Wired UK: All the ways TikTok tracks you and how to stop it. “Like Facebook and Instagram, TikTok’s money is made through advertising, which combined with its recommendations algorithm, requires hefty data collection. So what does TikTok know about you, what tracking does it do, and how can this be stopped?”
San Antonio Express-News: Human smugglers using TikTok, other social media to recruit drivers for Texas runs. “Increasingly, smugglers are turning to social media to recruit drivers because of its immense reach, and their pitches have been drawing people from the interior of Texas — even from out of state — to the southern border.”
Reuters: US Senate panel to hold hearing on social media impact on young users. “The US Senate will hold an Oct 26 hearing with tech firms TikTok, Snap’s Snapchat and Alphabet’s YouTube about their platforms’ impact on young users, the panel said on Tuesday (Oct 19).”
TikTok: TikTok’s most influential creators now feature on one big influential list. “The heart of TikTok is creators: the people responsible for the dance videos, the comedic clips, and the life hacks you didn’t know you needed. Now, the platform is uplifting its most influential creators with a new initiative, The Discover List.”
Mashable: 8 TikTok accounts to follow if you’re tired of COVID misinformation. “TikTok: an app for music, memes, and medically-accurate vaccine information Increasingly, medical professionals are using the app to share myth-busting information about things like the COVID-19 vaccine, rates of infection, and COVID treatments, all through succinct, engaging videos that will hopefully reach the people who need them. At the very least, they offer a link for other viewers to send to their more stubborn friends and relatives.” Thoroughly annotated with everybody’s bona fides.
Daily Beast: The Bizarre and Unsettling Rise of True-Crime Makeup Videos on YouTube and TikTok. “TikTok user @fatalfaye delicately brushes a hot pink eyeshadow in the shade ‘Emoji’ onto their eyelid. Over the primping plays an audio clip, crackling with feedback. ‘I just killed my mom and my sister,’ a teenager confesses. The combination of the jarring 911 call and an otherwise normal makeup video may seem bizarre, but the incongruous pairing belongs to a trend of true crime makeup videos that has been growing in popularity across social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Welcome to the weird world of true crime makeup videos.”
Tubefilter; TikTok Is Bringing In The Beatles. “Thanks to a deal with record labels Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe, TikTok has added 36 of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr’s songs to its sound library, which means creators will be able to use them in videos. Also part of the deal is a Beatles TikTok account…”
Malwarebytes Labs: “Free Steam game” scams on TikTok are Among Us. “What we sometimes see on TikTok is gaming-themed accounts making many of the same promises you see on other platforms. Free games, free items, free stuff. Everything is definitely free with no strings attached. Would RandomAccountGuy3856 lie to you? The answer is, of course, ‘Yes, RandomAccountGuy3856 absolutely would lie to you’.”
Mashable: TikTok’s nostalgia-fueled obsession with the early 2000s. “For an app primarily used by by young people, TikTok is oddly obsessed with nostalgia. Whether its obsession with childhood memories or Y2K fashion, the app is overrun with yearning for the past.” I am too old to be entirely comfortable with that excerpt.
Michigan Daily: Cancel your inner micro-celebrity. “I’m not trying to bash TikTok or any other form of social media. In fact, I think that TikTok is an amazing way to connect people across distance, socioeconomic status and more. It has also proved to be a vehicle for activism during the pandemic and has led to protests against racial and gender inequality, economic blackouts and creators of color being given a platform to speak about their experiences with racial injustice. However, TikTok offers a gamble that, if played correctly, can lead to an invitation to the Met Gala. It democratizes fame, keeping it just out of everyone’s grasp; the fruit that our inner Tantalus can never have.”
Mashable: The soothing relatability of Emily Mariko, TikTok’s latest food influencer. “There’s nothing all that difficult about her food — her most famous dish involves reheated rice, leftover salmon, and seaweed wrappers. She’s not pitching a diet. She’s not doing anything stunty or putting off bug-eyed, pick-me energy like men who’re budding influencers. Hell, she hardly even talks in most TikToks and went super viral for leftovers. And yet, Emily Mariko is the food internet’s latest Thing.”
CNET: TikTok says 1 billion people now use its app every month. “TikTok has hit a new milestone, more than 1 billion monthly active users around the world. The popular social video app shared the news in a blog post on Monday.”
NPR: TikTokers Are Trading Stocks By Copying What Members Of Congress Do. “Young investors have a new strategy: watching financial disclosures of sitting members of Congress for stock tips. Among a certain community of individual investors on TikTok, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stock trading disclosures are a treasure trove. ‘Shouts out to Nancy Pelosi, the stock market’s biggest whale,’ said user ‘ceowatchlist.’ Another said, ‘I’ve come to the conclusion that Nancy Pelosi is a psychic,’ while adding that she is the ‘queen of investing.’”
Search Engine Journal: Google Working on Indexing Instagram & TikTok Videos. “Google is negotiating deals with Instagram and TikTok to index their content in search results, according to a new report. The Information has the early details of Google’s talks with Facebook and ByteDance — parent companies of Instagram and TikTok respectively.”
