by tyler | Apr 25, 2024 | Tech
TikTok suspended a gamification feature in the European Union following an intervention by the bloc. With attention on TikTok’s growing pile of US legal woes , the announcement went mostly unnoticed when it occurred late local time Wednesday.
TikTok’s move came just two days after the EU opened an investigation into a so-called “task and reward” mechanism on the TikTok Lite app, citing concerns over an addictive design that could pose a mental health risk for young people. The feature allows users to earn points for doing things like watching and liking TikTok videos. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent, launched this version of TikTok Lite in France and Spain earlier this month.
Under the EU’s rebooted online governance and content moderation rulebook, the Digital Services Act (DSA), TikTok has a legal obligation to mitigate systemic risks in areas like child safety and mental health. Yet it failed to produce a risk assessment report on the feature when the bloc’s enforcers came knocking.
This is a big deal as the company could face large penalties under the DSA — of up to 6% of its global annual turnover — if it’s found to have broken the EU’s rules.
In a statement posted on X yesterday, TikTok claimed it’s “voluntarily suspending” the rewards feature in the region to address concerns. However, on Monday, the Commission signalled it was preparing to force TikTok’s hand, saying it was minded to use interim measures powers contained in the DSA to close down the app while it conducts an investigation into the feature.
The EU gave TikTok two days to provide arguments against an enforced shutdown. In the event, TikTok opted to preempt enforcement by announcing a “voluntary” suspension.
The development underlines how even the threat of interim enforcement can pack a punch that forces platform giants to rethink. (We’ve seen this sort of thing before in relation to similar powers contained in the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation for example — such as a decision by Google, back in 2019 , to halt human review of audio snippets captured by its voice AI after a data protection authority had informed Google of an intention to use an urgency proceeding to order it to stop processing the data.)
This familiar crisis PR tactic aims to get ahead of the negative publicity associated with an enforced shutdown by taking action ahead of a formal order.
Nonetheless, the EU is taking the win: Responding to TikTok’s announcement with a counter post on X , the bloc’s internal-market-commissioner-cum-internet-sheriff, Thierry Breton, warned: “Our children are not guinea pigs for social media.”
Our children are not guinea pigs for social media.
I take note of TikTok’s decision to suspend the #TikTokLite “Reward Program” in the EU.
The cases against TikTok on the risk of addictiveness of the platform continue. #DSA ensures the safety of our 🇪🇺 online space. https://t.co/J1oI6zNI97
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) April 24, 2024
Breton went on to write that he “takes note” of TikTok’s suspension of the reward program for the Lite app in the EU, adding: “The cases against TikTok on the risk of addictiveness of the platform continue.”
TikTok was contacted for confirmation on the status of the TikTok Lite app in France and Spain. As the name suggests, TikTok Lite is an alternative TikTok app for users who have older phones or who mostly connect to 2G or 3G networks.
The EU has two DSA probes open on TikTok: The first, announced back in February , is looking into a broad sweep of suspected non-compliance in areas including addictive design, child protection, ads transparency and data access for researchers. The second, announced earlier this week , is focused on TikTok Lite.
Still, Elon Musk-owned X was the first very large online platform to go under DSA investigation back in December , just a few months after the late August compliance deadline had kicked in. That investigation also remains ongoing.
EU opens probe of TikTok Lite, citing concerns about addictive design
by tyler | Apr 25, 2024 | Tech
On April 24, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok if its owner ByteDance doesn’t sell the app.
The bill requires ByteDance to secure a deal within nine months, with a 90-day extension available to close it. After this deadline, the U.S. will bar app stores from listing the app.
TikTok will challenge this decision in courts with a long legal battle ahead of us. But many countries worldwide have already banned the app, and ByteDance hasn’t had a chance to revive it. These moves impacted ByteDance’s operations in those countries, creators, as well as startups related to the creator economy.
Here’s how those bans are playing out in other markets.
Members of the Working Journalist of India (WJI) hold placards urging citizens to remove Chinese apps and stop using Chinese products during a demonstration against the Chinese newspaper Global Times, in New Delhi on June 30, 2020. Image Credits: Photo by PRAKASH SINGH/AFP via Getty Images
Members of the Working Journalist of India (WJI) hold placards urging citizens to remove Chinese apps and stop using Chinese products during a demonstration against the Chinese newspaper Global Times, in New Delhi on June 30, 2020. Image Credits: Photo by PRAKASH SINGH/AFP via Getty Images
Multiple reports have captured the impact of the TikTok ban on creators who were reliant on the short video platform for reach and even money-making. Many small businesses also use TikTok to promote their brands in different ways.
In many ways, India banning TikTok was a pivotal moment as Instagram rushed to release Reels in India to replace the platform. Meta (then Facebook) launched Reels in the U.S. a few months later . YouTube also followed suit by introducing Shorts in India .
However, TikTok’s ban also gave rise to many local short video apps. Twitter and Google-backed local social network ShareChat released Moj ; Verse Innovation (parent company of news aggregator DailyHunt) launched Josh ; Times Internet launched MX Takatak and eventually merged it with Moj in 2022 ; ad company InMobi released Roposo with other rivals like Mitron, Chingari and Trell also trying to capture the market.
Developers in Nepal also launched a TikTok rival called Ramailo in November 2023 , but its lifespan was short-lived.
Because of multiple apps, creators have had to invest in putting their content on multiple platforms . Critically, these platforms might not be putting short videos front and center like TikTok, and their recommendation algorithm might also differ, causing creators to lose their audience. A similar impact could occur in the U.S., as creators scramble to find a new platform or platforms for their work — even if only to hedge against the possibility that TikTok’s influence wanes under the threat of a ban.
In the aftermath of India banning TikTok, ByteDance had to scale back its operations. Earlier this year, the company’s music streaming service, Resso, was also shut down in India after the government asked app stores to pull the app .
Aside from the impact on creators, digital rights activists have also made arguments that banning platforms like TikTok curtails free speech . Some of these angles might play out in the U.S., too, as the government and ByteDance will indulge in legal battles.
Last year, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said that India set an “incredibly important precedent” by banning TikTok in 2020 . Carr mentioned at that time that the U.S. needs to follow India’s lead to remove nefarious apps.
by tyler | Apr 11, 2024 | Tech
The internet’s mega-platforms are slowly merging into a great blob of sameness, and even the hottest companies in the world are not immune from the trend. TikTok’s winning strategy to focus on short-form, vertical video has found fans amongst other internet platforms, and now TikTok is taking a page from its rival, books, reportedly borrowing from what made them popular.
TikTok is working toward launching a new app called TikTok Notes that will allow users to post images in an apparent bid to rival Instagram, a service best known for its static-photo-sharing feature. Instagram, of course, has expanded into video and stories itself, taking pieces of other services and incorporating them into its own product.
Instagram’s parent company Meta’s other services are frequent borrowers as well. As is nearly every social service you can imagine. Recall that great Stories Boom that led to everyone from Line to Spotify to Instagram to LinkedIn trying out the popular sharing format. If it works for one social media service, expect the rest to follow in some manner at some point — probably sooner rather than later.
There’s good logic behind the effort. The answer is why X wants to become a super app; the more a service can offer its userbase to do, the more time they may spend inside the app’s walls. Expanding a feature set can bolster engaged time, and therefore how much revenue a social media service can earn. At the same time, bloat is a real issue that can dilute a user experience and render an app, well, Facebook in time.
This theme — the slow commodification of digital services via same ification — is similar to why we’re seeing LinkedIn try to ape The New York Times’ gaming might , and to some degree why major platform companies in tech wind up trying to be good at everything : the never-ending need to grow revenue. Perhaps this is why your favorite app always feels more and more like an alien world as time passes. It will evolve away from what made it special, and unique, because sticking to those guns is not the way to create a service that the maximum number of people will use. For that, you need to become Facebook.
by tyler | Apr 11, 2024 | Tech
After 10 weeks of being absent from the platform, Taylor Swift’s music has returned to TikTok — or at least her more recent songs and “Taylor’s Version” cuts, since she owns those masters.
Taylor Swift’s music, and music from all artists signed to Universal Music Group, was pulled from TikTok when the two parties were unable to come to a renewed licensing agreement. UMG published a scathing press release accusing TikTok of trying to “bully” the label into accepting a deal worth less than its previous one. UMG framed its refusal to come to a deal with TikTok as a means of standing up for emerging artists.
“How did [TikTok] try to intimidate us? By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars,” UMG wrote . “TikTok’s tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans.”
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
UMG also represents superstars like Billie Eilish, BTS, Ariana Grande and Olivia Rodrigo, but Swift is in a unique position. After contractual disputes of her own, Swift has been re-recording her old albums to reclaim ownership of the songs. Her “Taylor’s Version” recordings are back on TikTok, but songs from records like “Reputation,” which doesn’t yet have a “Taylor’s Version,” are still absent from the platform.
The timing of Swift’s return to TikTok isn’t a coincidence. Next week, Swift will release her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” Even artists as huge as Swift are not immune to the necessity for social media marketing — and if fans can’t make TikToks using sounds from the new record, the album might be … slightly less ubiquitous? But the partnership is beneficial for TikTok too. With a fanbase like Swift’s, it’s inevitable that numerous audio trends will emerge from the album, and TikTok won’t want to miss out on that engagement, especially since Reels will have that music anyway.
Universal Music Group plans to pull song catalog from TikTok
by tyler | Apr 4, 2024 | Tech
As U.S. lawmakers weigh a possible TikTok ban, the ByteDance-owned short-form video app released an economic impact report on Thursday. In it, the company touts the platform generated $14.7 billion for small- to mid-size businesses (SMBs) last year, and a further $24.2 billion in total economic activity, supported through small business’s use of TikTok.
In addition, it says that over 7 million U.S. businesses rely on TikTok and that 224,000 jobs were supported by small business activity on the platform in 2023. Of those, 98,000 jobs were supported directly within SMBs on TikTok. The states with the largest impacts included California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois.
The study was performed by the economics forecasting group, Oxford Economics. It measured SMB activity on TikTok, along with ad spend and ROI, and leveraged census data and other measurements to come to its conclusions.
While a report of this size and scope couldn’t be thrown together overnight, the timing of its release is likely not coincidental.
In March, a bill that could ban TikTok passed in the House of Representatives. President Biden said he would sign it into law if it also passes in the Senate. Of concern to TikTok, is that the bill gained bipartisan support, passing the House with a 362-65 vote, despite former President Trump’s change of position on the matter. The Trump administration had previously sought to ban TikTok, calling it a national security risk, but Trump now opposes a ban , saying that Meta would benefit.
Meta is clearly preparing for a possible future where TikTok could be banned, if not spun out from ByteDance. On Wednesday, Facebook was updated to support a new video player across its social network ; it will recommend Reels, long-form and Live videos, but default to showing them in vertical format, as on TikTok.
YouTube and other short-form video platforms could also gain increased exposure if TikTok were to be banned, and could pave the way for startups competing in the space, as well.
TikTok’s economic report is a clear attempt to make a case for why the app should be allowed to continue to operate, noting that $5.3 billion in tax revenue last year was supported by small business activity on TikTok, including as a marketing and advertising platform.
The company also presented a variety of case studies where business owners claim that TikTok helped to drive sales, website traffic, and other forms of additional revenue.
Tying the ban to the app’s economic impact is a solid PR strategy — especially since a group of TikTok creators got a judge to successfully block Trump’s TikTok ban in 2020 by saying it would affect their professional opportunities, like brand sponsorships, and ability to make an income.
Though TikTok has been urging users via in-app messages to call Congress to protest a ban , the bill still faces a more difficult path to pass in the Senate — and more so now that the Republican party’s leader has reversed his position on the ban.
The controversial bill that could ban TikTok faces a rocky road in the Senate
