BuzzFeed

Photo: Kevin Dietsch (Getty Images)Pressure’s mounting to throw TikTok back into the regulatory spotlight, this time from a bipartisan pair of U.S. senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee.On Tuesday, the committee’s Democratic Chairman Mark Warner, and Republican Vice Chairman Senator Marco Rubio called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the app over recent reports alleging China-based workers were granted access to U.S. user data. The Senators’ demands come amid growing pushback from a cohort of mostly…

Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP (Getty Images)TikTok executives are attempting to assuage Republican officials that U.S. data is safe and sound in company hands, but their best attempts are unlikely to make any of these GOP lawmakers stray from the warpath against the popular social app.The New York Times first reported that TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew istrying to explain the company’s data policies to antagonistic lawmakers. Chew’s letter was in response to nine Republican senators who were calling on the company to answer to…

Photo: Ascannio (Shutterstock)TikTok promises to keep its U.S. users’ data safe and sound are not satisfying at least one member of the Federal Communications Commission. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said in a blistering letter Wednesday that the Chinese company has proved it can’t be trusted with the informationusers give it, and should bundled up and tossed out the airlock.Carr posted an open letter sent to both Google and Apple on his Twitter account Tuesday. In it, he called on the companies to jettison the TikTok…

Delegates wait in line at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Cannes, France, June 2019Cannes LionsWhile media executives are meeting with advertising leaders this week over glasses of rose at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, they can't help but talk about the disconnect between hanging out with celebrities on yachts and the creeping feeling that a recession is around the corner."It feels like a party here," NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said to CNBC's Julia Boorstin from Cannes…

Photo: Kevin Frayer (Getty Images)TikTok’s user data drama is backOn Friday Chinese-owned TikTok announced it completed the migration of its American user data to Oracle-owned U.S.-based servers, ostensibly bringing to close a years-long national security debate between the company and the U.S. government. We say “ostensibly” because the announcement came within hours of a new report citing leaked audio from TikTok meetings that allegedly confirms U.S. user data has repeatedly been accessed from China.Those claims come by…

BuzzFeed is set to name its top culture editor, Karolina Waclawiak, as editor in chief of its newsroom, people familiar with the matter said, tapping a veteran insider to lead a division that has been dealing with changes in leadership and strategy.Ms. Waclawiak, who has been with BuzzFeed for six years, will take over a newsroom that cut its teeth on big investigative swings—including a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles about China’s infrastructure for detaining Muslims in its Xinjiang region—but has been…

Photo: MARTIN BUREAU/AFP (Getty Images)While Meta wants to be a maverick in the tech space with its whole metaverse concept, the company seems to want its most prominent social media platform to be a lot more like other existing apps.Meta, the parent company of Facebook, doesn’t seem to think its current deals with news publishers are working out too well for the tech giant, according to a Wall Street Journal report Friday. For those biggest news organizations that get paid by Facebook to host their news articles, it…

FILE PHOTO: Shoppers exit a Target store during Black Friday sales in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., November 26, 2021. Brendan Mcdermid | ReutersCheck out the companies making headlines in midday trading.Target — Shares of the retailer fell more than 4% after the company said it will take a short-term hit to profits as it cancels orders and marks down unwanted merchandise. CEO Brian Cornell said the big-box retailer wants to clear room for merchandise including groceries and back-to-school supplies.Kohl's — The department…

BuzzFeed’s market capitalization has now shrunk by more than three-quarters since its trading debut in December last year. Photo: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images…