Tuesday, April 30

Tag: Tiktok

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer steps down, citing ‘sharply changed’ political environment
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TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer steps down, citing ‘sharply changed’ political environment

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer announced early Thursday that he has stepped down from the company he joined just three months ago. President Trump has threatened to ban TikTok, the short-video social media app owned by China's ByteDance, unless it is sold off to a U.S. company. ByteDance is both suing the Trump administration over the executive order and also talking to Microsoft about a potential sale. Kevin Mayer, who was the head of digital streaming at Walt Disney Co. until he joined TikTok on June 1, alluded to the turmoil he stepped into in a letter to employees. "In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for," he said. T...
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TikTok’s U.S. Chief Says Video Site Will Stay Despite Trump Ban
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TikTok’s U.S. Chief Says Video Site Will Stay Despite Trump Ban

(Bloomberg) -- TikTok will continue to operate its hit music video app in the U.S., whatever comes of the threatened Trump administration ban on its business, senior executive Vanessa Pappas said. “We believe we have multiple paths forward to ensure that we continue to provide this amazing app experience to the millions of Americans who come to rely on it every day," Pappas said Thursday in one of her first interviews since U.S. President Donald Trump issued executive orders calling for the sale of TikTok’s U.S. business by its Chinese owner, ByteDance Ltd., or a complete shutdown of its American operations, citing national security concerns. The White House has been ratcheting up a fight with China's government and businesses and has issued restriction...
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Twitter ‘looking’ at a possible TikTok tie-up
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Twitter ‘looking’ at a possible TikTok tie-up

Twitter has approached TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to express an interest in buying its US operations, according to sources. Video-sharing platform TikTok has been at the centre of fierce debate in recent weeks and takeover talk. Last week US Donald Trump ordered firms to stop doing business with TikTok within 45 days over security concerns. Tech giant Microsoft is the front-runner to buy TikTok but now Twitter has emerged as a possible suitor. But it remains unclear whether Twitter can afford to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners and can complete a deal within the 45-day window, according to sources quoted in the Wall Street Journal. The value of TikTok's US operations aren't clear but estimates put it at tens of billions of dollars. Twitter's market capitalisation...
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Trump bans TikTok and WeChat apps in US
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Trump bans TikTok and WeChat apps in US

President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders prohibiting U.S. residents from doing business with the Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat apps beginning 45 days from now, citing the national security risk of leaving Americans’ personal data exposed. The bans mark a significant escalation by Trump in his confrontation with Beijing as the U.S. seeks to curb China’s power in global technology. With the U.S. election less than 90 days away, Trump is making his challenge of China a central theme of his campaign, where he trails Democrat Joe Biden in the polls. Shares of WeChat’s owner, China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd., fell as much as 10% in morning trading. The offshore yuan weakened as much as 0.40%, the most since July 22, to 6.971 a dollar. “This is yet another watershed ...
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Donald Trump: US Treasury should get cut of TikTok deal
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Donald Trump: US Treasury should get cut of TikTok deal

Donald Trump says the government should get a cut from the sale of TikTok's US unit if an American firm buys it. The US president said he made a demand for a "substantial portion" of the purchase price in a phone call at the weekend with Microsoft's boss. He also warned he will ban the app, which is owned by China's ByteDance, on 15 September if there is no deal. ByteDance is under pressure to sell its US business after Mr Trump threatened a crackdown on Chinese tech companies. The Trump administration has accused TikTok and others of providing data to the Chinese government, which Beijing and TikTok deny. "The United States should get a very large percentage of that price, because we're making it possible," Mr Trump said. Media captionWhat is TikTok? "It would come f...
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TikTok: Chinese app may be banned in US, says Pompeo
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TikTok: Chinese app may be banned in US, says Pompeo

Would you recommend downloading TikTok? Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked that question on Monday night on Fox News. "Only if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party," he replied. Asked if he would ban Chinese apps - including TikTok - he said: "I don't want to get out in front of the president, but it's something we're looking at". That is a very worrying statement for TikTok. The huge Chinese social media company has experienced phenomenal growth in the last three years. It's been downloaded more than two billion times. But around the world, and not just in the US, TikTok is facing a backlash. It's finding out the hard way that being international, a tech company, and Chinese isn't a great combination right now. By far it...
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Egypt court jails belly dancer for ‘debauchery’ over TikTok post
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Egypt court jails belly dancer for ‘debauchery’ over TikTok post

A high-profile Egyptian belly-dancer, Sama el-Masry has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined 300,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,500) for inciting debauchery and immorality as part of a crackdown on social media postings. El-Masry was arrested in April during an investigation into videos and photos on social media, including the popular video-sharing platform TikTok, that the public prosecution described as sexually suggestive. The dancer, 42, denied the accusations, saying the content was stolen and shared from her phone without consent. Cairo's Misdemeanours Economic Court on Saturday said she had violated family principles and values in Egypt, as well as establishing, managing and using sites and accounts on social media with the aim of committing "immorality". "There...
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