TikTok is the social media sensation that all of Silicon Valley — and a lot of Washington, DC — has their eyes on. The app, created by ByteDance, became famous for rocketing musicians and dancers to stardom. But as its popularity and influence have grown, so has scrutiny of its privacy policies, security, and influence, with legislators voicing concern about its ownership by a Chinese firm. Meanwhile, social media competitors are doing everything they can to knock off TikTok’s features and usurp its short-form video dominance.
“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. “The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access. The onus won’t be on parents or young people. There’ll be no penalties for users.”
Legislation will be introduced this month and would come into force 12 months after ratification.
Industry minister François-Philippe Champagne says the government is acting “to address the specific national security risks related to ByteDance Ltd.’s operations in Canada.”
However, Canada is not attempting to ban or control the TikTok app:
The government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content. The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice.
TikTok has responded, saying it would challenge the order in court.
The Information reports that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance grew its overall revenue to $73 billion in the first half of 2024 — just shy of Meta’s $75.5 billion. The share of ByteDance’s revenue that comes from TikTok grew to 23 percent, meaning its operations outside of China are increasingly important for the company’s bottom line.
The company is adding a STEM feed for all US, Great Britain, and Ireland-based users that surfaces technology and science content. The feed itself isn’t new, but now it will be enabled by default.
An educational feed could be a way for TikTok to push back against a potential ban in the US and lawsuits that say the app is dangerous to kids.
The future of marketing — and, in a way, everything else — is getting a shakeup.
If you thought standard-issue ad tech was a little weird and creepy, get ready for the future: platforms letting marketers use all their data to make an infinite number of AI-generated ads specifically targeted to individual viewers. Digiday reports on TikTok’s Smart+, which competes with similar offerings from Meta and Google:
Marketers can let TikTok’s AI handle the heavy lifting — building and delivering ads to drive conversions, leads, or app downloads. […] The pitch is all about simplicity and speed — no more weeks of guesswork and endless A/B testing, according to Adolfo Fernandez, TikTok’s director, global head of product strategy and operations, commerce.
Super normal, everyone! No potential issues here!
State Attorney General Ken Paxton alleges that TikTok has violated the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act by not giving parents control of their kids’ privacy and account settings, writes Reuters. TikTok denied the allegations in a statement to The Texas Tribune.
TikTok A federal judge blocked part of the act requiring large social networks to stop harmful content from reaching minors just prior to the law taking effect on September 1st.
The service will be shut down on November 28th according to a post on the streaming site, with subscription renewals being automatically canceled.
TikTok Music launched in 2023 as a rival to services like Spotify and Apple Music, but was only available in Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico. Users have until October 28th to transfer their TikTok Music playlists to other platforms.
TikTok’s subscriptions feature is rolling out to eligible non-Live creators. The platform first launched its Twitch-like subscriptions in 2022, but it was only available to TikTokers who livestream.
This means more creators can offer subscriber-only chats and videos for their fans, who can also get things like custom badges, emotes, and maybe a role on a private Discord.
Judge Sri Srinivasan brought up the Supreme Court’s decisions in NetChoice and another case, Murthy v. Missouri, while questioning DOJ attorney Daniel Tenny.
“Under Netchoice, if we were talking about a US company, that’s heartland First Amendment-protected curation,” Srinivasan said. “So everything on under the government’s perspective turns on the fact that ByteDance is subject to Chinese control.”
Attorney Daniel Tenny frames the government’s objection to TikTok. “It gathers a lot of information” and “it uses that information to try to assess what sorts of videos and other content is going to be of interest,” Tenny says. “That same data is extremely valuable to a foreign adversary.”
A report from The Information details the China-based ByteDance’s plans to mass produce two new AI chips by 2026 with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The move would help ByteDance save “billions of dollars” as opposed to buying chips from Nvidia.
[The Information]
TikTok’s lawyer is off the stage, and Judge Noemi Rao is questioning Jeffrey Fisher, who represents a lawsuit from users of TikTok. Fisher’s argument so far centers on the claim that American media creators have a right to work with publishers of their choosing. Rao is questioning how far that right should stretch — emphasizing the judges’ focus on TikTok’s Chinese ownership.
Andrew Pincus, the attorney representing TikTok and ByteDance in an appeals court hearing today, didn’t outright mention the DOJ’s attempt to introduce classified evidence. But he did suggest there’s no public rationale for the potential ban.
“We don’t really know what was determined here, because this was Congress enacting statute that has no findings, that doesn’t say why Congress did what it did.”
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has just started its morning session, where TikTok and the US Government will be fighting over the divest-or-ban law passed earlier this year. There’s one brief argument in another case before it starts.
The Department of Justice filed a very redacted transcript of the classified briefing House lawmakers received before passing the bill that could ban TikTok unless it spins out from its Chinese owner. If you squint around the blocks of blacked-out text, you can kind of start to see how the DOJ will likely defend the bill in oral arguments on September 16th.
[CourtListener]
I’ve always wondered, and Lucas Zelnik has a shockingly simple and good answer:
I think the biggest thing is to stay in front of people’s faces. You just have to put out so much content. Jokes take so long to write. I will put out chunks of material but very selectively, and, frankly, I probably won’t put out any more material until I’m ready to release an hourlong special, which I think I want to give that a few more years.
In a new filing, DOJ says it’s “not trying to litigate in secret,” but that the court should be able to review classified information that led Congress to determine the divest-or-ban bill was necessary. In its own filing, TikTok says the government’s arguments for the bill are riddled with errors and omissions.
You can pay to see if your partner will respond to a stranger’s flirty DM — and TikTok has turned this into a thriving subculture.
“On one hand, it’s like, fuck yeah, we got this guy,” Monzon told me. “But on the other hand, it’s like, ‘Fuck.’ This girl’s life is…she’s heartbroken now.”
A placard at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture used the internet-speak term “un-alive” to describe Cobain’s suicide, according to Billboard. The museum elsewhere reportedly said it used it as a “gesture of respect.”
People use terms like “un-alive” online to try to get around moderation algorithms that they believe may suppress or remove their content. MoPOP didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
The Wall Street Journal delves into a loose network of TikTok accounts churning out videos with AI-generated voiceovers making ridiculous claims — both positive and negative — about Donald Trump. A political motive is possible, but it sounds likely they’re less a coordinated operation than a bunch of people ripping each other’s content off for views, and Trump is simply the best engagement-bait around.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign page quickly shared a video of her newly-selected running mate Tim Walz on TikTok, showcasing his ability to produce viral soundbites. The Harris campaign’s use of TikTok underscores why it’s so hard for politicians to quit, even as both parties overwhelmingly passed a bill that could end up banning it.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign announced its running mate pick Tim Walz mostly in a typical press flurry — except on TikTok, where the Kamala HQ account shared a purposely glitchy montage of Walz’s public appearances. It’s another example of the Harris campaign very deliberately tapping into trends, memes, and formats on the platform.
The program, which paid users around 38 cents a day to engage with videos, was already suspended in the region after the bloc opened an investigation in April.
A separate EU Commission probe into TikTok’s allegedly addictive design, and its content moderation rules for minors remains open.
