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TikTok

TikTok is the social media sensation that all of Silicon Valley — and a lot of Washington, DC — has their eyes on. The app, created by ByteDance, became famous for rocketing musicians and dancers to stardom. But as its popularity and influence have grown, so has scrutiny of its privacy policies, security, and influence, with legislators voicing concern about its ownership by a Chinese firm. Meanwhile, social media competitors are doing everything they can to knock off TikTok’s features and usurp its short-form video dominance.

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Lauren Feiner
Senator proposes calling off the TikTok ban — legally.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly ignored the bipartisan law banning TikTok from operating in the US unless it’s separated from Chinese parent company ByteDance. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is calling for a new way to avoid a ban without breaking the law. In a draft bill, Markey proposes letting TikTok operate in the US as long as it provides transparency into its content moderation and keeps US user data out of countries like China.

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Jay Peters
Instagram and TikTok may launch apps for TVs.

YouTube is a hit on TVs, and Meta and TikTok are looking to get in on that battleground, The Information reports. What will launch first: Instagram for TV or Instagram for iPad?

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The Verge
Adi Robertson
The TikTok ban is banned, again.

The incredibly weird saga of the ordered, then reversed, then passed, then upheld, then ignored, then ignored even harder attempt to ban one of America’s most popular social networks continues — as it will continue until US-China tensions cool down, everyone forgets it ever happened, or the heat death of the universe.

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Jess Weatherbed
TikTok has a new tune-hyping tool.

The platform is globally releasing a self-service “Pre-Release” feature for Artist accounts that allows musicians to easily promote forthcoming album releases. Fans can automatically save unreleased albums to their Spotify or Apple Music libraries so that they don’t miss the album drop and can listen to them instantly upon release.

A screenshot of TikTok’s Pre-Release tool for Artist accounts.
The tool lets you save albums ready for release and provides a tracklist noting which singles are already available.
Image: TikTok
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Dominic Preston
The EU thinks TikTok broke its ad rules.

The preliminary finding in an investigation opened last year says TikTok breached the Digital Services Act’s requirements to publish information about the content of ads, which users are targeted, and who paid for them. Now it’s TikTok’s turn to respond and try to avoid a potential fine worth up to 6 percent of its annual turnover, just weeks after it was fined $600 million for breaking the bloc’s GDPR regulations.

Why one obscure app could help crumble Meta’s empire

The government’s case could come down to whether the judge thinks MeWe is a closer competitor to Instagram than TikTok.

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Emma Roth
Trump says he’d delay the TikTok ban again.

During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, President Donald Trump said he’d “be willing” to extend TikTok’s June 19th deadline if its China-based parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t reach a deal to divest the app’s US business in time. China backed out of a potential deal last month after Trump imposed up to 145 percent tariffs on goods imported from the country.

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Twitter
Jay Peters
Trump apparently wants to “just delay” a TikTok deal.

That’s according to Semafor’s White House correspondent Shelby Talcott. The TikTok turmoil is just going to go on forever, huh?

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Wes Davis
The US told Apple to keep TikTok in the App Store.

Attorney General Pam Bondi sent Apple a letter “telling the company it should follow President Donald Trump’s executive order” extending ByteDance’s deadline to sell TikTok by 75 more days, reports Bloomberg. The outlet had reported a similar letter sent to both Google and Apple prior to their decision to restore the app to their online marketplaces in February, too.

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On The Vergecast: the Switch 2, tariff chaos, Microsoft’s best gadgets, and the TikTok ban.

TikTok, tariffs, and trials: everything happening in tech’s chaotic April

Things are about to get even more turbulent for the tech industry.

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Dominic Preston
Instagram’s new fast-forward feature works just like TikTok’s.

You can now skip ahead in Reels by holding down on either edge of the screen, which plays the video at double speed. Reels started out with a 15-second cap but can now run for up to three minutes, so playback controls make sense.

TikTok thought the same thing when it added a fast-forward feature, which you enable by... holding down on either edge of the screen. What a coincidence!

Image showing how to use the fast-forward feature on Instagram Reels.
Image: Instagram