TikTok

There’s been significant progress toward a US TikTok ban, with Congress looking likely to vote in favor, and President Biden confirming that he will sign the bill if it passes – but the latest report saying that it may be blocked by the Senate.

In particular, Senator Rand Paul has said that he would seek to block the ban on First Amendment grounds …

TikTok is already an Instagram competitor when it comes to videos. However, while TikTok is a video-first social network, Instagram still lets users post photos in their feed and share 24-hour Stories. Now it seems that TikTok has been working on a new app to compete with Instagram’s photo feed.

Next week, the United States House of Representatives will vote on a bill that could ultimately lead to TikTok being banned in the United States. Speaking to the press on Friday, President Biden voiced his support for the bill: “If they pass it, I’ll sign it.”

TikTok last year introduced a new “Add to Music app” feature which, as the name suggests, lets users quickly save a song they’ve heard in a TikTok video to Apple Music, Spotify or even Amazon Music. While this feature was previously available to users in the US and UK, the platform is now making it available in more regions around the world.

There’s a new way to completely lose track of time in Apple Vision Pro. TikTok announced today that it has officially launched its own spatial app for visionOS.

The Senate hearing on social media saw Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologise to families who hold social media responsible for children who harmed themselves, including some who took their own lives.

It also saw some bizarre racism by one senator who apparently can’t tell the difference between Singapore and China …

The timing of Meta’s announcement of new teen safety measures earlier this week likely wasn’t coincidental: Mark Zuckerberg and other social media CEOs are set to testify to Congress on the topic.

Facebook’s founder will be joined by the chief execs of TikTok, Snap, Discord and X as Congress seeks to determine whether the companies are doing enough to protect teens from harm …

The start of a new year is a time many of us use to take stock – of our goals, our habits, the ways in which we spend our time. For me, one significant change has been adopting a more sane approach to social media, and apps in general.

I’m a huge fan of technology, of course, but I also fully acknowledge that tech also has its downsides – and social media in particular has been a very mixed blessing …

Attorney General Brenna Bird from the great state of Iowa is going after TikTok with a new lawsuit. The latest legal battle being fought in the US against the ByteDance-owned video platform isn’t just seeking an all out ban. Instead, the state of Iowa is targeting TikTok over how it allegedly age rates itself inappropriately in the App Store.

A first-of-its-kind law restricting social media use by children has been challenged by an industry group representing TikTok, Meta, X, and Snap.

The NetChoice trade group argues that the law introduced by Utah, and which other states plan to emulate, is unconstitutional …

TikTok on iOS has received a new experience for iPad users today that the platform calls “a complete upgrade.” That includes fresh navigation bars, a new video feed with “enhanced clarity,” and support for both landscape and portrait orientation.

A new bill being put forward in New York state would require kids to get parental permission to use apps with algorithmic feeds. This would include TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and more.

The bill is known as the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, and has the backing of the state’s governor and state attorney general …

Update: A third US state is suing TikTok for harming children “by intentionally keeping young users spending unhealthy amounts of time on the short-video sharing platform.”

There have been threats/promises of a federal TikTok ban since 2020, but little progress has been made in the past three years. The latest development is that there are now two completely separate potential laws competing for support …

A number of TikTok deepfakes have been called out by the celebrities whose likenesses have been stolen. These include MrBeast, Tom Hanks, and Gayle King.

The fake video of MrBeast claimed that viewers had been selected to receive an iPhone 15 Pro for just $2, leaving the YouTube star to question whether social media networks are prepared for deepfake scams …

TikTok appears to be joining the likes of X, Meta, and Snap with a new premium tier in the works. Rather than selling status or experimental features, however, TikTok is taking a more YouTube-like approach.

While we’re still waiting to hear whether a federal TikTok ban will be imposed, some 18 state attorneys general are backing Montana’s state-level ban on the short video app. The ban is due to take effect on January 1, 2024.

TikTok is seeking to overturn the ban on the basis that it violates the free speech rights of its video creators, granted by the First Amendment. The app is one of the most popular in the world, used by around a third of the US population …