TikToks

TikTok’s algorithm has helped revolutionize the way social media works—and compelled competitors like Meta to overhaul their own algorithms. However, even those within the company have said they don’t fully understand how the algorithm presents videos to users.Now researchers from the U.S. and Europe have uncovered some insights into how the much-vaunted algorithm operates, including the extent to which TikTok echoes users’ interests versus trying to expand the videos they watch.Karan Vombatkere at Boston University and…

TikTok’s rough week in the west went from bad to worse today when Italian authorities slapped the app with a €10mn fine over a viral challenge called the “French scar.” The game invites users to pinch their cheeks until they leave a lasting bruise. It became particularly popular in Italy, which prompted scrutiny from the country’s competition regulator. Following a probe, investigators concluded that TikTok had failed to protect users from “the potentially dangerous” content. The watchdog…

Halfway through writing her new book Vulture Capitalism, Grace Blakeley had what her mum called a “midlife crisis”. “I realised that the stuff that I was doing, and the way that I was making sense of what I was doing, was having a really negative impact on me and my mental health,” she says. “Just everything ... feeling constantly on edge, not really being able to engage with people in honest and open ways. There was a point at which I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this any more.’”Twenty-nine may sound a bit young…

A bipartisan coalition in Congress introduced a bill this week that would ban TikTok in the United States if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t divest itself from the app. The bill’s sponsors framed the legislation as critical to ensuring that America’s biggest adversary can’t control one of its most dominant tech platforms.Now, TikTok is using that dominance to fight back, sending push notifications to its users asking them to call Congress and oppose the bill. “This legislation will trample the First…

So often, the radical cheek of TikTokers makes mainstream media look pretty dull, and so it has proved once again, with the explosion of uproarious Saltburn TikToks. These are reportedly causing deep pain to Mr Charles Stopford Sackville, owner of the 700-year-old Drayton House in Northamptonshire, which plays the stately home in question, through which Barry Keoghan finally does his groovy nude dance to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor.Stopford Sackville got a generous fee for letting them film there and…

TikTok’s latest viral superstar is Reesa Teesa, a Georgia woman who posted 50 videos — just under 10 minutes long apiece — chronicling her tumultuous relationship with her ex-husband. That’s over six hours of content, all about a stranger’s experience living with a compulsive liar. But millions of viewers are eating it up, clinging to Reesa’s every last word on a platform with a reputation for ruining our attention span. I can’t go for a walk without headphones (lest I be alone with my own thoughts), so I’m…

The European Union will investigate whether TikTok breached online content rules, revealed Reuters. The social media, owned by ByteDance, may have failed to protect children and ensure transparent advertising and might have to pay a fine of up to 6% of its global turnover. According to Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, the decision was taken after he analyzed the short video app's risk assessment report and its replies to requests for information. Today we open an investigation into…

The European Commission opened a formal investigation to review whether the social media app TikTok violated new rules in place that aim to protect minors online, it announced Monday.   The investigation will review if TikTok, owned by the Chinese-based parent company ByteDance, breached the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU’s new online children protection rule that went into effect Saturday, by its platform design and privacy settings.   If the commission establishes a breach of the DSA, it could impose…

Adobe has recently announced integration with TikTok’s Creative Assistant. The partnership between two major industry titans in digital content creation could have a massive impact on content creators and provide them with more sophisticated tools for their work. Adobe described the move as a “first-of-its-kind integration” that makes video content creation quicker, easier, and more effective. This partnership also brings TikTok’s Creative Assistant to Adobe Express, which is an online design tool for creators. TikTok’s…

The “sleepy girl mocktail” is just what it sounds like—a fizzy cherry concoction meant to lull you to sleep. This homemade tipple has taken over TikTok (and Sleepytime tea’s spot on many nightstands). The question of whether it actually works remains up for scientific debate, however. Many sleep experts argue that any benefits people may experience are probably from a placebo effect.This drink is no “miracle drug,” says Thomas Kilkenny, director of the Institute of Sleep Medicine at Staten Island University Hospital.…