tiktok – The News Desk

Taylor Swift’s Music Is Back on TikTok—Right Before Her New Album Drops

11Apr

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Technology

Taylor Swift’s Music Is Back on TikTok—Right Before Her New Album Drops

In the drawn out contract battle between TikTok and Universal Music Group, a high profile exemption has been made for Taylor Swift. A few of her songs became available again as TikTok sounds on Thursday, just a week before the release of Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. It remains unclear what kind of arrangement was made for her official music to come back, or how long it will remain on the social media platform.Madeline Macrae, a Swift fan and TikTok creator, heard the news Thursday morning and immediately started searching TikTok and Google to confirm it wasn’t some hoax. “I'm really excited to have that catalog back, and I don't have to rely on sped up versions or edited versions,” she says. “I can just use her actual music.” Songs like “Cruel Summer,” “cardigan,” ...

10Apr

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Technology

Pop Music Is Mad. Social Media Loves It

Not everyone is buying it. Despite the study’s findings, “I don’t believe hip-hop lyrics are more angry,” says Dame Aubrey, head of A&R for CMG Records and Management, a music label that represents rappers Moneybagg Yo, BlocBoy JB, and GloRilla. If anything, Aubrey says, what changes we do hear are a product of how music has expanded. It’s simple, Aubrey says: more people, more perspectives. The medium is more accessible now because of the technology available. “There’s just a lot more artists with opportunities to be heard because it basically became a trend to make music.”One major adjustment in all of this is the mechanics of how a song gets popular, and what its popularity generates.In the age of social media, that can often translate into more of the same kinds of sounds, althoug...

Mitch McConnell backs House TikTok bill that could lead to ban

9Apr

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Money

Mitch McConnell backs House TikTok bill that could lead to ban

Washington — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday endorsed a bill that could lead to a ban of TikTok in the U.S. after its momentum slowed in the Senate following its whirlwind passage in the House last month. "This is the matter that deserves Congress' urgent attention, and I'll support common sense bipartisan steps to take one of Beijing's favorite tools of coercion and espionage off the table," the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor, describing the platform as "a tool of surveillance and of propaganda." The legislation seeks to force its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months to maintain access to U.S. web-hosting services and app stores. "Requiring the divestment of Beijing-influenced entities ...

A TikTok Whistleblower Got DC’s Attention. Do His Claims Add Up?

4Apr

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Technology

A TikTok Whistleblower Got DC’s Attention. Do His Claims Add Up?

Despite not holding a senior position, Goziker claims that his main job at TikTok was “overseeing” Project Texas to ensure the social media app’s plan to secure US user data would be effective. The goal was to implement a set of safeguards that would satisfy the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency body charged with evaluating national security risks associated with foreign firms acquiring or taking major stakes in US companies. CFIUS has the power to force companies to unwind deals it considers risky, and since 2019 has been investigating ByteDance’s 2017 purchase of a lip-syncing app called Musical.ly, which was later merged into TikTok.Goziker claims that he interviewed more than three dozen people at TikTok and ByteDance about Project Texas, according...

AI-Generated Spoofs of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Are Flooding Instagram and TikTok

3Apr

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Technology

AI-Generated Spoofs of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Are Flooding Instagram and TikTok

The blending of the real and unreal could explain why some faux-Drag Race followers get so passionate about what they’re seeing on their feeds. Michael says he “lives for the overreactions of fans” who believe his creations are real people. He says people often ask him for a queen’s actual Instagram handle.“I also get the occasional hate comment from someone saying I’m taking away jobs from real drag queens,” he says. As an illustrator himself, Michael says he’s aware “that AI is coming for my job,” but doesn’t believe his Instagram passion project is taking money away from humans. “If someone isn’t going to the club and tipping a real drag queen because they saw AI Drag Race, that’s a problem with the person and not my Drag Race,” he says.Fantasy Drag Race’s Más says she’s gotten into sc...

Social media apps made $11 billion from children and teens in 2022

28Dec

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Money

Social media apps made $11 billion from children and teens in 2022

When it comes to children's mental health and privacy, their loss translates into massive gains for social media companies: $11 billion, to be exact.That's according to a new Harvard study that shows social media platforms last year generated $11 billion in revenue from advertising directed at children and teenagers, including nearly $2 billion in ad profits derived from users age 12 and under. Snaphat, TikTok and Youtube reaped the highest share of those billions, approximately 30% - 40% combined, according to the findings. "Although social media platforms may claim that they can self-regulate their practices to reduce the harms to young people, they have yet to do so, and our study suggests they have overwhelming financial incentives to continue to d...

The Internet Isn’t Dead. It’s ‘Saturday Night Live’

24Dec

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Technology

The Internet Isn’t Dead. It’s ‘Saturday Night Live’

The internet sucks now. Once a playground fueled by experimentation and freedom and connection, it’s a flimsy husk of what it was, all merriment and serendipity leached from our screens by vile capitalist forces. Everything is too commercialized. We commodified the self, then we commodified robots to impersonate the self, and now they’re taking our damn jobs. We live in diminished and degrading times. I miss when memes were funny. I miss Vine. I miss Gawker. I miss old Twitter. Blogs—those were the days!Stop me if these gripes sound familiar. In 2023, the idea that the internet isn’t fun anymore is conventional wisdom. This year, after Elon Musk renamed Twitter “X” and instituted a series of berserk changes that made it substantially less functional, complaints about the demise of the goo...

Malaysia asked Meta, TikTok to remove more content in 2023

16Dec

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Business

Malaysia asked Meta, TikTok to remove more content in 2023

KUALA LUMPUR: Facebook-owner Meta and China's TikTok restricted a record number of social media posts and accounts in Malaysia in the first six months of 2023, data published by the firms showed, amid a jump in government requests to remove content. Malaysia PM Anwar Ibrahim's administration, which came to power in November 2022 on a reformist platform, has faced accusations of backpedalling on its promises to protect freedom of speech amid increased scrutiny of online content in recent months. The government has denied allegations of stifling dissent online, saying it wanted to curb provocative posts that touch on race, religion and royalty.!(function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) { function loadFBEvents(isFBCampaignActive) { if (!isFBCampaignActive) { return; } (fun...

25Nov

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Entertainment

Why "Moye Moye" is trending worldwide

The Moye Moye trend originated from the Serbian song "Dzanum" by Teya Dora, which gained massive traction on TikTok. The song's infectious nature and catchy melody allowed it to dominate TikTok charts and spread to other social media platforms. Collaborating with Serbian rapper Solbidan Velkovic Coby for the lyrics and Loka Jovanovic for the melody, the song's success can be attributed to its simple yet captivating composition

How algorithms determine what you’ll buy for the holidays — and beyond

23Nov

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Money

How algorithms determine what you’ll buy for the holidays — and beyond

We've all been there: Scrolling through social media and spotting the ads recommending something you never knew you needed, whether it's the perfect pair of shoes, a gadget to solve an annoying problem or the ideal holiday gift for your mom. As the holidays approach and shopping ramps up, you're more likely to see gift ideas inspired by and advertised by algorithms, experts in the field of algorithmic commerce and online shopping say. Algorithmic commerce essentially means retailers use technology, including artificial intelligence, to track and analyze consumer purchases, and predict or suggest other items to buy, according to Haya Ajjan, the associate dean of the Love School of Business at Elon University. Ajjan said that use of the method is growing, with artificial intelligence "resha...