Creators

Without explaining why its cloud status page doesn’t list any outages, TikTok USDS part-owner Oracle outed itself as the previously unnamed “US data center partner” that experienced a power outage over the weekend, blocking videos from publishing and unraveling its all-important algorithm for a few days.

It follows Snap in reaching an agreement to resolve the first of several cases slated to go to trial this year about social media’s alleged harm to users, an attorney for the 19-year-old plaintiff confirmed. That leaves Meta and YouTube as defendants in the case going to jury selection today.

TikTok’s US service crashed early Sunday morning, and as of late Monday night, it still hasn’t fully recovered.

Despite claims floating around social media, the truth is a bit more complicated, not least by the fact that TikTok in the US is still largely down, about a day and a half after its data center power outage problems started.

Oracle and a group of investors now control TikTok in the US, and promise to retrain the app’s algorithm on US user data. Though TikTok blames some of the issues users experienced over the weekend on a power outage, many are still concerned about how their feed could change.

Whether this is just a regular outage or a result of this week’s changes in management, reports tracked on Downdetector and Reddit confirm many people are having trouble loading TikTok right now.

A pair of bipartisan lawmakers introduced the Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks (TRAIN) Act in the House, letting copyright holders see if AI models were trained on their work. It’s already been introduced in the Senate, and counts the Recording Industry Association of America and SAG-AFTRA among its endorsers.

It’s been a long, confusing, and at times tiresome saga, but according to Semafor, the Chinese and U.S. governments have given the green light for ByteDance to sell TikTok’s American arm. The target closing date set back in December was today, January 22nd, 2026.

The San Diego convention previously allowed AI images to be displayed under certain conditions, but has now banned any partially or wholly AI-generated materials entirely, following backlash from artists. The policy change has been welcomed, but without reliable AI-detection methods, enforcement may prove challenging.

Sephora is partnering with Korean beauty retailers Olive Young to bring more K-beauty products to international consumers in-store and online. In the last decade, K-beauty has had a meteoric rise outside of Korea; the industry has especially thrived in the TikTok social media era, where new products and releases are used to relentlessly drive beauty trends. Now US retailers are in an “arms race” to cash in on the popularity.

Move aside Ben Affleck, Adobe’s former product chief is also musing on how AI will impact human jobs:

In a Joe Rogan interview on Friday, Affleck spoke for several minutes about how he believes generative AI will (or won’t) impact creative industries, saying it’s “going to be a tool, just like visual effects.”

TikTok will roll out new age detection technology in Europe that uses profile information, posts, and “behavioral signals” to guess if a user is under 13, then flags suspected accounts for moderators to review, reports Reuters.

Videos that include topics like reproductive rights, self-harm, suicide, and abuse will be able to earn more revenue now as long as they don’t include graphic scenes or descriptions, as spotted by Tubefilter.

The solution is using Bluesky, of course. Naturally, a user with a blue check next to their name told Grok to put a bikini on the butterfly and the AI did — which seems like an even stronger advertisement for Bluesky than the one Bluesky itself posted.

Apple’s new Creator Studio subscription is pitched as an Adobe alternative, but a lot of Verge commenters made it clear: without a decent equivalent to Lightroom, it won’t work for most photographers.

As part of a partnership between TikTok and FIFA, select media partners can livestream “parts of” World Cup matches as well as “post more curated clips and access special content produced by FIFA for TikTok.”