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Tag: tiktok

  • 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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  • TikTok comes clean and admits China

    TikTok comes clean and admits China

    There might be something fishy about China’s ByteDance’s short-form video app TikTok’s data security practices after all, suggests a new Bloomberg report.
    Former US President Donald Trump deemed TikTok a security risk and tried to ban it. He wanted the parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US business. President Joe Biden revoked the ban in June 2021.
    Responding to those nine senators, TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew admitted in a letter that some China-based employees can access information from US users, including public videos and comments. He added that none of that data is shared with the Chinese government and is subject to tough security controls.

    Chew also said that TikTok has limited links to ByteDance and the information that non-US-based employees are able to access is non-sensitive in nature and this sharing helps ensure global interoperability.

    This led to more criticism from US lawmakers about TikTok’s data-sharing protocols.
    TikTok’s response confirms our fears about the CCP’s influence in the company were well founded. The Chinese-run company should have come clean from the start, but it attempted to shroud its work in secrecy. Americans need to know if they are on TikTok, Communist China has their information. ” – Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee
    TikTok says it’s working with the US government to strengthen security around consumer data, especially the information that the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) defines as protected.
    Under an effort called “Project Texas,’ the social media company is making moves to address lawmakers’ concerns. This includes physically storing information about US customers on US servers owned by Oracle. TikTok is also shifting its platform to the American software company’s cloud infrastructure.

    Currently, 100 percent of US traffic is routed to Oracle Corp, but that data is backed up to the company’s own data centers in the US and Singapore. TikTok intends to fully migrate to Oracle’s US servers in the future and delete the information from its own systems.

    According to app intelligence company SensorTower, TikTok has been downloaded 321.6 million times in the US.
  • TikTok seeks to protect the security of its U.S. platform

    TikTok seeks to protect the security of its U.S. platform

    In a move designed to handle questions about the storage of data belonging to U.S. TikTok users, the short-form video app is believed to have completed the migration of data related to its U.S. customers to servers at Oracle. This move could satisfy the demands of U.S. regulatory agencies who had concerns about the integrity of the data collected on the app.
    This move comes a couple of years after a national security panel ordered TikTok parent ByteDance to divest Itself of TikTok in order to prevent the communist Chinese government from collecting U.S. user data. But that order was never completed after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump to win the U.S. presidency. The national security panel, known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), continues to mention its fears over data security at TikTok.
    The U.S. has been focusing on app developers and the personal information that they keep an eye on, especially data that belongs to U.S. military or intelligence personnel. In the blog post it published on Friday, TikTok wrote that it has “long stored U.S. user data in its own data centers in the US and Singapore. In the blog post, TikTok notes that “our Virginia data center includes physical and logical safety controls such as gated entry points, firewalls, and intrusion detection technologies.”
    TikTok added that “It’s also important to maintain backup data storage locations to guard against catastrophic scenarios where user data could be lost. The company added that “our data center in Singapore serves as the backup data storage location for our U.S. users.”
    You might recall that Oracle was once one of three American companies involved in talks to purchase the popular app. The other two firms included Microsoft and Walmart. TikTok’s proprietary servers eventually will be deleted and as the company said, “Today, 100% of U.S. user traffic is being routed to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. We still use our U.S. and Singapore data centers for backup, but as we continue our work, we expect to delete U.S. users’ private data from our own data centers and fully pivot to Oracle cloud servers located in the states.
    TikTok has also set up a dedicated U.S. data security team known as “USDS” to act as a gatekeeper for U.S. user information. The USDS team seeks to protect the data collected from U.S. users. “We know we are among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of U.S. user data,” the social media firm said. “We’re dedicated to earning and maintaining the trust of our community and will continue to work every day to protect our platform and provide a safe, welcoming, and enjoyable experience for our community.
    Commerce Department secretary Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said last year that the administration is “very serious about protecting Americans’ data,” but criticized Trump’s approach. “Doing some executive order that’s meaningless on TikTok is not the way to force change on the platform,”Raimondo said.”
    TikTok has over one billion active users globally and the U.S. is its largest market. During the first quarter of 2022, TikTok was the most downloaded app world wide becoming just the fifth app in history to have lifetime downloads over 3.5 billion. The other four apps to reach this figure are all owned by Meta. Since the start of 2018, no app has been installed on devices more than TikTok.
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  • TikTok wants you to stay away from the app some time

    TikTok wants you to stay away from the app some time

    TikTok wants its users to find other things to do instead of spending all day creating short-form videos and browsing through the app. In a message to the TikTok community that the company disseminated on Thursday, TikTok announced some steps it is taking to help users develop positive digital habits. Users can already set daily screen time limits and in a few weeks, they will be able to control the amount of time that they spend on TikTok in a single setting by enabling regular screen time breaks.
    These prompts will remind TikTok users to take a break from the app after a certain amount of uninterrupted screen time has passed. The amount of screen time can be set as long or as short as the user desires. TikTok members aged between 13 and 17 who have used the app for more than 100 minutes in a single day will be reminded the next time they open TikTok that they can use the screen time limit tool.
    Carolyn Bunting MBE, CEO of Internet Matters, said, “The research showed that younger users would welcome the introduction of built-in features and settings that prompt them to both think critically about the time that they are spending online, but also encourage them to use settings to actively manage the time they spent on the app. It is important that they feel in control of their online experiences and are helped to make considered choices. We look forward to TikTok developing further features that will put children’s wellbeing at the heart of their design choices.”

    The Digital Wellbeing screen time summary shows the amount of time users spent on TikTok during the daytime and during the night. As TikTok recently stated, “We love working with talented creators to educate the TikTok community about online safety, wellbeing, and the tools and options available to them. The energy and enthusiasm these creators have for their community helps them connect with other users and leads to a better understanding of the platform.”

    TikTok was the most downloaded app globally during the first quarter of 2022. It also was just the fifth app in history to record lifetime installations of more than 3.5 billion; the other four apps were all developed by Meta (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger).
    Earlier this year, TikTok made some major changes to its short-form video platform. Looking to take on YouTube, TikTok increased the length of its maximum videos from 60 seconds to 180 seconds (or from one minute to three minutes). It then increased the video length once again from 180 seconds to six hundred seconds (3 minutes to ten minutes). Now, the more than one billion monthly active users on the app have a reason to spend some more time on TikTok.
    On August 1st, 2020, then President Donald Trump, in the middle of his trade war with China, announced that “We’re looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things. There’s a couple of options. But a lot of things are happening, so we’ll see what happens. But we are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.”
    Eventually, Trump decided that he wanted TikTok to be owned by a U.S. company and said that for the app to be allowed to be used in the states, it would have to have U.S. ownership. Three U.S. firms appeared to be interested including (quite surprisingly) Oracle and Walmart. Microsoft also had a strong interest in buying the U.S. version of TikTok.
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  • New TikTok update brings screen time dashboard and additional time limit settings

    New TikTok update brings screen time dashboard and additional time limit settings

    Popular video-sharing social media website TikTok is now following in Instagram’s footsteps by introducing ways to remind users to take breaks from their TikTok binge. Engadget reports that the app is getting more screen time controls and a new in-app dashboard for tracking how much you spend watching videos on there.

    The social media app is now getting a dedicated dashboard where you can monitor the time you spend on the app. The page shows statistics that can help you better manage your time on TikTok and understand what your habits with the app are.

    On top of that, the dashboard will allow you to set a time limit for how much time you want to be spending on TikTok in any one sitting.

    Before this update, TikTok had screen time controls, but those timed out after a set daily limit. This new setting allows you to choose the app to remind you to take a break if you’ve opened it for an extended period of time.

    The thing is, apps such as TikTok and Instagram have been under scrutiny for the impact they have on the mental well-being of their users, especially teenagers.

    To address those concerns, TikTok is also introducing additional screen time restriction options for teens (between the ages of 13 to 17). Teens will now be getting digital well-being prompts and additional screen time reminders for any given day.

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  • TikTok testing a Clear mode experience with fewer distractions when scrolling

    TikTok testing a Clear mode experience with fewer distractions when scrolling

    Popular short video sharing platform TikTok has been recently working on some new features for its ever-growing user base. Now, a new feature that will make your TikTok binge experience a more distraction-free one, so you can focus on the content you’re viewing at a given moment.

    TikTok’s Clear mode has been spotted by Matt Navara, and it seems the social media platform is currently testing it with some users. When you decide to go for Clear mode, it removes all usernames, captions, and other buttons from the interface for distraction-free content consumption and scrolling experience.

    The test is running with a limited amount of users right now. If you’re one of the users the test is available for, you can access Clear mode when you tap and hold on the screen in the app. The feature will then appear under the ‘Add to Favorites’ option.

    For now, the feature is in limited testing and there’s no official date as to when it will be released to everyone. However, once it gets released, it will make the TikTok experience a better one, given the fact that the majority of distractions will be cleared from your view. Yes, that means it will be even harder to stop watching those cute cat videos while you’re supposed to be working…

    But that’s not all. TikTok has also been testing a number of new changes it plans to implement. One of those is a live mobile gaming feature that will allow content creators to better engage with their viewers while live streaming. Additionally, TikTok is working on a way to let you identify comments you think are irrelevant via a private dislike button. Worry not, the dislike button won’t be visible to the commenter or the public, so nobody’s feelings would get hurt.

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  • TikTok may soon let you dislike comments

    TikTok may soon let you dislike comments

    Today, almost everyone is on TikTok, and — although the short-video platform is extremely addictive and entertaining — as with any social platform, there’s the potential for inappropriate or harmful content as well as comments. To help its users “feel more in control over their interactions”, TikTok is testing a new dislike button for its comment section.

    In a blog post, TikTok said that the new button will allow users to flag comments that they find irrelevant or inappropriate. The dislike reaction will be private, only visible to the person who pressed it. The social platform stated, “This community feedback will add to the range of factors we already use to help keep the comment section consistently relevant and a place for genuine engagement.”

    The dislike reaction to a comment will signal the platform’s algorithms that there may be something wrong or simply irrelevant in said comment. We assume that a certain amount of dislikes would cause a comment to sink further down the list, or flag it for review.

    If you wish to straight-up report a disruptive, spammy, or plain inappropriate comment — you can do so currently by tapping and holding on to the comment and then choosing the “report” option.

    Another feature that TikTok said is in its testing phase is reminders that the social platform sends to creators who receive a “high proportion of negative comments.” The reminders will tell creators about features such as comment filtering, bulk block, and bulk delete, which can be used to battle harmful comments. The social platform also noted that it would decide whether to roll the feature out or not in the coming weeks.

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  • TikTok is working on a ‘Watch History’ feature

    TikTok is working on a ‘Watch History’ feature

    You saw a video on TikTok that you really liked, but you didn’t save it and didn’t remember the name of the uploader. You want to watch the video again, but you can’t seem to find it. What do you do? Well, if TikTok releases this feature, you will be able to see what videos you have watched and then find the video in question.

    Hammod Oh, a Twitter user who discovers upcoming features on different social platforms, found out that TikTok is testing a new “Watch History” feature. The feature will allow users to easily see what videos they’ve already watched for up to seven days. So, the end of your never-ending search for that interesting video you saw could be close.

    In a tweet, later shared by social media consultant Matt Navarra, Hammod Oh shared a screenshot that shows a new option called “Watch History,” which was probably under the “content and activity” section in the settings menu of the TikTok app.

    Currently, TikTok’s new “Watch History” feature is only available to selected users who are part of the test program for the feature. There isn’t any information on when we could expect TikTok to officially release the feature for the rest of us. TikTok only told TechCrunch, “We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience.”

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  • TikTok expands its maximum video size to 10 minutes in possible challenge to YouTube

    TikTok expands its maximum video size to 10 minutes in possible challenge to YouTube

    The length of videos created on the platform can now run as long as 10 minutes which more than triples the previous maximum length for videos recorded on the app. Last July TikTok raised the limit on video length to three minutes from 60 seconds. So in less than one year, TikTok subscribers went from recording videos no longer than 1-minute to recording videos that run as long as 10 times that length.

    We aren’t sure that we can continue to call TikTok a short-form video app with the new expanded 10-minute maximum video length. But with the longer recording capabilities available to TikTok creators, users now have a reason to spend more time in the app, watching videos. The Wall Street Journal says that according to people familiar with the matter, ByteDance told some unnamed people back in January that TikTok took in $4 billion in ad revenue for 2021.

    TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users who receive short-form videos that are sent to their TikTok feed thanks to an algorithm that matches subscribers’ interests with the subject of the videos sent to their feeds. Social Media consultant Matt Navarra made an interesting point when he sent a tweet that said, “TikTok creeping in on YouTube territory. I can now upload videos up to 10 minutes long.”

    Navarra’s tweet included directions from TikTok about the update and it told users to make sure that they have downloaded the latest version of the TikTok app before setting out to record content as long as ten minutes. In a statement, TikTok said, “We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience.”

    “Last year, we introduced longer videos, giving our community more time to create and be entertained on TikTok,” the statement continued. “Today, we’re excited to start rolling out the ability to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes, which we hope would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.”

    Last August, we told you that TikTok was working to increase the cap on video length to 5 minutes or longer which would have been a 67% hike from the 3 minutes that TikTok was allowing at the time. While the tipsters were right about what ByteDance was working on, they were wrong about how much longer users would get to record their content.

    Content created on TikTok includes dancing, lip-syncing, singing, comedy, and more. But where the extra time really comes in handy is with video tutorials that viewers might be able to watch in full without having to watch it in different parts. For example, a TikTok video showing users how to explain baseball’s complex “Infield Fly Rule” might take just one long 10-minute video to explain instead of forcing users to view three or four shorter clips instead.

    While Social Media consultant Navarra mused about TikTok quietly making a move on YouTube, the former has a long way to go to come close to YouTube’s advertising revenue. Google’s streaming video app took in $28.8 billion in revenue last year, more than seven times the amount that TikTok did.

    Still, YouTube felt threatened enough by TikTok that it created a short-form video service of its own called YouTube Shorts. Other social media apps went after TikTok including Instagram which launched its short-form Reels feature in 2020. Facebook and Snapchat also developed their own short-form video platforms in an attempt to attract TikTok users and convert them to their own video apps.

    The new 10 minute video recording cap will start rolling out to TikTok users worldwide during the upcoming weeks. Users will receive a notification when the update containing the new cap is available to be downloaded.

    You can download the TikTok app for Android and iOS from the Google Play Store and the App Store respectively. TikTok remains one of the most downloaded apps in the world.

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  • Facebook is trying to replace TikTok with new Reels

    Facebook is trying to replace TikTok with new Reels

    When Meta accused Apple of costing the company ten billion dollars a few weeks back, Facebook had also shared some of its growth plans for the coming future. Part of its ten billion-dollar restructuring strategy, Zuckerberg stated, included initiating a “transition on our own services towards short-form video like Reels.”
    This also includes a global launch of Facebook’s own version of Reels, as Meta observed TikTok’s viral success and shifts its focus on promoting similar content. Facebook had recently been trialing “Facebook Reels” with multiple users on the platform, as well as promoting cross-platform video sharing to garner wider interest in this type of content and test the waters. Starting today, Reels is officially becoming its own standalone feature on Facebook, and is rolling out to at least 150 countries over the coming weeks.
    Zuckerberg made the announcement in a Facebook post earlier today: “Reels is already our fastest-growing content format by far, and today we’re making it available to everyone on Facebook globally. We want Facebook Reels to be the best place for creators to connect with their community and make a living, so we’re launching new monetization tools, too.”
    The Reels will begin appearing for everyone right at the top of Facebook users’ Feed. Facebook Stories—another feature stolen off Instagram—will be able to be converted into Reels, and vice versa: Reels will be able to be shared as part of Stories.
    Facebook Reels are also set to become a promoted category on Facebook Watch as well as, surprisingly, Facebook Groups. Users will additionally be shown individually recommended Reels, which the company caters to according to people’s personal taste. In short, Facebook will push the new Facebook Reels to feature quite literally everywhere across the platform.
    To create a financial incentive for bigger creators to focus on Reels, Facebook is also paying up to $35,000 per month to select creators to pump out more Reels content. That particular bonus program has been around ever since Facebook began seriously testing Reels, and is part of the company’s billion-dollar creative investment pledge it made back in July 2021.