You’re probably familiar with Shazam, an Apple-owned app that lets you find out the name of a song playing near you. However, TikTok wants to take this experience to the next level by introducing a Shazam-like feature that lets users find songs by singing them.
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TikTok has lost its fight to be excluded from a European antitrust law, and says that it will comply. However, it still faces a potential ban in the EU for breaching child protection legislation, and a separate ruling on its future in the US has yet to be made …
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A TikTok hack allowed attackers to take control of CNN’s account, while other high-profile accounts were also targeted.
The nature of the security breach remains a mystery at present. It was said to have involved direct messaging, but was seemingly not a phishing attack …
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The TikTok algorithm could be split, claims a report, with a US-only version used for the hugely popular app to try to avoid a ban.
Developer Bytedance has tweeted that the report is not accurate, but its message appears to be more a repetition of its legal stance than a specific denial …
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Update: A US court has fast-tracked the appeal, which will be heard in September. TikTok owner Bytedance has just three weeks to file its arguments for the ban to be overturned.
Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, is suing the US government, arguing that the threatened ban is unconstitutional. The company had previously said it would do so, though it had been unclear whether it would follow through.
The company is fighting a law which forces it to either sell the app to an American company, or be banned from operating in the US …
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As TikTok increasingly invests in tools for creators, the social network announced on Friday a new TikTok Studio platform, which aims to help creators manage many aspects of their account in one place, whether on their smartphone or computer.
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A TikTok buyout by an American company appears to be the only way for the app to survive in the US, and potentially in Europe too. But potential buyers could find themselves paying a lot of money and not getting the one thing they really want: the algorithm.
Real-estate billionaire Frank McCourt and former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin are among those who have confirmed they are planning bids for the app …
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TikTok is weighing major changes to the type of content it serves up, as evidenced by a new test rolling out today.
Per Aisha Malik at TechCrunch, the test enables some users to upload videos up to a duration of 60 minutes in length. This is a massive increase over the current 3-minute limitation and may carry big implications for TikTok’s future ambitions.
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An EU investigation has been opened into growing concerns about teen Instagram addiction, to determine whether parent company Meta is breaking the law by deliberately seeking to make its apps addictive.
The investigation will also look into whether the company’s age-verification procedures are sufficiently robust, and the phenomenon of sending users down potentially harmful ‘rabbit holes’ …
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The accessibility of AI is on the rise, and with it, content platforms now have to grapple with how to handle the potential issues AI can introduce.
A new report indicates that TikTok is about to ramp up its efforts in AI transparency. It will do this by automatically labeling all AI-generated content. Or at least, the content it knows about.
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Songs from UMG artists are now again available to TikTok creators, after a dispute over royalty payments and AI policies was resolved.
This has seen the return of a lengthy list of artists, including Bad Bunny, Sting, The Weeknd, Alicia Keys, Drake, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Rosalía, Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Adele, U2, Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Coldplay, Bob Dylan, and Post Malone …
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A new report from TechCrunch today claims that TikTok might be bypassing Apple’s App Store in-app purchase system. The report says that TikTok is “presenting some of its users with a link to a website” to purchase coins, instead of using Apple’s in-app purchase flow.
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Hugely popular video app TikTok could be banned in Europe as well as the US, according to remarks made by the president of the European Commission.
TikTok is also under two separate EU investigations, and President Biden last week signed a bill which would see the app banned in the US within nine months unless it is sold to an American company …
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President Joe Biden has officially signed off on a bill that requires TikTok parent company ByteDance to divest the app within the next nine months. Should ByteDance fail to do so, TikTok would effectively be banned in the United States and removed from Apple’s App Store.
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Update: Half an hour after publishing, TikTok Comms shared much more on X, including availability in Australia and Canada starting today.
Remember that TikTok Photos app rumor? More recently, the unreleased app has been going by the name TikTok Notes. Although the name is changed, the game is still the same: take a swing at Instagram.
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Taylor Swift songs have returned to TikTok, after a ten-week gap resulting from a dispute between the short video app and Universal Music. That dispute hasn’t ended, but it appears that Swift has reached an individual agreement with TikTok.
Separately, TikTok has announced plans to use AI to create virtual influencers who will compete with real ones for brand deals …
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It’s not uncommon for younger music fans to create their own song mixes for social media posts, especially on TikTok. The problem is that artists don’t get paid for these unofficial mixes, and that’s something an upcoming Spotify song remixing feature aims to (kinda) change …
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A classified TikTok national security briefing given to senators may have been in part based on claims made by a fired member of staff who is now making further … interesting claims.
The former staffer says that his firing was instigated by the US attorney general, and that the FBI and CIA shared his personal information with foreign governments …
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Two senators who have received classified TikTok national security briefings say that the information revealed to them has left them “deeply troubled.”
They are calling for the information to be declassified, as they say it is “critically important” that the American people can consider the issues for themselves – especially if they currently use the Chinese-owned app …
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly holding a series of closed-door briefings intended to persuade senators to force the sale of TikTok to a US company, rather than ban it outright.
This follows Congress voting overwhelmingly in favor of either a ban or forced sale, while passage through the Senate is less certain …
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Yesterday, the US House of Representatives swiftly voted on a bill that would force TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or risk being banned in the US. In light of the bill moving onto the Senate, TikTok CEO Shou Chew has tapped into the app’s 170 million users, telling them to protect their constitutional rights and let their voices be heard.
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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 …
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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.
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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.”
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