other major e-commerce players in Indonesia include SEA’s Shopee and Alibaba’s Lazada.

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  • Tax collections from Meta, Google, TikTok soar

    Tax collections from Meta, Google, TikTok soar

    Sixty-seven cross-border digital platforms, including Meta, Google, TikTok, and Microsoft have paid taxes of VND5.8 trillion (US$241.7 million) so far this year compared with VND3.5 trillion for 2022.

    The General Department of Taxation said it would urge other foreign service providers who have yet to declare and pay taxes to do so, and upgrade its electronic information portal to facilitate online payment.

    As of Sept. 18 some 350 e-commerce platforms had provided tax authorities with information about 191,000 organizations and individuals that did a total of VND44.5 trillion worth of business through them.

    Tax collections in the first nine months stood at VND1,050 trillion, down 5% from the same period last year, according to the department.

    Taxes on crude oil were down 20% at VND46 trillion.

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  • Indonesia proceeds with ban on e-commerce transactions via social media

    Indonesia proceeds with ban on e-commerce transactions via social media

    Indonesia has banned e-commerce transactions on social media platforms, the trade minister said on Wednesday, in a move intended to protect traditional retail and which will mostly impact short video platform TikTok and its shopping platform.

    The government says the move is aimed at protecting offline merchants and marketplaces in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, adding that predatory pricing on social media platforms is threatening small and medium-sized enterprises.

    Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan told reporters the regulation, which takes effect immediately, is intended to ensure “fair and just” business competition, adding it was intended also to ensure data protection of users.

    He warned of letting social media become an e-commerce platform, shop, and bank simultaneously.

    The regulation also requires e-commerce platforms in Indonesia to set a minimum price of $100 for certain items directly purchased from abroad, according to the regulation document reviewed by Reuters, and all products offered should meet local standards.

    Zulfikli did not mention TikTok, although his deputy Jerry Sambuaga named TikTok’s “live” features as an example of people selling goods on social media.

    BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, said earlier on Wednesday that TikTok will be the only business affected by the transaction ban because its model relies on social e-commerce, although “it will not harm the digital marketplace industry’s growth.”

    A TikTok Indonesia spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. On Monday the spokesperson said the government should consider “the livelihood of more than six million” local sellers active on TikTok Shop.

    The company said its app had 325 million Southeast Asian users that were active every month, and 125 million of them were in Indonesia – on a par with its user figures for Europe and not too far behind the US, where it has 150 million.

    According to data from consultancy Momentum Works, Indonesia, with a population of more than 270 million, accounted for nearly $52 billion worth of e-commerce transactions last year. Of that, 5 percent took place on TikTok, principally through live-streaming, it said.

    Chinese tech company ByteDance owns TikTok.

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  • TikTok launches online shopping in the US

    TikTok launches online shopping in the US

    With over 150 million users in the United States, social media juggernaut TikTok, is embarking on a groundbreaking journey that could redefine the way we shop online.

    After months of testing, the platform officially integrates e-commerce into its social media ecosystem, offering users a unique blend of entertainment and shopping. The strategic move comes as TikTok aims to capitalize on the platform’s immense popularity and expand its business.

    Users will now discover videos and live streams in their feeds featuring clickable links that lead to product purchases, effectively transforming TikTok into a thriving shopping destination.

    The TikTok app also introduced a dedicated “shop” tab feature where businesses can showcase their products, complete with logistics and payment solutions, all integrated within TikTok.

    This strategic addition is expected to boost user engagement and drive sales as consumers can seamlessly discover and purchase products within the TikTok ecosystem in hopes of replicating the success of other Asian platforms like Shein and Temu in the US.

    As a way to create a versatile e-commerce ecosystem, the social media giant has strategically integrated its shopping services with several third-party platforms, including Shopify, Salesforce, and Zendesk.

    Overall, TikTok’s goal is clear: to empower content creators, brands, and merchants with the tools they need to create engaging and interactive shopping experiences and ease how customers make purchases on the platform.

    TikTok’s retail expansion comes amid scrutiny from governments and regulators due to concerns over data privacy and an alleged political affiliation with the Chinese state.

    With over 1 billion monthly active users (MAUs) worldwide, TikTok isn’t only focused on the U.S. and has since expanded its reach to multiple countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, with plans to reach $20 billion merchandise sales by the end of the year. This underscores its determination to leave a mark on the international e-commerce landscape.

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  • TikTok launches text posts in an attempt to take on X

    TikTok launches text posts in an attempt to take on X

    Despite the social network bleeding users, Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, took some questionable decisions over the weekend. After rebranding Twitter’s logo to “X” and promising to bring a bunch of new features that no one asked for, Musk’s is now facing another big problem: the stiff competition.

    Meta’s attempt to take on Twitter hasn’t been entirely successful, as Threads still needs a lot of features to offer a similar users experience. But another contender to take Twitter’s place has just made its first step toward fulfilling its plans.

    TikTok has just announced text posts, a new feature that offers users a Twitter-like experience. This will allow creators to share their stories and other types of content in a different, simpler way. The new feature is available starting today and doesn’t involve too many clicks to make it work.

    When you access the Camera page, you can now choose from three options: photo, video, and text. Tapping on the text option will direct users to the text creation page where they can type out the content of their post. It’s not as fast and smooth as tweeting a message but considering that TikTok is a video-first platform, this will have to do for now.

    In addition to creating posts, TikTok users can also customize their content by including Sound, tagging a location, enabling comments, and allowing Duets. It will enrich the text posts and make them more dynamic beyond what Twitter offers currently.

    For example, TikTok users can add stickers to their text posts, tags and hashtags, as well as background colors and sounds. On top of that, it’s also possible to save drafts and store them with other unpublished posts for later editing or discard them if you’re not content with how they end up.

    It’s a neat new feature that will probably not attract many of Twitter’s users, since Musk’s social platform caters to a different type of audience, but you might as well try in out before the ship sinks to have some alternatives to retreat to.

  • TikTok adds content filtering tool to Family Pairing

    TikTok adds content filtering tool to Family Pairing

    TikTok is bringing one of the features that’s been available since last year, content filtering, to Family Pairing. Ever since the feature was released back in July 2022, the content filtering tool that allows TikTok users to filter out videos with words or hashtags was among the most popular features among the app’s users.

    Today, TikTok announced that parents will now finally be able to take advantage of content filtering tool since it will be added to Family Pairing. But this is not just a traditional port, as TikTok says it has partnered with experts to be able to adapt the content filtering tool to Family Pairing.

    It was very important for TikTok to strike “a balance between enabling families to choose the best experience for their needs while also ensuring we respect young people’s rights to participate in the online world.” On that note, the feature has been implemented in a way that allows teens to view by default the keywords their parents have added.

    These keywords will be represented in the app as a personalized layer on top of the Content Levels system, which is meant to prevent content with more mature or complex themes from reaching audiences between ages 13-17.

    The new content filtering feature is available to TikTok parents via the Family Pairing starting today, but make sure to update the app to the latest version.

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  • Vietnam to inspect TikTok content to stop harmful videos

    Vietnam to inspect TikTok content to stop harmful videos

    Vietnam will begin to conduct an inspection of TikTok next month to deal with harmful content and false information.

    Le Quang Tu Do, head of the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications, said that recently a lot of toxic, offensive, false and superstitious content has been appearing on the social media app TikTok in Vietnam.

    The inspection, to be conducted by the communications ministry, seeks to ensure that the social media complies with Vietnam’s regulations, both in content and operations.

    “TikTok, Facebook and YouTube are all cross-border social media with international standards,” Do said. “But when entering Vietnam, they need to comply with Vietnam’s laws, which includes regulations on content management and tax, payments and commercial policy.”

    TikTok was launched in Vietnam in 2019 after a year of beta testing. It now has nearly 50 million Vietnamese users aged 18 and above. Vietnam ranks sixth out of 10 countries with the biggest number of TikTok users, according to research company DataReportal.

    In the first quarter of last year TikTok said it removed some 2.43 million videos uploaded by Vietnamese users for violating its community guidelines related to nudity and sexual acts involving minors, inciting violence and also frightening content, harassment, bullying, suicides, and more.

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  • Bill to ban TikTok in the U.S. takes its first steps toward the White House

    Bill to ban TikTok in the U.S. takes its first steps toward the White House

    on Tuesday Republicans on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee took short-form video app TikTok closer to its final tick in the U.S. Concerned about reports that TikTok collects personal data from its U.S. subscribers, and might even collect keystrokes from those using TikTok’s  in-app browser, legislation that would result in the ban of TikTok on all U.S. mobile devices has advanced.
    The legislation would give President Joe Biden the authority to ban the popular app in the U.S. Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said, “Everybody knows what TikTok is. It’s too dangerous to be on our phones as members of Congress.I think, it’s too dangerous to be on our children’s phones. That’s the whole point of this bill.” The U.S. in December banned TikTok from government-owned phones.
    McCaul’s DATA Act (H.R. 1153) advanced out of committee by a vote of 24 to 16. Voting on the proposed bill was split along party lines with the 24 votes in favor of moving the legislation along coming from all of the Republicans on the committee while the 16 dissenting votes came from all of the Democrats on the committee. McCaul said that he hoped the voting isn’t the start of a breakdown in bipartisanship when it comes to Chinese technology.
    In 2021, TikTok hit one billion monthly users, and last August, a survey revealed that 67% of teens in the states use TikTok and 16% use it constantly. Insider Intelligence says that TikTok owns 2.3% of the digital ad market behind heavyweights like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Alibaba. The company is owned by Chinese firm Byte Dance, and while it denies any ties with Beijing’s spying operations, like other Chinese companies it must agree to comply with all requests from the country’s intelligence agency.
    In a statement, TikTok says, “A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide. We’re disappointed to see this rushed piece of legislation move forward, despite its considerable negative impact on the free speech rights of millions of Americans who use and love TikTok.”
    The bill has a long road ahead of it. If it gets voted out of the Republican-controlled House, it would still need to be voted on in the Democrat-controlled Senate which could be a problem. And should the bill pass the Senate, it would then require the president to sign the bill, or he could veto it. If Biden does the latter, the veto can be overturned with a two-thirds
    vote from members of the House and Senate.
    A few years ago, when Donald Trump was president, a deal was reportedly in place that would have seen Oracle and Walmart buy the app’s U.S. operations from TikTok owner ByteDance. But the deal never got done and Trump turned his attention toward more pressing matters such as the upcoming presidential election. But Needham analyst Laura Martin says that this time a deal could be finalized.
    While the platform could be weakened, “it wouldn’t just disappear and get shut down,” Martin said. She also said that “Implications are great for anybody that has been losing market share to TikTok.” Martin picked Snapchat, Facebook, and YouTube as platforms that would be big winners if TikTok gets banned in the U.S.
    Another analyst, JMP’s Andrew Boone, said that if TikTok is banned in the states, Facebook would be a big winner because of the money that parent company Meta has been throwing at Facebook’s TikTok rival Reels. Boone also noted that “If TikTok were to go away, I think that there would be a lot more consumption of Instagram Reels.” The analyst also says that Snapchat’s Spotlight and YouTube Shorts would both benefit from the disappearance of TikTok.
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  • Is it already ‘game over’ in the metaverse for Bondee, Singapore’s avatar-based app?

    Is it already ‘game over’ in the metaverse for Bondee, Singapore’s avatar-based app?

    After garnering two million downloads within two weeks of its launch, Bondee’s Gen Z users have got past the novelty factor. Bondee’s is a story of social media hype punctured by a sharp truth that the loyalty of digital natives is hard-earned, experts say

    The rise of Singapore-based metaverse newcomer Bondee was impressive: two million downloads within two weeks of its launch on Apple’s App Store.

    But that initial hype was short-lived as Singapore’s social media users quickly dropped the home-grown avatar-based app, retreating from yet another attempt by makers of the metaverse to capture the long-term loyalty of Gen Z in Southeast Asia.

    Yet Bondee’s moment in the sun may reveal the challenges that the region’s metaverse developers face, experts say, with none so far hooking a crowd large enough to trouble social media giants, such as Meta which has ploughed billions of dollars into the digital future.

    Bondee’s early adopters in Singapore were initially pulled in by the “cute” avatars, personalised rooms and picnic spaces, reminiscent of games like Habbo Hotel that many millennials dabbled in as teens.

    With shades of the Nintendo game Animal Crossing, which took the online world by storm during Covid lockdowns in 2020, Bondee allows users to personalise avatars and bedrooms that friends can visit.

    Friends are capped at 50 by the app’s Singapore-based creators Metadream, in an effort to keep the community tight, relevant and connected.

    Aqil Lim, 25, said he enjoyed being able to visit his friends’ virtual homes, even more as “we don’t have our own homes in real life” in the expensive Asian city state.

    As word of mouth of what was dubbed the “new Gen Z app” spread quickly across Asia, many shared the QR code of their Bondee account on Instagram and Twitter, prompting friends to add them.
    But the novelty quickly wore off as Bondee felt “primitive, with limited customisations and chat functions”, Lim said, adding that after a few weeks he hardly uses the app.

    By Wednesday, Bondee had fallen to 19th on Singapore’s Apple Store – just a month after it topped charts across Asia.

    This also comes after reports of social media users using the term #ripbondee while recording themselves uninstalling the app.

    Bondee’s is a story of social media hype punctured by a sharp truth that the loyalty of digital natives is hard-earned, experts say, since most of their allegiances are already captured by larger platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

    “Avatars alone can’t draw people in, it’s what the entire platform allows you to do with your avatar that gives the platform its stickiness,” said Lim Sun Sun, a professor of communication and technology at the Singapore Management University (SMU).

    The cutesy aesthetics and whimsical feel of Bondee was a “nice hook” but if there isn’t anything else after that, then it is quite literally, “game over”, she said, adding that this will be a challenge for metaverse developers to meet.

    Singaporean Joey Tan, 23, saw videos on TikTok about Bondee and became “curious about what the hype was about”.
    But given the newness of the app, not many of her other friends were on it, an apparent failure to reach a “critical mass” which quickly sees new tech fizzle.
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  • Popular social media app accused of hooking kids up with drug dealers

    Popular social media app accused of hooking kids up with drug dealers

    Some parents are accusing social media app Snapchat of helping their kids find easy access to drugs. These parents have filed a lawsuit against Snapchat and its parent company SNAP. Amy Neville’s 14-year-old son allegedly used the app to connect with a drug dealer who sold him pills that were laced with fentanyl. The latter is a powerful narcotic that is 100x stronger than morphine and it doesn’t take much to kill an unsuspecting user.

    Neville, talking about kids who have died after buying pills containing fentanyl from dealers via Snapchat said, “And they’re gone because apps like Snapchat…make these dangers accessible to our kids.” More than 50 parents have filed what NBC News calls “a string of lawsuits” that say Snapchat “ignored the harms its product was causing users” and said that the company turned the reins of the app over to drug dealers.

    Matthew Bergman, an attorney with the Social Media Victims Law Center, is representing several of the grieving parents and noted that calls continue to come into his office. “I had no idea how pervasive this problem was, Bergman said.” The attorney added that he had just received calls from seven more families that had lost children to drugs purchased through dealers that were supposedly discovered on Snapchat.
    Bergman points out that while other social media platforms have unintentionally hosted drug dealers, certain features of Snapchat make it more favorable for drug transactions. One is the disappearing messages feature that allows messages to vanish. And the Snap Map can be used to find the exact location of dealers.
    NBC’s Seattle affiliate KING-TV filmed one overdose survivor as he used his phone and the Snapchat app to find a dealer showing how easy the whole process is. The dealer he found was willing to deliver the narcotics to the survivor’s home. “It’s pretty much Amazon for drugs,” he said.
    In a statement given Snapchat said that it works closely with law enforcement and “uses cutting-edge technology to…find and shut down drug dealers’ accounts…block search results for drug-related terms.” It also redirects such searches to resources that explain to Snapchat users about the dangers of fentanyl. Snapchat also helped produce a public service announcement about the dangers of fentanyl.
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  • Apple and Google asked to ban TikTok over national security concerns

    Apple and Google asked to ban TikTok over national security concerns

    Michael Bennet — Colorado senator, also a democrat and a member of Senate Intelligence Committee — wrote a letter to Google and Apple this Thursday, pleading for them to ban TikTok due to concerns over national security.

    The New York Times reports that the letter has been addressed to the chief executives of the companies — so, Tim Cook for Apple and Sundar Pichai for Google — and in it, Michael Bennet basically states that it’s not okay for the Chinese government to have access to this much data or the ability to curate media for a third of US population.

    The senator elaborated further, stating that he sees the current situation as irresponsible. From his point of view, this is an opportunity for Big Tech to step in on the debate and show where they stand.

    TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter commented on Michael Bennet’s letter, expressing concern over its subjectivity and how it may be misleading. She stated that the report “totally ignored” the company’s plan — called Project Texas — to assure all of its users in data transparency and security integrity.

    TikTok maintains the stance that data is in no way, shape or form, being transferred to the Chinese government. The company submitted a plan back in August, detailing how it intends to prevent China’s access to US data. The social platform is even willing to let the US government oversee its operations in an attempt to prove its claim.

    From a political stance, this is yet another sign of a democrat joining in on a typically republican-led battle. This entire ordeal harkens back to 2020 and Trump’s own efforts to get TikTok banned, along with WeChat — another popular Chinese app.

    Google and Apple have yet to respond to the senator’s letter, but they may have to. After all, this ordeal marks a point at which over 24 states have chimed in to support the movement to have TikTok banned

    Without going too much into detail, the entire thing revolves around a Chinese law loophole, which basically allows the Chinese government to get their hands on data in secret. With the discussion being on the rise, it will be interesting to see if the company manages to prove that it has prevention plans for such a scenario.

  • Students and professors protest TikTok bans at state schools

    Students and professors protest TikTok bans at state schools

    With over 25 states banning the use of short-form video app TikTok on state-owned devices, it is no surprise that the ban has been extended to public schools in these states. With parent company ByteDance located in China, there have been numerous concerns about the app collecting users’ personal data and even capturing keystrokes to learn passwords and other information.
    Bloomberg reports that the TikTok ban has worked its way to more than a dozen state-run universitie,s including Auburn University, the University of Georgia, Oklahoma State University, and more recently the University of Texas, Austin. Some schools have banned TikTok from being installed on university-owned devices whileotherss won’t allow TikTok to be used on campus networks. Some schools use both methods to ban TikTok.
    After the still popular TikTok app was banned at the University of Texas, Austin, both students and even professors at the school spoke out against restricting the app. Kate Biberdorf, 36, an associate professor of chemistry at the university said, “I use TikTok as an educational tool to make science fun and accessible. To have that tool be taken away by a university, that doesn’t sit right with me. Right now in our community, it feels like our rights are being taken away, and this is another push in the wrong direction.”
    Biberdorf is not only a fan of the app, she is also a content creator known as Kate the Chemist and has 194,400 TikTok followers. Attending the same school, 22-year-old theater-education major Grace Featherston said that people should be allowed to make their own decisions about using an app owned by a company located in China. She said, “It’s the choice of US citizens, whether they want to consume TikTok and whether they want to take that risk.”
    Featherston has 27,000 followers on TikTok who view her videos that discuss Broadway shows, social trends, and current events. Like many TikTok users, even though she is aware of the risks of using the app, it doesn’t bother her enough to make her stop using Tik Tok. That’s because using the app makes her an internet celebrity while delivering entertainment to her.
    Politicians supporting such bans or even a nationwide ban of the app will need to consider the possible blowback from younger voters. Featherston says that she will consider a politician’s position on TikTok before she votes. The demographics of TikTok users match those of the ‘voters under 30’ group that helped the Democrats outperform expectations for the 2022 mid-term election. So all politicians need to handle this situation carefully rather than risk alienating this important block of voters.
    ByteDance defends itself by stating that it doesn’t share data with the Chinese government and has strict controls inside the company that limit the access to user data. Even with these controls, ByteDance said that some employees tracked journalists by violating company rules to access user data belonging to Americans. Still, TikTok was the most installed app worldwide last year with 672 million global downloads.
    Rick McElroy, principal security strategist at tech firm VMware Inc. says that security fears should not be overlooked when it comes to TikTok. McElroy says that the personal data collected by an app like TikTok could be used by a company or even a government to track high-profile individuals and damage their reputations using misinformation campaigns. The aforementioned tracking of journalists is a real-life example.
    Former President Donald Trump tried to force ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to American companies. Eventually, Trump said that he had a deal ‘in concept’ with Walmart and Oracle but the deal never materialized and Trump turned his attention to the 2020 presidential election.
    As of the beginning of this year, TikTok has 1 billion active users in 154 countries. The app records videos in a vertical orientation and such content can run for 10 seconds to as long as 10 minutes.  The app can be downloaded from the App Store for iOS users while Android users can download TikTok from the Google Play Store.
  • TikTok starts labeling accounts that have anything to do with the government

    TikTok starts labeling accounts that have anything to do with the government

    As of today, TikTok content will have flags to signify if a video is coming from a state-controlled media. This feature was initially introduced last year, and was limited only to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. In the spirit of transparency, however, this feature will become available in more countries.

    The company’s goal, as described in its own statement, is to help users recognize accounts whose content might be influenced by a government entity. They hope to provide users context when consuming such content — especially news — as it may not always be clearly stated within the video itself. As many of us know, subjectivity and presentation play a huge role in the way in how people understand information.

    This decision is the product of long-term research that the company has conducted across numerous countries. The definition of “state-controlled media” that the TikTok specialists have agreed upon is “an entity where there is evidence of clear editorial control and decision-making bystate memberse”.

    However, this change also means that TikTok should be capable of defining “editorial independence” as well. When trying to prove that, the company’s Trust and Safety and Policy and Partnership teams are looking at things such as a publication’s mission statement, leadership behavior and what type of editorial decisions they typically make. As an example, when reviewing news outlets, they ask questions such as “Are they funded by a state entity?”. If the answer is “yes”, then objectivity may not be on the agenda.

    TikTok’s statement emphasizes that they’ve done their best to create an objective evaluation methodn. They hope that it can continuously help users make informed decisions when consuming news-related content on the platform. That being said, the team is aware that errors aren’t out of the question, so a new appeal process is also being introduced.

    While all of this is well and good, TikTok leadership understands that this doesn’t mean that the battle has been won. It’s great to see the team behind one of the most controversial social media platforms remain vigilant and attempt to provide something that can so easily become lost in fast-form media: context.

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  • TikTok banned on government devices in Kansas

    TikTok banned on government devices in Kansas

    The saga of TikTok and its security issues has taken yet another turn. After news broke that TikTok admittedly spied on journalists a few days ago, US government officials have started to take serious measures against the popular app. First, TikTok was banned on US House of Representatives-issued devices, and now the app will disappear from government devices in the state of Kansas.

    Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has announced a ban on TikTok on state government devices due to national security and data mining concerns. Kelly stated that TikTok could make users’ data available to the Chinese Communist Party.

    15 other states have already banned the app, but Kansas is among the first Democratic states to implement such a ban. TikTok spokesperson Jamal Brown called the ban “politically motivated” and said it was based on “unfounded falsehoods.”

    TikTok is the second most popular domain on the internet right now, after Google. It has grown quickly and now has more users than Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat combined. Things might become even bleaker for TikTok users in the US if the proposed bipartisan bill helmed by Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, passes.

    The legislation from both parties is called “Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act)” and Rubio officially stated that “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 collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day.”

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  • TikTok will soon let you see why it has recommended a specific video to you

    TikTok will soon let you see why it has recommended a specific video to you

    Have you ever wondered why TikTok recommends certain videos to your “For You” feed? Well, if you have, you will soon know the answer. As TikTok announced in a new blog post, it will introduce a new tool in the coming weeks that will allow you to see why a particular video appears in your “For You” feed.

    Once TikTok releases the feature, you will be able to find it in the share panel on your For You feed. When you tap the share button, you will see a new question mark icon named “Why this video.” Choosing it will reveal why TikTok recommended the video you are currently watching.

    For example, the app may let you know that it is showing this clip because of your previous interactions with the application, such as content you watched, liked, or shared comments you posted, or searches you performed. It may also tell you that you’re seeing this video because it was uploaded from an account you follow or from an account that has been suggested to you.

    Another reason the app could give is that the displayed video is popular in your region, which is why it is being shown to you, or that the clip was just recently posted in your area.

    In its blog post, the social media platform also shared that it is currently working on many other ways to bring “meaningful transparency” to its users.

    We should not be surprised by TikTok’s sudden desire to offer more transparency because it’s most likely due to the attacks that it is currently facing. The social media platform is once again under fire by the US government.

    Recently, a new bill was introduced that would prevent TikTok from operating in the country. The bill follows on the heels of a proposal prohibiting the app’s installation on government-owned devices. As you probably know, a similar ban already exists for devices used by the United States military, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.

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