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☆ 6 people in New York City have died this year after ‘subway surfing,’ a renewed social media challenge
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-02 | by ( Alisha Ebrahimji | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —A 13-year-old girl is the latest person to lose her life in New York City while “subway surfing,” a dangerous challenge attracting young people on social media. “Subway surfing,” involves riding on top of a subway car while its moving. Six subway surfing fatalities and 181 related arrests have been recorded this year through October 27, the New York Police Department told CNN on Tuesday. The 13-year-old died while participating in a social media challenge, his mother told WPIX, adding he’d posted to social media prior videos of himself doing the stunt and she’d warned him not to ride on top of trains. TikTok previously cooperated with New York authorities to remove subway surfing content, the New York Times reported in January.

Persons: who’d, “, she’d, It’s, ”, TikTok, Gail Saltz, NYers, 2DmQYCOJ7s —, Eric Adams, —, Meta, Adams, Saltz, Sergi Reboredo, New York’s Letitia James, California’s Rob Bonta, Alex Haurek, “ We’re, James ’, TikTok —, Zackery Nazario, Norma Nazario, ” Nazario, Matthew Bergman, Gingras, Carolyn Sung Organizations: CNN, New York Police Department, WABC, NYPD, Transit, WPIX, ” New York Police, York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, YouTube, Google, Social, Weill Cornell Medical College, Presbyterian Hospital, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York, Yorkers, Facebook, New, New York Times, Getty, Social Media, Law Center, Meta Locations: New York City, Queens , New York, Queens, Bronx, York’s, United States, New, New York, Manhattan, Flushing, Brooklyn, Williamsburg

☆ Sealed TikTok court documents show time limit tool effectively did nothing to reduce teen usage — NPR
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-11 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —A screen-time limit tool on TikTok doesn’t work in limiting teen usage, the company’s own analysis reportedly found, according to in unredacted documents accidentally revealed as part of a major lawsuit. One issue revolves around TikTok’s effects on teenagers scrolling on the app for several hours, which could be harmful to their mental health. Following public scrutiny about the app’s effects on vulnerable people, TikTok released time management tools for users under 18 years old. Friday’s report from NPR and KPR came after the Kentucky Attorney General’s office accidentally filed unredacted versions of its legal filing against TikTok. We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched safety features.”

Persons: ”, TikTok, “, KPR, Alex Haurek, “ We’re Organizations: New, New York CNN, Kentucky Public, NPR, CNN, TikTok, Kentucky Attorney Locations: New York

☆ TikTok sued by 14 states over alleged harms to children’s mental health
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-08 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN —A bipartisan group of 14 attorneys general from across the country filed lawsuits on Tuesday against TikTok, alleging that the platform has “addicted” young people and harmed their mental health. And last month, 42 state attorneys general called on US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to require labels on social media apps warning of their potential harm to young users. It also alleges that TikTok “challenges,” viral trends where users try to replicate videos created by others, can encourage dangerous behavior among young users. TikTok previously cooperated with New York authorities to remove subway surfing content, the New York Times reported in January. The lawsuit seeks financial penalties against TikTok, including a requirement that the platform repay any profits it received from ads directed to New York teens or pre-teens.

Persons: TikTok, Letitia James, Rob Bonta, Vivek Murthy, ”, Alex Haurek, “ We’re, ” TikTok, “, James, “ TikTok, James ’, ” James ’, CNN’s Matt Egan Organizations: New, New York CNN, New York, US Justice Department, Harvard, New York Times, US, ”, TikTok Locations: New York, California, United States, New, Brooklyn

☆ Justice Department claims TikTok collected U.S. user views on issues like abortion and gun control
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-27 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

In a fresh broadside against one of the world's most popular technology companies, the Justice Department is accusing TikTok of harnessing the capability to gather bulk information on users based on views on divisive social issues like gun control, abortion and religion. The Justice Department warned, in stark terms, of the potential for what it called "covert content manipulation" by the Chinese government, saying the algorithm could be designed to shape content that users receive. In the redacted version of the court documents, the Justice Department said another tool triggered the suppression of content based on the use of certain words. Certain policies of the tool applied to ByteDance users in China, where the company operates a similar app called Douyin that follows Beijing's strict censorship rules. But Justice Department officials said other policies may have been applied to TikTok users outside of China.

Persons: ByteDance, TikTok, Joe Biden, Alex Haurek, Haurek, we've Organizations: Justice, Wall Street, Department, Justice Department, U.S Locations: Washington, Beijing, China, U.S, Texas, Israel, Gaza

The company also has promised to wall off U.S. user data from its parent company through a separate entity run independently from ByteDance and monitored by outside observers. TikTok says new user data is currently being stored on servers maintained by the software company Oracle. The AP-NORC poll shows TikTok users — about 170 million in the U.S., most of whom skew younger — are less likely to be worried about the app sharing American users' data, reflecting a previously felt generational divide. The Biden campaign has said it is using a separate cellphone for TikTok to isolate the app from other communications and was taking additional steps for protection. The poll also found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults — and 41% of daily TikTok users — are “extremely or very concerned” about the amount of time children and teenagers spend on TikTok.

Persons: Joe Biden’s, TikTok, ”, Dan Ives, Biden, Mark Warner, ” Warner, “, Alex Haurek, Vivek Ramaswamy, influencers, —, it’s, Linley Sanders, ___ Organizations: The Associated Press, NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, U.S, Oracle, Foreign Investment, Commerce Department, Wedbush Securities, European Union, Senate, Virginia Democrat, Republican, Union Locations: U.S, Beijing, Virginia, India, Washington

Social media’s antisemitism problemThe rise in antisemitism since the outbreak of war in the Middle East has ignited a clash between Wall Street donors and universities, and divided some workplaces. Now, the pressure is building on social media platforms, particularly Elon Musk’s X and TikTok, with advertisers, celebrities and influencers pulling spending and confronting executives about the proliferation of hate speech. He posted to X his support for white nationalist conspiracy theories that Jewish communities were spreading hatred. Yaccarino was brought in to win back advertisers after Musk bought Twitter last year and culled many content moderators. More than a dozen Jewish celebrities and creators, including the actors Sacha Baron Cohen, Debra Messing and Amy Schumer, confronted TikTok executives this week.

Persons: Elon Musk’s, Adolf Hitler, Musk, X’s, Linda Yaccarino, Yaccarino, “ Linda, ” Martin Sorrell, DealBook, TikTok, Sacha Baron Cohen, Debra Messing, Amy Schumer, “ Hitler, Anne Frank ”, Cohen, ”, Osama bin, bin Laden, —, Alex Haurek, George Santos, Biden, Xi Jinping, Doug McMillon, Walmart’s, “, ” Brian Cornell, ’ Organizations: IBM, Media, America, Nazi Party, Apple, Oracle, Defamation League, Twitter, S4 Capital, House, Big, General Motors, Hyundai, Republican, Justice Department, Business, APEC, West Texas Intermediate, Consumers, Depot, Walmart Locations: TikTok, New York, Hong Kong, China, San Francisco, Beijing, Washington, U.S

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