TechCrunch: Web Roulette is an addictive, ‘swipeable’ web browser for the TikTok era. “If mindlessly browsing the internet is your preferred way to combat boredom and waste time, the indie app makers behind to-do list app Clear and game Heads Up! have a new product you’ll want to try: Web Roulette, a mobile web browser app for iOS built for the short attention spans of the TikTok era.”
WBZ: One Salem Museum Looks For Social Media Savvy Student For New Program. “One Salem museum is looking for someone with a knack for TikTok to join their team as part of a new program. Peabody Essex Museum is hiring for its first-ever TikTok Creator and Residence Program to get the museum seen from a different perspective.”
Slashgear: TikTok Users Are Reimagining Alternative Human Histories With Generative AI . “New AI trends just kept coming; the latest one is very thought-provoking and creative. TikTokers have created viral videos with pictures and accompanying textual descriptions of what the world would look like if human history were changed. Most of these videos try to explore different narratives by changing important details of specific historical events, for example, the victors of a pretty significant conflict in human history.”
New York Times: Driver’s Licenses, Addresses, Photos: Inside How TikTok Shares User Data. “The profusion of user data on Lark alarmed some TikTok employees, especially since ByteDance workers in China and elsewhere could easily see the material, according to internal reports and four current and former employees. Since at least July 2021, several security employees have warned ByteDance and TikTok executives about risks tied to the platform, according to the documents and the current and former workers.”
The Verge: A fake climate change theory is going viral on TikTok after Joe Rogan talked about it. “A made-up global warming theory discussed in the Joe Rogan Experience podcast is spreading on TikTok despite the platform’s new policy against climate disinformation, a new report shared exclusively with The Verge finds.”
NPR: TikTok sues Montana over its new law banning the app. “TikTok has filed a federal lawsuit against Montana after the state passed a law last week intended to ban the app from being downloaded within its borders. The widely expected lawsuit argues that banning a hugely popular social media app amounts to an illegal suppression of free speech tantamount to censorship.”
NYLON: Are ‘Core Trends Destroying Our Sense Of Personal Style?. “The pressure to look a certain way to garner likes and engagement via algorithm-driven trends on social media is at its peak. As a result, personal style is suffering.”
Associated Press: Montana becomes 1st state to ban TikTok; law likely to be challenged. “Montana became the first state in the U.S. to completely ban TikTok on Wednesday when Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a measure that’s more sweeping than any other state’s attempts to curtail the social media app.”
New York Times: Ex-ByteDance Executive Accuses Company of ‘Lawlessness’. “The former executive sued ByteDance, which owns TikTok, for wrongful termination and accused the company of lifting content from rivals and ‘supreme access’ by the Chinese Communist Party.”
Washington Post: Fake sign language is spreading on TikTok. Deaf people are worried.. “Anthony Eagle Jr. is big on TikTok. He boasts over 850,000 followers, many of whom love the way he performs sign language renditions of songs. There’s just one problem — the sign language is sometimes wrong. When Eagle, 39, of Winston-Salem, N.C., signs the song, ‘Love the Way You Lie,’ his rendition is riddled with mistakes, like signing the word ‘lie’ with two hands in the wrong position. To a deaf person who uses sign language, it looks like gibberish.”
CNN: Despite TikTok ban threat, influencers are flocking to a new app from its parent company. “In the days after TikTok’s CEO was grilled by Congress for the first time, many TikTok users began posting about an alternative platform called Lemon8, sometimes with eerily similar language.”
Yahoo News: People with disabilities have built a community on TikTok. They fear its loss if the app is banned.. “[Katriel] Nopoulos, who uses they/them pronouns, soon discovered that TikTok could be a life-changing tool. Nopolous was born without a lower jaw, so they communicate by using American Sign Language. TikTok allows creators to easily deploy a computer-generated voice to read text out loud. This is both an accessibility issue — so that the blind and visually impaired can absorb their content — and a liberating innovation for Nopoulos. For the first time in their life, Nopoulos could be heard — literally.”
Wall Street Journal: TikTok Tracked Users Who Watched Gay Content, Prompting Employee Complaints. “TikTok doesn’t ask users to disclose their sexual orientation, but it cataloged videos users watched under topics such as LGBT, short for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, the former employees said. The collection of information, which could be viewed by some employees through a dashboard, included a set of affiliated users who watched those videos, and their ID numbers, they said.”
Dazed: The history of chain mail: from Jesus to TikTok. “There are thousands of variations of chain messages, typically found in the corners of TikTok where spiritual content runs rampant. Each letter follows a simple formula: they compel users to interact, share and ‘use this sound’ to supposedly call in the life of their dreams or else risk immense misfortune.”
The Verge: TikTok’s head of US trust and safety is leaving. “TikTok’s head of trust and safety for the US, Eric Han, is leaving the company on May 12th, according to two people familiar with the matter and an internal memo to employees I’ve seen. His departure comes as TikTok is still trying to clench a deal to avoid a ban by the US government.”
