TikTok has requested an injunction against a looming ban on its app in the United States. The company — a US subsidiary of Chinese corporation ByteDance — claims a Trump administration executive order violates its right to due process and freedom of speech. It’s asking a District of Columbia judge to block a rule that would require Apple and Google to remove the app from their stores on September 27th.

The request addresses an increasingly convoluted attempt to sever TikTok from ByteDance, ostensibly because the Chinese-owned app poses national security risks. President Donald Trump originally gave ByteDance a September 15th deadline to sell TikTok, then ordered app stores to ban it on September 20th. It was granted a last-minute extension after Trump approved a tentative deal with Oracle, but it’s unclear whether ByteDance would actually give up control of TikTok under the agreement and whether China would approve the deal if it does.

TikTok sued the administration over its original rulemaking last month, saying that the decision exceeded the limits of Trump’s power to ban an app’s operation on national emergency grounds. Now, it wants an expedited hearing on whether Trump’s demands would harm TikTok enough to justify blocking his order while the suit proceeds.

Tencent-owned messaging app WeChat was granted a similar reprieve over the weekend when a group of WeChat users successfully petitioned a judge to temporarily block sanctions against the app. In that case, the judge cited “serious questions” about whether Trump’s WeChat ban infringed on users’ First Amendment rights.

In its own filing, TikTok says that it has “made extraordinary efforts to try to satisfy the government’s ever-shifting demands and purported national security concerns,” including changing the company’s ownership and structure. “Hundreds of millions of Americans who have not yet downloaded TikTok will be shut out of this large and diverse online community— six weeks before a national election,” it says.

source: TheVerge

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Facebook appears to flipping the switch on integrating the chat systems for Instagram and Messenger. On Friday evening, several editors at The Verge across the country — on both iOS and Android devices — noticed an update screen popped up in Instagram’s mobile app with the message “There’s a New Way to Message on Instagram” with a list of features including a “new colorful look for your chats,” more emoji reactions, swipe-to-reply, and the big one: “chat with friends who use Facebook.”
Once you hit update, the regular DM icon in the top right of Instagram is replaced by the Facebook Messenger logo. Chats on Instagram are indeed more colorful than before, with the sender’s messages shifting between blue and purple as you scroll. However, at least for right now, it’s still not possible to message Facebook users from Instagram.
But Facebook has made clear its plans to unify the messaging platforms of its hugely popular apps to allow cross-messaging among Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Facebook was said to be rebuilding the underlying infrastructure so users who were on only one of its apps could connect to others using different Facebook apps. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also said he wants the system to be end-to-end encrypted. By integrating its most popular apps, Facebook may be able to compete more directly with Apple’s iMessage.
Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, and bought WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion. The company did not immediately reply to a request for comment Friday evening.
Sorce: theverge

 

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TikTok launched a marketing program on Thursday to attract more advertisers with tools to measure the success of ad campaigns that run on its popular short video app.

The program will allow brands and marketers to run ad campaigns on its app, that at present has about 20 certified partners including digital marketing platform MakeMeReach and data analytics company Kantar, TikTok said in a blog. 

TikTok’s advertising business is still nascent, but the company owned by China’s ByteDance has become a popular place for brands that aim to reach the app’s young audience, who flock to it for lip-syncing, dancing and comedy sketch videos.

ByteDance has been ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump to divest TikTok’s operations in the country amid security concerns over the personal data it handles.

Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp are among the suitors for the assets. However, China’s new rules around tech exports mean the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations could need Beijing’s approval.

source:Reuters

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The owner of TikTok has chosen Oracle over Microsoft as the American tech partner that could help keep the popular video-sharing app running in the U.S., according to a source familiar with the deal who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

Microsoft announced Sunday that its bid to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations was rejected, removing the tech giant from the running a week before President Donald Trump promises to follow through with a plan to ban the Chinese-owned app in the U.S. over spying concerns.

TikTok and the White House declined to comment Sunday. Oracle didn’t return a request for comment but has previously declined comment.

Walmart, which had planned to partner with Microsoft on the acquisition, said Sunday it “continues to have an interest in a TikTok investment” and is talking about it with ByteDance and other parties.

The Trump administration has threatened to ban TikTok by Sept. 20 and ordered ByteDance to sell its U.S. business, claiming national-security risks due to its Chinese ownership. The government worries about user data being funneled to Chinese authorities. TikTok denies it is a national-security risk and is suing to stop the administration from the threatened ban.

Microsoft said in a Sunday statement that ByteDance “let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft.”

Microsoft added it was “confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users while protecting national security interests.” The company said it “would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combating disinformation.”

TikTok, which says it has 100 million U.S. users and about 700 million globally, is known for its fun, goofy videos of dancing, lip-syncing, pranks and jokes. It’s recently become home to more political content such as the comedian Sarah Cooper, who drew a large audience by lip-syncing Trump’s own often-disjointed statements from public appearances.

TikTok denies that it has shared user data with the Chinese government or that it would do so if asked. The company says it has not censored videos at the request of Chinese authorities and insists it is not a national-security threat.

TikTok has sued to stop the ban, but not the sale order. The negotiations have been complicated by several factors, including Trump’s repeated demands that the U.S. government should get a “cut” of any deal, a stipulation and role for the president that experts say is unprecedented.

In addition, the Chinese government in late August unveiled new regulations that restrict exports of technology, likely including the artificial intelligence system TikTok uses to choose which videos to spool up to its users. That means ByteDance would have to obtain a license from China to export such technology to a foreign company.

The deal had come together rapidly after the administration ramped up its threats against TikTok this summer, despite TikTok’s efforts to put distance between its app and its Chinese ownership. It installed former Disney executive Kevin Mayer as its American CEO, but he resigned in August after just a few months on the job, saying the “political environment has sharply changed.”

Both Microsoft and Oracle are known more for their business software offerings than for those intended for consumers.

Oracle primarily makes database software. It competes with tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon that provide cloud services as well as business-software specialists like Salesforce.

Thill suggested that TikTok competitors like Facebook and Snapchat should be “cheering on Oracle” as a buyer because Oracle wouldn’t “add a lot of value to the app.”

The president said on Aug. 18 that Oracle was “a great company” that “could handle” buying TikTok. He declined to state his preference between Oracle and Microsoft as buyers.

source: AP

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