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☆ A growing group of lawmakers think TikTok is 'digital fentanyl' and want to ban it. Many others remain skeptical.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Some members of Congress have begun pushing to ban TikTok in the US. "I'm a little less enthusiastic about an all-out ban of it," said Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. "I'm an incrementalist on a lot of things, and I would be on this as well," said Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on social media and the internet's impact on children. Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, another committee member, said she's most concerned about how social media platforms are impacting kids.

☆ EU executive arm bars employees from using TikTok, citing security risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Shou Zi Chew, chief executive officer of TikTok Inc., speaks during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, banned its employees from using TikTok on their smartphones amid concerns from Western governments about the risks the platform may pose to national security. The commission said staff would no longer be able to have the Chinese-owned app installed on corporate and personal devices, citing concerns over how it handles user data. TikTok has admitted that data on its European users can be accessed by employees based in China, but denies it would ever share such information with the Chinese government. "We are continuing to enhance our approach to data security — establishing three data centres in Europe to store user data locally; further reducing employee access to data; and minimising data flows outside of Europe."

☆ Senators pressure CFIUS to wrap up TikTok probe with strict restrictions, potentially even separating it from its Chinese parent company
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. The company has said U.S. user data is not stored in China and that it continually tests its security measures. That kind of access would be particularly worrying since China's national security laws allow it to compel companies based there to hand over internal information if the government believes there is a national security issue at play. The group is empowered to investigate foreign investments and transactions with potential national security risks. "CFIUS is committed to taking all necessary actions within its authority to safeguard U.S. national security," a Treasury spokesperson said in a statement.

☆ TikTok creators could soon start charging users to watch their videos, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

TikTok creators could soon start charging fans to watch their videos, per The Information. The company hopes a paywall and second Creator Fund 2.0 would help to reward creators on the app. These projects aim to bring more users to TikTok after the platform's use among US adults plateaued last year. Only 21% of US adults currently use TikTok, according to a 2021 Pew Research study, compared to 67% of US teenagers, according to a 2022 Pew Research poll. "We're committed to exploring new ways to create a valuable and rewarding experience for the TikTok creator community," a TikTok spokesperson told Insider, though they declined to comment on the specific features.

☆ Banning TikTok in the US 'should be looked at,' says Chuck Schumer
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Hong Kong CNN —A proposal to ban TikTok in the United States “should be looked at,” according to US Senator Chuck Schumer. “We do know there’s Chinese ownership of the company that owns TikTok. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, one of the most valuable private companies in China. US officials have raised concerns that China could use its laws to pressure TikTok or ByteDance to hand over US user data that could be used for intelligence or disinformation purposes. Those worries have prompted the US government to ban TikTok from official devices, and more than half of US states have taken similar measures, according to a CNN analysis.

☆ Big Tech got crushed by falling ad prices, and the damage could last well into 2023. Here's exactly how much ads cost on Google, Meta, Amazon, YouTube, TikTok and Snap.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Meta, Google, and Snap reported declines in ad sales, or flat ad revenue, during the fourth quarter. Out of the four big ad-supported tech companies — Google, Meta, Amazon, and Snap — only Amazon reported that its ad business grew year-over-year in the fourth quarter. Meta's ad prices have declined as the company rebuilds its ad business with artificial intelligence after getting hit by Apple's app-tracking privacy crackdown. While CPMs fell year-over-year during the fourth quarter, ad prices were 7.2% higher in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, according to Northbeam. The average return on Meta ad spend during the fourth quarter was $1.96, up from $1.30 in the first quarter of 2022.

This is Matt Weinberger, deputy editor of Insider's tech analysis team and your host for today. The one port in this particular storm is Apple, which is still the only major tech company not to do layoffs in recent weeks. Mark Zuckerberg just ushered in a new era of tech. In recent months, layoffs have swept just about every major tech company (except, notably, Apple). Enter Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook's parent company Meta, who officially rang in the new era on Wednesday when he declared that 2023 would be the "year of efficiency" at the social network.

☆ YouTube Shorts surpassed 50 billion daily views, a bright spot for Alphabet as it faces fierce competition from TikTok and declining ad revenue
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

YouTube Shorts now sees more than 50 billion daily views, up from 30 billion the year prior. Shorts' growth was a rare bright spot for a quarter where Alphabet saw declining revenue in segments like Search, YouTube, and advertising. Some creators are already contemplating moving more of their content over to YouTube Shorts because of this. This provides potential for YouTube Shorts if the company can draw people away from TikTok. Instagram, which Meta owns, has its own short-form video product called Reels.

☆ Democratic senator urges Apple and Google to ban TikTok from their app stores
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington CNN —A member of the Senate Intelligence Committee is calling on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores over concerns about national security, in the latest indication of mounting scrutiny on the short-form video app from members of Congress. The laws in question, Bennet wrote, require organizations in the country to “cooperate with state intelligence work” and to allow the government to access company resources. China could potentially try to shape what US users see on the app, Bennet warned, with possible implications for foreign policy and democracy. Apple, Google and TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Some other US officials have also called on Apple and Google to voluntarily remove TikTok from their app stores.

☆ Democratic senator urges Apple, Google to kick TikTok out of app stores
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, should be removed from app stores run by Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google because the short video social media app poses a risk to national security, Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat on the intelligence committee, said in a letter dated Thursday. "Given these risks, I urge you to remove TikTok from your respective app stores immediately," he wrote. Prior to Bennet's letter, Republicans have largely led the charge on TikTok and national security concerns, although Democratic Senator Dick Durbin previously urged Americans to stop using the app. For its part, the company says China's government cannot access the personal data of U.S. citizens or manipulate the app's content. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew is due to appear before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee in March.

☆ Premarket stocks: Is this the beginning of the end for Big Oil's windfall?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Brutally high oil and gas prices were the talk of the town and one of the largest contributing factors to sky-high inflation. That was bad news for drivers, but ended up being great for the energy industry as oil prices and energy stocks are closely interlinked. As markets fell under the pressures of economic uncertainty, geopolitical chaos, elevated inflation and a hawkish Fed, the energy sector thrived. The S&P ended 2022 down nearly 20%, while the energy sector grew by about 60%. But analysts say US oil companies can’t keep winning for much longer.

☆ TikTok CEO to testify before Congress in March amid app security questions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Rose Horowitch | Rose Horowitch Is An Intern With Nbc News Digital Politics. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will appear before Congress in March to field questions about the viral video app's security measures amid mounting efforts to ban it because of privacy concerns. TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has come under increased scrutiny after media reports showed possible security breaches. Several lawmakers are supporting legislation to ban the app from the U.S. entirely. The ban Biden approved, which was wrapped into the omnibus spending bill, included limited exceptions for law enforcement, national security and security research purposes. Last month Congress banned it on all government devices.

☆ TikTok’s Chief to Testify Before Congress in March
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( John D. Mckinnon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TikTok’s chief executive has agreed to appear before a congressional committee in March, as House Republican lawmakers step up scrutiny of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app. Shou Zi Chew will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23, a committee spokesman said, in what would be the first appearance of a TikTok CEO before a congressional panel.

☆ TikTok CEO to testify before Congress in March
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify at an upcoming hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a committee spokesperson confirmed to CNN Monday. “We’ve made our concerns clear with TikTok,” said the committee’s chair, Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, in a statement. The high-profile hearing underscores the rising political risk for TikTok as its negotiations with the US government on a national security deal continue to drag on. Chew, who took over as TikTok CEO in April 2021, has largely stayed out of the spotlight at a time when the app he leads can’t seem to avoid it. Members of Congress previously grilled TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas, arguably the public face of the company in the United States, during a Senate hearing last year.

☆ Breakingviews: TikTok’s trust-me tour will need at least 50 stops
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The social media company run by Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew will appear in front of a U.S. House of Representatives committee in March. But Chew, a Harvard University alumnus, will have to travel far beyond Washington to make America comfortable. But late last year, Chinese parent company ByteDance found that some employees had improperly accessed it to snoop on journalists. That’s likely to take up considerable airtime when Chew faces the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. But the short-video app also faces the prospect of death by 50 cuts, as individual states weigh their own approaches.

☆ TikTok’s trust-me tour will need at least 50 stops
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The difference with TikTok is that the app has kept out of the crosshairs of commercial interests in Europe. "The user base of TikTok is a lot bigger than a lot of people in Europe think," he said. More than half of people aged 16 to 24 in France and Germany use TikTok, according to data.ai. He is worried the platform poses "several unacceptable risks for European users," including "data access by Chinese authorities, censorship, [and] tracking of journalists." Why Europe's tone is changingLast month, ByteDance admitted to using two journalists' TikTok data to locate their physical movements, according to a widely-reported internal memo.

☆ TikTok CEO to testify before U.S. Congress over security concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The news comes as the House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to hold a vote next month on a bill aimed at blocking the use of TikTok in the United States over national security concerns. "ByteDance-owned TikTok has knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data," McMorris Rodgers said, adding that Americans deserve to know how these actions impact their privacy and data security. TikTok said on Friday "calls for total bans of TikTok take a piecemeal approach to national security and a piecemeal approach to broad industry issues like data security, privacy, and online harms". The U.S. government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful national security body, in 2020 ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears that U.S. user data could be passed onto China’s government. CFIUS and TikTok have been in talks for more than two years aiming to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of U.S. TikTok users.

☆ TikTok CEO to testify before House panel about app's security and ties to China
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. Photographer: Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesTikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before a House panel on March 23 about the app's security and privacy practices and its ties to China through parent company ByteDance. TikTok has been engaging with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which can determine if certain risk mitigation measures are adequate to dampen national security concerns. Still, those negotiations have reportedly been delayed at least as of last month, as officials continue to worry about the implications of the app's ownership by Chinese parent company ByteDance. Fears over TikTok's national security and privacy implications for consumers have spanned both sides of Congress, and stretched across the Trump administration into the Biden administration.

☆ TikTok's chief to testify before Congress in March - WSJ
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Jan 30 (Reuters) - TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew will appear before a congressional committee in March, as House Republican lawmakers step up scrutiny of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Chew will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23, the Journal reported, citing a committee spokesman. Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru, editing by Ed OsmondOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ TikTok and its parent company spent about $5.4 million on federal lobbying last year as it faced renewed threats of a ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance spent about $5.4 million on federal lobbying in 2022. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance spent about $5.4 million on federal lobbying in 2022, a roughly 4% increase from the previous year, according to year-end disclosures filed by the companies and their hired lobbying firms on Friday. While ByteDance's and TikTok's lobbying spend remained relatively flat between 2021 and 2022, both years represented a significant spike from 2020 when the companies spent around $2.6 million. In late 2020, the Trump administration attempted to ban TikTok's app from US app stores. TikTok's app has faced similar government-device bans at the state level.

☆ Who is Shou Zi Chew? Mounting scrutiny on TikTok could put new spotlight on its CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Months later, when TikTok was grilled by Congress over privacy and security concerns, Pappas was the TikTok executive in the hot seat fielding questions. But Chew, who took over as TikTok CEO in April 2021, has largely stayed out of the spotlight at a time when the app he leads can’t seem to avoid it. He eventually went on to become the CFO of Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, which he helped take public in 2018. While Chew is not a Chinese national, Quint noted Chinese tech companies and leaders that have drawn too much attention to themselves have faced tough government crackdowns. Ultimately, Quint said, “I don’t think the CEO of TikTok has much relevance at all” for US lawmakers scrutinizing its ties to China.

☆ TikTok’s best U.S. charm offensive involves an IPO
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

But even if proposed fixes get past federal officials – no sure thing – it still must contend with activist state leaders. That’s problematic, given that trust between Chinese and American government officials is at a low. To make matters worse, ByteDance said late last year that some employees had improperly accessed TikTok user data of two journalists. More than 40% of American states, including Wisconsin and Texas, have banned the app on government-owned devices. But if an IPO helps TikTok to keep operating in the United States, it’s worth a try.

☆ Comply with EU rules or face ban, Breton tells TikTok CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Supantha Mukherjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"We will not hesitate to adopt the full scope of sanctions to protect our citizens if audits do not show full compliance," Breton said. TikTok said in response that it was committed to the DSA, and had also outlined its efforts to comply with other EU legislation, such as GDPR data protections rules and a code of practice on disinformation. "The safety of our users is paramount," Caroline Greer, TikTok's director of public policy and government relations, tweeted. It is not acceptable that behind seemingly fun and harmless features, it takes users seconds to access harmful and sometimes even life-threatening content," Breton said. "The DSA includes dissuasive sanctions including a ban in the EU in case of repeated serious breaches threatening the life or safety of people," he said.

☆ TikTok Chief Meets With Top EU Officials
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Stu Woo | Daniel Michaels | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Shou Zi Chew has been chief executive officer of TikTok since 2021. BRUSSELS—TikTok’s chief executive met European Union officials to discuss the Chinese-owned company’s plan to comply with new EU rules and concerns over TikTok’s recent disclosure that it surveilled two journalists. The Tuesday meetings come shortly before new European tech legislation takes effect and amid heightened scrutiny of the social-media giant in the U.S. TikTok requested the meetings, both sides said.

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