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TikTok has been at the center of many recent conversations. Despite its battles at Capitol Hill, the social media app is still one of the primary places Gen Z and others go for entertainment, recommendations, and news. Disney star Skai Jackson is among the people who have tapped into TikTok’s ubiquity. Jackson has been vocal about using TikTok and how it has impacted her personal life. According to a report from Blavity, the 22-year-old has a partnership with hair brand Cantu Beauty. However, her searches on TikTok taught her hairstyling techniques that would allow her to maximize the use of the products she promoted. View this post on Instagram A post shared by S K A I (@skaijackson) “I really feel like these products [Cantu] are so special because they took the time to answer everybody’s needs and deliver and put them into the product,” she told Blavity. She continued, “It’s just so amazing to see that there are millions of people in the world dealing with the same issues as me...
It looks like TikTok is standing firm on not going down without a fight. In April 2024, AFROTECH™ previously reported that President Joe Biden signed a law to ban TikTok if its owner, ByteDance, didn’t sell it within a year. The bill followed the House of Representatives’ introduction in March of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act , which aims to “protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign adversary controlled applications.” A main allegation that has come from U.S. government officials is that TikTok puts Americans’ personal data in danger of being exposed to the Chinese government, which catalyzed Biden’s law. However, TikTok has doubled down on stating the claim is false, saying it hosts data on U.S.-owned Oracle servers, according to CNN . “We will not stop fighting and advocating for you,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew shared in a previous statement on its platform, per AP News. “We will continue to do...
TikTok and Universal Music Group (UMG) have agreed on new licensing conditions to bring the group’s tunes back to the social media platform. According to the TikTok newsroom, the joint agreement between the two entities “marks a new era of strategic collaboration.” “By harnessing TikTok’s best-in-class technology, marketing, and promotional capabilities, UMG and TikTok will deliver improved remuneration for UMG’s songwriters and artists, new promotional and engagement opportunities for their recordings and songs, and industry-leading protections with respect to generative AI,” read the report. What’s more, fans will see a return of UMG’s recorded music and publishing catalogs on TikTok, thus allowing users to go back to creating content with sounds from some of the culture’s biggest musicians. “Music is an integral part of the TikTok ecosystem and we are pleased to have found a path forward with Universal Music Group,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said. “We are committed to working together...
TikTok is a social media app that truly requires no introduction. Unless you’ve been in a coma for the last 5+ years, you’ve either used the app yourself, or had extensive exposure to it from friends, family members or reposts on other websites. Now that the United States government is mounting a full-scale attack on the Chinese app, more members of the public are looking into TikTok’s background and earnings than ever before. TikTok has an estimated worth of anywhere from $20 billion to $100 billion in 2024, according to the Wall Street Journal , making it the biggest social media app on the market by a wide margin. Given that TikTok is worth such a staggering amount, it only seems fair that we examine and investigate the source of this income. The app has seen over 3 billion downloads since hitting the international market in 2018, and maintains an estimated 1 billion daily active users, meaning TikTok has access to one of the largest audiences in the history of web development....
T he Biden administration has taken a ction against TikTok. On April 24, 2024, President Joe Biden signed a law to ban the China-based social media app under parent company ByteDance in the U.S. if it’s not sold within a year, NPR reports. The move comes after the House of Representatives introduced in March the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act , which aims to “protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign adversary controlled applications,” as previously shared by AFROTECH™. Under President Biden’s new law, if TikTok fails to be sold in 12 months, it would become illegal for web-hosting providers to host the platform. What’s more, Google and Apple would have to pull the popular app from its app stores. According to NPR, this is the first time that a law has been passed that could result in banning a social media platform in the U.S. What has led to this timeline of events is U.S. government officials have...
Rejection is simply redirection, and this was the case for TikTok creator MiriTheSiren. The Chick-fil-A employee is known for her countless reviews of the restaurant’s food, which have helped her garner thousands of loyal followers since January 2024. Her most recent video filming the fast food chain’s Cherry Berry drink gained 323,400 likes and 3.4 million views since sharing it on April 8, 2024. In total, she has gained 3.7 million likes for her various Chick-fil-A food combinations using her employee meal. “Since January, every day, I went to work at Chick-fil-A. I have been reviewing my employee meal since I started in January. I have garnered tens of millions of views, some of my individual videos, getting up to 3.4 million in just a few days,” MiriTheSiren expressed in a video. “And it’s been a beautiful experience. It’s been so great. I’ve inspired people to try new things at Chick-fil-A. I’ve been able to connect more with my community and the people that I serve because...
TikTok’s future in the United States gets closer to being decided. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, a 12-page bill had been passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2024 to eradicate the platform’s use in the United States. The bill was created to “protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign adversary controlled applications,” per CBS News. If passed, ByteDance, the owner of the China-based platform, would have 180 days to sell TikTok for the app to remain accessible to U.S. users. If the company chooses to maintain ownership, the app and all other applications associated with ByteDance would be banned in the United States. At the time, per AP News, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew shared in a statement, “We will not stop fighting and advocating for you. We will continue to do all we can, including exercising our legal rights, to protect this amazing platform that we have built with you.” On Saturday, April 20, 2024, a modified version of...
A TikTok rapper will be going against Sony Music Entertainment in court. According to Billboard, 20-year-old rapper Dantreal Clark-Rainbolt, more commonly known as Trefuego, had a viral hit on TikTok thanks to his release of “90mh.” The songs was featured in at least 155,000 videos on the platform. Additionally, it has been streamed a minimum of 100 million times on Spotify. The outlet also reported he has garnered significant earnings from the song’s popularity, with estimates reaching almost $700,000. However, it appears the rapper won’t be able to roll in the dough for much longer. He is now in troubled water for utilizing a copyright sample from Toshifumi Hinata’s 1986 song “Reflections,” according to Rolling Stone. “Trefuego brazenly sought to ride the coattails of Hinata’s creativity and popularity without regard to the United States copyright laws or the rights of plaintiffs,” Sony’s attorneys wrote per Billboard. “He used and copied plaintiffs’ work without so much as...
Nimay Ndolo’s road to success in the creator industry took a lot of work and determination. Before her pivot into content creation, the Nigerian-American delivered food in a 2004 manual transmission car (stick shift) with no air conditioning (AC) for an entire summer in Atlanta, GA . On Ndolo’s delivery route, she would often deliver to people working in skyscrapers — AC there thankfully was blasting. Escaping the blistering heat ultimately freed her from the shackles of being “a starving artist,” she says. “I used my Postmates bag to sneak into a startup for a software company,” Ndolo recalled to AFROTECH™. “I ended up taking them donuts and my resume. I got an interview and didn’t get the job, but I ended up at a freight brokerage.” Even though Ndolo was able to secure a more stable job, she shared that after nearly a year, she was fired from the position six days before Christmas. However, being let go allowed her to go back to the drawing board, which, she says, reminded her of...
As the future of short-form video-hosting platform TikTok remains uncertain, one user is already creating a new home for creators. Viola Carmona is the founder of Tussle, an emerging livestream platform described as “the ultimate battle app” for creators to thrive. Carmona told AFROTECH™ that t he concept emerged following the experiences of her online peers who needed help with their earnings from TikTok through livestreams. TikTok’s Live feature, launched in 2019, allows creators to earn virtual gifts in the form of diamonds from supporters to earn revenue, the company website mentions. The more creators utilize this feature, the more they can be rewarded. Per TikTok, creators can earn a 50% split with the company following deductions for “the required payments to app stores, payment processors, and any other adjustment required under our terms and policies.” In December 2023, a report revealed that TikTok has generated $10 billion in total global consumer spending, and users have...
A former White House official has announced his interest in buying TikTok. On March 13, 2024, the House of Representatives passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. As previously shared by AFROTECH™, the bill is focused on TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance and was created to “protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign adversary controlled applications.” What’s more, if the bill is passed by the Senate and President Joe Biden as well as signed into law, ByteDance will be required to sell TikTok within 180 days. If not, it would be banned in the U.S. Amid the controversy around the potential status of TikTok’s future, CNBC reports that Steven Mnuchin, former treasury secretary for former President Donald Trump, is working to gather an investor group to purchase the app. “I think the legislation should pass — I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin said, according to CNBC . “I understand...
One of the most viral stories to reach the internet was the 50-part TikTok series, “Who TF Did I Marry?” by TikTok user Reesa Teesa. In it, she described her tumultuous relationship with her ex-husband and the mind-boggling events that led to the ultimate demise of the marriage. Although there has been widespread opinion about her choices, others would not have felt the impact of her story without the TikTok platform. Now, creators like Reesa Teesa and viewers who enjoy the content could soon no longer have a place to gather. Recently, a bill in the House of Representatives advanced that could eliminate TikTok from being used and accessed in the United States. According to CBS News, the Chinese-based social media platform is the subject of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The 12-page bill was proposed to “protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign adversary controlled applications,” CBS News...
One of TikTok’s initiatives is coming to an end. The Verge reports that the social media company’s $1 billion creator fund, created in 2020, is shutting down. As of Dec. 16, TikTok spokesperson Maria Jung shared that creators based in the U.S., UK, Germany, and France will no longer be able to monetize their videos through the fund, per the outlet.
