 |
|
|
|||||
The secret of TikToks success since its launch has been its algorithm, which presents videos to its 170 million users in the United States. The ability to synthesize users interests and keep them scrolling has been the reason the app has grown stratosphericallyand is part of the reason why the average user spends more time on the app than watching the average feature film. But TikToks fate is in jeopardy, with its owner ByteDance reportedly approaching a unique deal involving the Trump administration. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told Fox News over the weekend that the algorithm will also be controlled by America, as part of a deal that would see the apps data held on secure servers operated by Oracle, the large U.S. data company, and run with a consortium reportedly including media mogul Lachlan Murdoch, the son of Rupert Murdoch. Trump’s press secretary outlined more details of the deal today. The future of TikTok has never looked as grim as now, says Marcus Bösch, a TikTok researcher and consultant. If the United States does manage to wrest control of the algorithm powering the U.S. version of TikTok and deliver it to American ownership, it would be a win for the White House. It would assuage anti-China hawks, who fear the role the app plays in Americans lifestyles. Their campaign against TikToks continued existence led to the ban on its operation in the U.S., which Trump has repeatedly delayed through executive orders. Without evidence, those who oppose TikTok argue that its algorithm could be weaponized to push anti-U.S. sentiment onto millions of impressionable young users. But the latest developments could be a Pyrrhic victory. If the U.S. version of the apps algorithm differs in any way from the core apps offering, American citizens could end up with a subpar version of TikTokand abandon it in droves. TikTok did not immediately respond to Fast Companys request for comment. While the specifics of what a post-deal TikTok would look like are unclear, the current app heavily leverages an algorithm developed over the years by ByteDance, including being trained on predecessor apps. There are fears among experts that this highly honed feed could become one designed solely to promote Trump-favorable content. A nationalized feed may feel safer or more familiar, but I believe it risks narrowing what people see to American concerns, while filtering out the messy, global commons that once made TikTok so distinctive, says Tom Divon, a researcher studying TikTok at the Hebrew University in Israel. Others are equally worried about a whiplash effect. I anticipate stark shifts in the FYP algorithm, says Jessica Maddox, associate professor of media studies at the University of Georgia. Maddox has already seen TikToks algorithm tending to promote what she calls daytime TV content during politically tense timesincluding footage of cutesy animals and toddlers or wholesome dances. I see this becoming more of the norm with users struggling to train their algorithm back to their specific interests, Maddox says. TikTok will become more fluffy, general content instead of being known for its hyper-specific niches. And given that its success has, thus far, stemmed from its ability to offer hyper-specific tailoring of content to its usersin contrast to homegrown tech titans like YouTube and Instagramsacrificing that advantage seems like a great leveler. Donald Trump has previously said that Chinese President Xi Jinping has approved the terms of the deal, though Chinese and U.S. explanations of the agreement have differed, particularly around the future of the algorithm. According to Chinese state media, China’s Communist Party has said that both parties have reached an agreement to allow ByteDance to retain control of TikToks algorithmsomething Trump appears to have contradicted. Bösch believes that the apps fate could be similar to X after it was transformed from Twitterone that looks unrecognizable to its core of users but retains a loyal following among a committed minority. And under Trump, what is and isnt allowed could change significantly. I can foresee political terms that dont align with an administrations political goals being suppressed, Maddox says. Users may also see a change in content moderation guidelines, with objections that could once be overturned on appeal no longer being the case. Those who have studied TikTok extensively also fear that the quality of content could drop if users desert the platform. This one will most likely be filled with so much AI-infused propaganda, Bösch says. Nice to study. Most likely not so nice to use in private.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Tech giant Oracle will oversee the security for a licensed copy of the recommendation engine powering TikTok under the terms of a proposed divestment deal, according to a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday. Determining next steps for the algorithm, currently owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance, has been one of the most closely watched issues during negotiations over TikTok’s future. The Trump administration official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the emerging deal, said they believe the plan will satisfy national security concerns if TikTok divests from its Chinese parent, ByteDance. President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation before leaving office, requiring the Chinese company to sell its assets to an American company or face a ban. American officials have previously warned the algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way thats difficult to detect. It wouldnt be in compliance if the algorithm is Chinese. There cant be any shared algorithm with ByteDance, said a spokesperson for the House Select Committee on China. Oracle would receive a copy of the algorithm and oversee the app’s security operations. The algorithm would be fully inspected and monitored for any abnormal behavior, the senior White House official said Monday. In a call with reporters, the official later emphasized that the content recommendation formula would be retrained using U.S. data in order to make sure the system is behaving appropriately. It is currently unclear if retraining the copy of the algorithm would essentially create a separate TikTok experience just for domestic U.S. users, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed in a Monday press briefing that TikTok users in the U.S will be able to see videos posted by users in other countries and vice versa. What the president will sign later this week is an executive order, essentially declaring that the terms of this deal meets Americas national security needs, the White House official said. He notes that China is expected to sign and approve a framework deal for TikTok’s divestment by the end of the week, upon which Trump will issue a 120 day reprieve, giving both nations time to get necessary agreements finalized. Full details on investors have not been released. However, the official confirmed that the U.S. operations will be a new joint venture with a board of directors that will have a majority of American membersOracle and Silver Lake, a private equity firm, are the only confirmed consortium participants so far. The White House official also said that under the preliminary dealwhich still requires Chinese officials to sign off on a framework agreementthe United States will not take equity stake in the new venture or have representation on the controlling committee. Trump, a Republican, has extended the deadline several times as he worked to reach a deal to keep TikTok available. He spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. Chris Megerian, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Danish offshore wind developer Orsted can restart work on the nearly finished Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island, a federal judge ruled on Monday, after President Donald Trump’s administration halted the project last month. The ruling is a legal setback for Trump, who has sought to block the expansion of offshore wind in U.S. waters. It is a palpable victory for Orsted, which has been losing $2 million a day since the project was halted on August 22. Revolution Wind is located 15 miles off the coast. Once completed, it is expected to produce enough electricity to power 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Orsted’s U.S.-listed shares were up nearly 9% at $11.60 following the ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth. The U.S. Interior Department said it would continue to review the project while work proceeds. “As a result of the Courts decision today, Revolution Wind will be able to resume construction as BOEM (the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) continues its investigation into possible impacts by the project to national security and prevention of other uses on the Outer Continental Shelf,” an Interior spokesperson said. Attorneys for the Trump administration had argued that the project, located off the coast of Rhode Island, failed to comply with conditions of its permit related to conflicts with national security and scientific ocean surveys. Revolution Wind disputed those claims. At the end of a two-hour court hearing in Washington, Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction that blocks the Trump administration from enforcing the order to halt construction. Lamberth, a senior judge appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, said the Trump administration had offered contradictory reasons for issuing its stop work order, and that the explanations offered weeks after the halt were the height of arbitrary and capricious government conduct. He also said Revolution Wind had reasonably relied on government assurances that were withdrawn without due process, imperiling a $5 billion investment. If Revolution Wind cannot meet benchmark deadlines, the entire project could collapse, Lamberth said. There is no doubt in my mind of irreparable harm to the plaintiffs. Orsted and its joint venture partner Skyborn Renewables had asked for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit they filed earlier this month challenging the U.S. Interior Department’s stop-work order. “Revolution Wind will resume impacted construction work as soon as possible, with safety as the top priority,” an Orsted spokesperson said in a statement, adding that it would continue to seek a resolution with the administration. Rhode Island and Connecticut have also sued the administration over the stop work order. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont issued a statement praising the ruling. “Todays ruling allowing Revolution Wind to resume work is extremely encouraging for workers and our energy future. We will continue to engage with the federal government on a durable path forward for this project and on shared energy priorities, Lamont said. Jan Wolfe and Nichola Groom, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
Over the past few days, a new subgenre on TikTok has exploded in popularity: RaptureTok. Its become almost impossible to scroll through the social media platform without encountering content about the Rapturea belief held in some Christian denominations (particularly American Evangelicalism) that believers will ascend to Heaven upon Jesus Christs second coming to the Earth. While its unclear exactly how this content took hold, its starting point appears to be a prediction from South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela, who said in an interview with the YouTube channel Cettwinz TV on September 9 that he saw Jesus returning in a vision on September 23 or 24. As of this writing, the video has nearly 400,000 views. A quick search on TikTok reveals dozens of videos of Christian content creators earnestly preparing for the Rapture, while still more are responses satirizing the trend. This isnt the first time that a date has been set for the event in question: past hypotheses have included September 1988; September 6, 1994; and May 21, 2011. Here are a few examples of the #RaptureTok content thats been dominating feeds. ‘Rapture Trip Tips’ Some of the most referenced RaptureTok videos were made by creator @sonj779, who created a five-part series of Rapture Trip Tips. These include pointers like instructing followers on how to subtly hint to friends that they may be Raptured, as well as one video with more than 500,000 views on what to do when you actually begin to ascend toward Heaven. Popular streamer Hasan Piker responded directly to @sonj779 in a stream questioning the logistics of the Rapture, which has since been clipped by fan accounts and viewed more than a million times on TikTok. While viewers initially speculated that @sonj779s videos were made in earnest, shes since confirmed via her comment section that they were intended as satire. TikTok users are preparing for some to be left behind Some creators, however, do appear to be preparing for the Rapture in earnest. Creator Melissa Johnston has posted a series of videos, each with thousands of views, detailing how shes prepping for the coming days. The videos primarily detail what shes doing for those left behind after the Rapture, including preparing laminated notecards detailing her beliefs, writing a letter to any remaining loved ones, and purchasing dozens of Bibles from the dollar store. Commenters are overwhelmingly expressing concern in Johnstons comments, with one response video positing that she may be experiencing religious psychosis. Former Evangelicals respond For some creators who no longer identify with their earlier religious beliefs, RaptureTok has struck a nerve. In a video with nearly 200,000 views titled Rapture Terror, creator @veronicaandthebabyboo explains that, as a former Pentecostal pastors daughter, shes nervous about the Rapture despite no longer believing in it. My entire childhood is just Rapture trauma, she says. Its the reason I cant plan ahead, its the reason I cant save moneybecause the Rapture could come. She goes on to explain that, as a child, natural phenomena like sun rays and moon beams could be enough to make her question whether the Rapture was imminent. The video has sparked more than 3,000 comments, with viewers sharing their own experiences with childhood Rapture terror. Granny had a sticker on her dashboard: Warning: Driver of This Car May Disappear at any Moment. I got yelled at because I didnt want to get in the car with her. I. Was. Four, one user wrote. I remember calling random people in my church to see if the rapture happened bc my family was late coming home, another shared. It runs deep.
Category:
E-Commerce
The U.S. Supreme Court sided again on Monday with Donald Trump, allowing the Republican president to fire a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commissionfor nowdespite Congress providing job protections for this post. The court blocked an order by Washington-based U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan that had shielded Rebecca Slaughter, who had sued to challenge Trump’s action, from being dismissed from the consumer protection and antitrust agency prior to her term expiring. The Supreme Court also announced on Monday that it will hear arguments in the case in December. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its three liberal justices dissented from Monday’s order letting Trump remove Slaughter for now. Chief Justice John Roberts on September 8 had paused AliKhan’s orderallowing Trump to keep Slaughter out of her postto give the court more time to consider the administration’s request concerning the judge’s order. The dispute centers on Trump’s power to dismiss government agency heads covered by removal protections that Congress put in place to give certain agencies a degree of independence from presidential control. Federal law permits a president to remove FTC commissioners only for causesuch as inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in officebut not for policy differences. Similar protections cover officials at other independent agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board. Slaughter was one of two Democratic commissioners who Trump moved to fire in March. The firings drew sharp criticism from Democratic senators and antimonopoly groups concerned that the move was designed to eliminate opposition within the agency to big corporations. AliKhan in July blocked Trump’s firing of Slaughter, rejecting the Trump administration’s argument that the tenure protections unlawfully encroach on presidential power. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on September 2 in a 2-1 decision kept the judge’s ruling in place. The lower courts ruled that the statutory protections shielding FTC members from being removed without cause conform with the U.S. Constitution in light of a 1935 Supreme Court precedent in a case called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. In that case, the court ruled that a president lacks unfettered power to remove FTC commissioners, faulting then-President Franklin Roosevelt’s firing of an FTC commissioner for policy differences. The Trump administration in its Supreme Court filing in Slaughter’s case argued that “the modern FTC exercises far more substantial powers than the 1935 FTC,” and thus its members can be fired at will by the president. ‘A story of continuity’ Lawyers for Slaughter in court papers pushed back against that contention, arguing that the FTC’s development over the decades is “a story of continuity, not transformation.” “As both courts below found and numerous courts have agreed, the FTC has not ‘outgrown’ Humphrey’s Executor,” they wrote. In May, the Supreme Court allowed Trump’s dismissals at the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Boarddespite the job protections for these postswhile litigation challenging those removals proceeded. The court in that ruling said the Constitution gives the president wide latitude to fire government officials who wield executive power on his behalf, and that the administration “is likely to show that both the NLRB and MSPB exercise considerable executive power.” Citing that rationale in July, the court also allowed Trump to remove three Democratic members of the U.S. government’s top consumer product safety watchdog while a legal challenge to their removal proceeds. The dissenting liberal justices on Monday criticized the court’s majority for allowing Trump to fire Slaughteras well as other members of independent agencieswithout cause, despite Supreme Court precedent restricting the president’s ability to do so. “Yet the majority, stay order by stay order, has handed full control of all those agencies to the President. He may now removeso says the majority, though Congress said differentlyany member he wishes, for any reason or no reason at all. And he may thereby extinguish the agencies’ bipartisanship and independence,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the three liberals. The administration has repeatedly asked the Supreme Court to allow implementation of Trump policies impeded by lower courts. The Supreme Court has sided with the administration in almost every case that it has been called upon to review since Trump returned to the presidency in January. Trump’s administration also asked the Supreme Court last Thursday to let him move ahead with firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cooka move without precedent since the central bank’s founding in 1913in a legal battle that could imperil the Fed’s independence. Since the removal of Slaughter and her fellow Democratic commissioner in March, the FTC has operated for most of that time with three Republicans and no Democratic members. The agency has pursued conservative agenda items in recent months, including holding a workshop on what it called the dangers of gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. The FTC warned Google that filtering Republican fundraising emails as spam could be unlawful and sought to investigate media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of helping orchestrate advertiser boycotts of his social media platform X. John Kruzel, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
Sites : [70] [71] [72] [73] [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] [79] [80] [81] [82] [83] [84] [85] [86] [87] [88] next »