ByteDance

SAN FRANCISCO - I was really rooting for TikTok.

In 2020, when the Trump administration first tried to force TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the app or risk having it shut down, I argued that banning TikTok in the United States would do more harm than good.

It seems that in recent months the development of TikTok has finally slowed down, and although the app is still a cultural giant, the current changes could prove to be stumbling blocks for the application, shared Gizmodo.

TikTok may look (or sound) a little different when you scroll through the app going forward.

Earlier this week, Universal Music Group, which represents big-name artists like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Drake, said that it would no longer allow its music on TikTok following the Wednesday expiration of a licensing deal between the two companies.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew found himself at the center of a heated exchange with US lawmakers as they probed the social media giant's connections to China, particularly its parent company ByteDance. Lawmakers questioned the extent of access granted to the Chinese government, raising concerns about potential influence on TikTok's operations and content policies, as reported by CNN.

China has granted more than 100 new video game licences in January, regulators said Friday, the highest number of monthly approvals since Beijing lifted a freeze imposed during a sweeping state crackdown on the sector.

The world's second largest economy is also one of its biggest markets for video games, worth some $42.2 billion, according to official figures.

The European Union yesterday unveiled a list of digital giants, including Apple, Facebook owner Meta and TikTok parent ByteDance, that will face tough new curbs on how they do business, but the move could trigger a wave of legal battles.

The Istanbul police have detained 120 individuals following an operation in 37 cities against suspects who defrauded a social media platform of 1.2 Turkish Liras.

The investigation was initiated based on suspicious conversations detected during the examination of certain accounts on the "TikTok" platform.

Citizens in Greece are losing faith in the news delivered by traditional media, partly due to perceptions of undue political and business influence on journalism, according to the annual Digital News Report 2023 by the Reuters Institute based on a YouGov survey of over 93,000 online news consumers in 46 markets covering half of the world's population. 

The country has been very close to what I'd always like it to be in this election: so politically predictable, it's almost dull. Everyone expected the most toxic election in decades. It hasn't been. Sure, barbs have been exchanged and the rivalries have been fierce, but the country hasn't sunk into the mud. The fear of division has also been intense.

Amid a surge in security concerns, Montana has become the first US state to put a complete ban on video-sharing social networking app TikTok.