EU charges TikTok
EU charged TikTok with failing to protect children's privacy under the DSA.
TikTokEU charges TikTok with failing to protect children’s privacy under the DSA
On 24 July, the European Commission issued preliminary findings that the TikTok platform breached the Digital Services Act by leaving minors’ accounts open to adults, the latest escalation in a probe that has shadowed the app since 2024. The finding is narrow but pointed. Investigators concluded that TikTok’s default settings failed to keep children’s profiles private in practice, […] This story continues at The Next Web
TikTok’s protection of minors should not be opt-in, warns EU
TikTok has attracted the ire of the European Union over its protection of children who use the video sharing platform. The European Commission announced preliminary findings today under the Digital Services Act (DSA) that offer specific issues to address. The Commission suggests that TikTok should adjust the default settings of minors' "public" accounts so the […]
Facebook considers giving up and becoming TikTok
Facebook is planning some big changes to try and keep its users from jumping to rival social platforms like TikTok - changes that sound dubiously similar to becoming a TikTok clone. Facebook head Tom Alison announced today that the platform will begin testing a "reimagined experience" later this year that will put a subset of […]
EU Escalates TikTok Probe Over Lack of Teen Privacy Protections
The European Union escalated a probe against TikTok under its content moderation rulebook, accusing the social network of failing to protect the safety and privacy of teen users.
TikTok says AI-generated spam ‘crowds out original creators’ — so it’s teaching users how to spot AI
TikTok is launching a new in-app hub to help you spot AI-generated content as it cracks down on AI slop.
TikTok’s US security chief to face the House China committee on September 15
Will Farrell, the chief security officer for TikTok’s US operation, will appear before the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party on September 15 to answer questions about Beijing’s influence over the app, Reuters reported. He will be the first executive from the business recently sold to a group of US investors to testify since that ownership […] This story continues at The Next Web
France Becomes First European Country To Ban Social Media Access For Under-15s
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: France's parliament has approved a bill banning social media access for children under 15, making it the first European country to bar children from apps such as TikTok. The president, Emmanuel Macron, has championed the ban as a key reform of his final term in office and pledged to enforce it by September. "France is leading the way in Europe when it comes to protecting our children and teenagers," Macron said in a video posted on social me
AI and the rise of the universal entertainment app
Over the past decade, streaming platforms competed by dominating individual formats like music, video, podcasts, or audiobooks. Now, as AI makes it easier to create, organize, and recommend content, those distinctions are fading, pushing companies like Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok to become all-purpose entertainment destinations instead.
After TikTok, Snap settles social media addiction case
TikTok recently settled its portion of the case with the plaintiff ahead of a jury trial that starts next week in Los Angeles. YouTube has also reached a deal, leaving Meta as the only remaining defendant.
AI is writing your date’s messages. The dating apps say they cannot stop it.
Singles are feeding their dating app conversations into ChatGPT and Claude, asking the models to write replies, analyse what went wrong, and generate opening lines. The practice, called “chatfishing,” has produced a 5,000% spike in Google searches and a growing trail of Reddit posts and TikTok confessionals. Twenty-six per cent of US adults, and 49% […] This story continues at The Next Web
Federal employees can download TikTok on their work phones again
The Department of Justice says that federal employees can now download TikTok on their government devices.
TikTok is no longer banned on US government devices
US government officially lifts TikTok ban on federal devices.
TikTok is testing an AI likeness detection tool
TikTok is starting to test an opt-in tool that scans for AI likenesses and lets creators report them to the company, as spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra. The tool is initially being tested with "some" US creators, TikTok US spokesperson Zachary Kizer tells The Verge. YouTube has been working on a similar tool […]
Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, is investigating TikTok's child safety measures
The regulator is assessing whether the platform is doing enough to protect children from harmful content.
Ofcom opens a child safety investigation into TikTok
Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into whether TikTok is failing to protect children from harmful content, escalating a dispute that has been running in public since May. The probe, announced on Thursday, examines two things under the Online Safety Act: whether TikTok has adequate measures to work out that a given user is a […] This story continues at The Next Web
The UK Is Planning a Social Media Curfew for 16- and 17-Year-Olds
The restrictions, which can be turned off, will include a crackdown on “addictive” app features and will be in addition to a total ban on children under 16 accessing platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
People Keep Sneaking Into an Empty IBM Campus - and Then Getting Arrested
Since February, New York state police have arrested 48 people for trespassing on a former IBM campus in Somers, New York, reports the Wall Street Journal. 30 of the arrests were teenagers. The long-vacant site has become a magnet for so-called urban explorers, who prowl abandoned malls, hospitals, power plants, amusement parks, factories and any other disused structure they can breach... [I]t's been turbocharged by artsy videos on Instagram and TikTok that spur others to create their own posts,
TikTok users don't have as much agency over their FYPs as they think
The "not interested" feature is your friend, but users must intentionally and constantly curate their FYPs
Chinese firm that created TikTok now wants to build an AI accelerator to rival Nvidia within months
ByteDance is developing its own AI chip to reduce Nvidia dependence, targeting mass production by late 2027.
Show HN: InstantVideos.org – short documentaries in ~30 seconds
Hiya! So I've been playing around with having Claude make videos for a bit now even had some success posting the results to TikTok (and setup a whole pipeline so Claude can generate and post autonomously). With the release of Nano Banana 2 Lite, I was curious show fast I could make the generation, so last night I gave it a whirl and got down to around 30s for short-form video. It uses GLM-5.2 fast via Fireworks to generate the scripts and image prompts and, like I said, Nano Banana 2 Lite for th
ByteDance construye en Brasil su mayor complejo de centros de datos fuera de China
El centro de datos de US$39.000 millones del creador de TikTok es el fruto más reciente de los esfuerzos de Lula por atraer inversión china.
TikTok weighs about 300 more job cuts at its Dublin hub
TikTok is considering cutting about 300 jobs at its European hub in Dublin, according to an email to staff seen by Bloomberg. For the people affected, that number is not abstract. The proposed redundancies would fall on roughly a tenth of the company’s local workforce of around 3,000, and they follow a similarly sized round of […] This story continues at The Next Web
ByteDance Picks Brazil for Its Largest Data Center Outside China
The TikTok creator’s $39 billion data center is the latest payoff from Lula’s courtship of Chinese investment.
TikTok Eyes About 300 More Job Cuts at European Hub in Dublin
TikTok is considering cutting about 300 jobs at its European hub in Dublin, following a similarly sized round of layoffs last year.
TikTok settles second addiction case, leaving Meta and Snap to face a jury alone
TikTok has reached a confidential settlement with a Florida teenager who accused the platform of contributing to his mental health problems, removing itself from a jury trial scheduled to begin on July 27 in Los Angeles. The deal, first reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday, makes TikTok the second defendant to exit the case in recent […] This story continues at The Next Web
Google’s NotebookLM can sum up your research in a TikTok-style clip
Google's NotebookLM is adding a new way to catch up on your notes: TikTok-style AI videos. The new feature is rolling out to Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers, allowing NotebookLM to generate 60-second vertical AI clips based on the sources you upload to the app. The example shared by Google details Australia's unsuccessful war […]
TikTok Finalizing Settlement of Addiction Lawsuit to Avoid Trial
TikTok is finalizing a settlement related to a lawsuit claiming that the world’s largest social media platforms are addictive to minors, according to people familiar with the matter, avoiding a jury trial scheduled for July in Los Angeles.
Irish court tells regulator to reconsider TikTok’s China data-transfer ban
The High Court upheld TikTok’s GDPR liability and its €530m fine, but sent the order suspending transfers to China back to the regulator for review. TikTok lost the argument that mattered most and won itself some breathing room on the rest. Ireland’s High Court has upheld the Data Protection Commission’s findings that the company breached […] This story continues at The Next Web
TikTok and YouTube cut 4.7 million under-16 accounts in Indonesia
The number arrives with the bluntness of a government tally. TikTok and YouTube have deactivated roughly 4.7 million accounts belonging to children under 16 in Indonesia, the country’s communications minister said on 25 June. The bulk of the cuts came from one platform: TikTok deactivated 4.1 million accounts, while YouTube removed 600,000, according to Communications […] This story continues at The Next Web
YouTube updates Shorts to make it even more like TikTok
YouTube is adding even more TikTok-like features to Shorts, including a new "clear screen" mode that removes the icons and text from the video you're watching. In a blog post on Thursday, YouTube says it's also replacing the "thumbs-up" button with a "heart" icon, and is introducing a new option that lets you watch Shorts […]
ByteDance seeks a record $20bn offshore loan to fund its AI build-out
ByteDance is in preliminary talks with banks about an offshore loan of roughly $20bn, which would be the largest the TikTok owner has ever raised, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the discussions. The company is said to be seeking a facility with a three-year tenor and an option to extend it to […] This story continues at The Next Web
YouTube settles ahead of California’s second social-media addiction trial
A month before a Los Angeles jury was due to hear a Florida teenager’s case, Google quietly stepped out of it, leaving Meta, Snap and TikTok to argue the rest. Google’s YouTube has settled with a teenage plaintiff weeks before he was due to face the company in court, removing itself from the second bellwether […] This story continues at The Next Web
ByteDance Seeks $20 Billion in Its Largest-Ever Offshore Loan
ByteDance Ltd., the developer of TikTok, is in preliminary talks with banks for a borrowing of about $20 billion, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be the firm’s largest offshore loan yet at a time when it’s boosting investments in artificial intelligence.
UK Considers Forcing Social Media Firms To Prioritize Trusted News
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Britain is considering forcing social media companies to prioritize what the government called trusted news sources as part of its broader push to tighten regulation of the sector. The culture department said on Monday it was considering requiring platforms such as Meta's Facebook, Alphabet-owned YouTube and TikTok to make content from public service media -- including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 -- and other trusted news providers easier to find
UK weighs forcing social media platforms to surface trusted news
Ministers are considering rules that would make BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 content easier to find on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, as more Britons get their news from feeds. Britain’s culture department said on Monday that it is considering requiring social media platforms to make content from public service media and other trusted news providers […] This story continues at The Next Web
TikTok Shows 3x More AI Slop Than YouTube, Report Finds
"About 59% of TikTok videos served to a new account's For You feed are AI slop," writes Search Engine Journal, "according to a report from Kapwing, the video creation tool company. That's roughly three times the rate Kapwing found on YouTube." The company manually reviewed over 10,000 TikTok videos across 20 categories and ran a separate fresh-account test, counting AI-generated content in the first 500 For You videos. Kapwing ran the same fresh-account test on YouTube and found that 104 of the
Nearly 60% of TikTok videos shown to new users are AI slop, study finds
Nearly six out of every ten videos TikTok serves to a brand-new account are AI-generated junk. That is the central finding of a report published by video editing platform Kapwing, which analysed 10,742 TikTok videos across 20 popular categories and separately examined the first 500 videos shown on the For You page of a freshly […] This story continues at The Next Web
Our long national sunscreen nightmare is almost over
This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. On TikTok, the tanned youths are explaining why they no longer wear sunscreen. In one video, a young man films […]
AI cheating tools are winning. Detection was never the point.
The videos are everywhere, and the offer is always the same. Let AI do your homework, and you will not get caught. According to a New York Times investigation, TikTok and YouTube are now full of tutorials selling students two kinds of tool. Humanisers rewrite AI-generated text so it no longer reads like a chatbot. […] This story continues at The Next Web
Parafin lands a Goldman Sachs credit facility to embed lending inside Amazon, DoorDash, and Walmart
Parafin, an embedded financial infrastructure company on the 2026 Forbes Fintech 50 list, has secured a new credit facility led by Goldman Sachs alongside One William Street Capital Management. The facility will expand access to embedded lending for small businesses through platforms including Amazon, DoorDash, Gusto, TikTok Shop, and Walmart. The company’s model is straightforward. […] This story continues at The Next Web
Social media’s next evolution: user-controlled algorithms
Social media feeds are becoming more customizable as platforms like Threads, Instagram, and TikTok introduce tools that let users directly influence the algorithms powering their recommendations.
Florida sues TikTok for allegedly violating its social media ban for kids
The state of Florida is suing TikTok over claims the company isn't complying with the state's child safety law, which bans kids under 14 from creating social media accounts, as reported earlier by Reuters. The lawsuit, filed on Monday, alleges that TikTok still allows 13-year-olds in Florida to use the platform and is "actively deceiving" […]
TikTok Shoppers Thought They Were Bidding on iPhones. Instead, They Won Teddy Bears
Sellers on TikTok used pricey items to lure bidders to “Surprise Sets” livestreams, but most of the auctions yielded only cheap prizes. Gambling experts are concerned about the potential for harm.
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UK bans social media ban for under-16s — all the latest news live and what it means for Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and more
The UK has become the latest country to ban social media for under-16s — here's everything you need to know.
ByteDance is in talks to buy AI chips from China’s Iluvatar CoreX
ByteDance is in talks to buy artificial-intelligence chips from Iluvatar CoreX, a Shanghai-based GPU maker that until recently sold almost entirely to government buyers, according to people familiar with the discussions cited by Reuters. The talks point to how far the owner of TikTok and Douyin is willing to go to lessen its dependence on Nvidia. […] This story continues at The Next Web
The US Is Requiring Foreign Influencers to Get Work Visas for the 2026 World Cup
FIFA announced agreements with platforms such as TikTok and YouTube that include the participation of dozens of international influencers to generate content in the three host countries.
Meta’s Edits app is getting an AI assistant and a desktop version
By integrating an AI assistant directly into Edits, Meta is aiming to keep creators engaged on Instagram as it continues to compete with TikTok and YouTube for creators' attention.
Hackers are using TikTok videos offering 'free Spotify Premium' to spread malware and steal passwords
Videos advertising free subscriptions are leading victims away to download and install malware via command-line tools.
I tried TikTok’s most viral hair hacks —what’s actually worth it
Not all hair hacks are created equal so I've tested dozens to work out which are worth trying, or worth avoiding