More from TikTok ban: all the news on the app’s shutdown and return in the US
Please don’t buy used phones with TikTok installed. I know it’s hard to pass the time without the FYP, but it’s a massive security and privacy risk. Just scroll on your browser instead.
It’s not clear whether any of the examples in this New York Times story have actually sold, but eBay is full of listings that apparently have been purchased.
[The New York Times]
Here he is talking about it during today’s big data center announcement, with Larry Ellison, Sam Altman, and Masa Son standing in the room with him.
Extreme First Amendment issues with having the government own a social platform aside, it’s striking how he keeps talking about “permits” even though nothing in the TikTok bill has anything to do with permits. Once a real-estate guy, always a real-estate guy, I suppose.
The “Repeal the TikTok Ban Act,” introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), would undo the forced divestiture law. Unlike President Donald Trump’s executive order or his proposal for the US to own 50 percent of the app, this would be the most legally-sound way to overturn the ban — but it’s still likely a long shot to pass.
TikTok went hard on Dear Leader flattery with its we’re-banned-we’re-back messaging, but it didn’t even get the full 90-day extension Trump promised — it’s only 75. And Trump loves nothing more than leverage, as he made clear while signing the EO. This thing is getting sold, one way or another.
It’s an odd seating arrangement considering that Shou Zi Chew is counting on Trump to help TikTok get out of its US ban that’s based on national security concerns. If confirmed, Tulsi Gabbard would be the one advising the president on such threats. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.
Now that TikTok service has been restored in the United States, Marvel Snap is soon to follow. The Marvel collectible card game was caught up on the TikTok ban because its publisher is owned by ByteDance, the company that also runs TikTok. Snap’s developer, Second Dinner, has posted on social media that it expects the game to available again sometime today.
You can catch the national mood from time to time using the iOS App Store’s top free apps list.
After today’s TikTok chaos, the top 20 apps there are taken up mostly by VPNs and video editing or social media posting apps, with a little ChatGPT and Temu sprinkled in for good measure.
The Arkansas Republican and Intelligence Committee chair is putting companies like Apple, Google, and Oracle on notice that they could face not only Justice Department lawsuits, but action from shareholders and state enforcers for servicing TikTok. The warning flies in the face of President-elect Donald Trump’s apparent desire to have TikTok operating on Inauguration Day.
The app is partially back online in the US with a message explicitly thanking President Trump. The chances that all this desperate messaging backfires and he still forces a sale are steadily rising — that’s what Trump is saying, and the rest of the GOP is insistent that the law be enforced.
Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Pete Rickets “called some of the major tech companies in recent days to say they needed to comply with” today’s federal TikTok ban, reports The New York Times.
The article followed a joint statement from the two praising Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft for “halting operations with ByteDance and TikTok.” Since then, the app has started coming back online — but is still unavailable in app stores.
[The New York Times]
