ReportWire

Tag: Video software

  • TikTok Is in Some Minority Report-Style Legal Trouble

    TikTok Is in Some Minority Report-Style Legal Trouble

    Image: QubixStudio (Shutterstock)

    Just months away from being banned in the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) appears to be putting some salt in TikTok’s wound. The agency has issued a bizarre message about referring a complaint about the social media app to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

    Will Banning TikTok Solve Privacy Issues? | Future Tech

    The FTC issued a statement on Tuesday saying its investigations “uncovered reason to believe” that TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, are “violating or are about to violate the law.” The commission says the violations (or would-be violations) are of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and the FTC Act but didn’t provide specifics. Also, the statement mentions how making this action public is something the FTC doesn’t normally do, but it determined that it was in the public’s interest to release the statement. So, we’re letting you know that they think you should know.

    A DOJ spokesperson says they can’t comment on the substance of the referral, but the department did consult with the FTC in advance and is considering the claim.

    In the statement, the FTC mentions how its investigation began in 2019 with Musical.ly, the predecessor of TikTok. Back then, the commission did find that the company was “aware that a significant percentage of users were younger than 13 and received thousands of complaints from parents” and issued a fine of $5.7 million. It’s unclear if this complaint against TikTok is related or if the investigation found other violations.

    TikTok says it has been working with the FTC for more than a year to address concerns it may have.

    “We’re disappointed the agency is pursuing litigation instead of continuing to work with us on a reasonable solution,” a TikTok spokesperson said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “We strongly disagree with the FTC’s allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect children and we will continue to update and improve our product.”

    TikTok is not in the best spot right now, although it’s still incredibly popular. In April, President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring the divestment of TikTok or else face a U.S. ban. The social app is on the 270-day clock to figure out something, or it could wait for the upcoming presidential election and hope Trump wins as he’s suddenly come around to support TikTok. Maybe he found a dance that he liked watching on the app.

    Oscar Gonzalez

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  • U.S. Bans TikTok

    U.S. Bans TikTok

    President Biden signed a bill into law banning TikTok nationwide unless the Chinese company that owns it, ByteDance, sells its stake in the app within a year. What do you think?

    “And with that, Chinese influence over our economy comes to an end.”

    Rowena Marriott, Topiary Clipper

    Uh Oh, You’ve Encountered The TikTok Bad Boys Gang

    “But I haven’t finished radicalizing!”

    Lochlan Robin, Tanning Bed Technician

    “Now the youth will return to the true center of taste and style: Paris, France.”

    Asma Harding, Weight Estimator

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  • Instagram Adds Helpful Label Indicating Point Where Girlfriend Stops Appearing In User’s Pictures

    Instagram Adds Helpful Label Indicating Point Where Girlfriend Stops Appearing In User’s Pictures

    MENLO PARK, CA—In an effort to improve user experience, Meta announced Thursday that the next update of Instagram would include helpful labels indicating the point at which a girlfriend stops appearing in the posts of a given account holder. “Starting today, some Instagram users will notice a beta rollout of this new feature, which will appear as a thick black line demarcating the date beyond which a person’s girlfriend is no longer pictured,” said Meta representative Hailey Coogan, noting that all 2.5 billion active users of the social media app would be barred from opting out of the feature. “Our goal is to streamline the primary activity people engage in when they visit Instagram. In addition, we hope to cut down on users accidentally liking posts from five years ago when they are scrutinizing every photo in an account to figure out if someone was single at a particular time.” Asked why Instagram did not simply add a place to indicate relationship status in one’s profile, Coogan acknowledged this would result in people spending no more than a few seconds at a time on the app.

    Instagram Assures Parents They’ve Hired Dozens Of Pedophiles To Find Vulnerabilities In App

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  • Big Oil’s Using Fortnite, TikTok, And Twitch In Effort To Convince Kids Fossil Fuels Are Cool

    Big Oil’s Using Fortnite, TikTok, And Twitch In Effort To Convince Kids Fossil Fuels Are Cool

    Kids today only care about online free-to-play shooter Fortnite. They don’t even talk about how great gasoline is! Luckily for us, one large oil company wants to change that using Fortnite, TikTok stars, and Twitch streamers. Welcome to Hell.

    Dead By Daylight Devs’ New Game Is Fortnite Meets Doom

    Climate change is bad. I think we can all agree on that. But for kids, who have long lives and futures ahead of them, the prospect of the planet turning into a nightmare sphere of extreme weather and chaos is particularly scary. But don’t worry about all that, kids. Instead, Shell—a massive oil company and one of the many entities directly responsible for destroying our planet—wants you all to know just how rad its fossil fuel products are, and even made a whole Fortnite world for you to enjoy! But to truly enjoy it, you’ll need to use Shell’s V-Power® NiTRO+ Premium Gasoline, of course.

    As reported by Media Matters earlier this week, Shell has partnered with map creators to develop “Shell Ultimate Road Trips”, a Fortnite world featuring six different areas to explore in the car of your choice. In the middle of these worlds, players will find a lonely, sad-looking Shell gas station acting as the map’s hub.

    The campaign—part of Shell’s pivot back to focusing on gasoline over cleaner energy sources— is designed to promote the company’s “new and improved” premium gasoline. The idea is that in the map, players will need to occasionally fill up at the central Shell gas station and use its new V-Power NiTRO+ fuel to successfully navigate obstacles and courses.

    Content creators are being enlisted to create big oil propaganda

    To help promote this terrible collaboration, Shell has enlisted various TikTok creators and Twitch streamers in an effort to connect with their large audiences made up of mostly younger individuals.

    Media Matters reportedly identified at least a half dozen streamers—including folks like Punisher, NateHill, Chica, and brookeab—with a combined Twitch following of over 5.5 million subscribers—who helped promote Shell’s Fortnite map and fossil fuel products during sponsored streams that racked up over a million views. Some of these creators also promoted the sponsored streams on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to their millions of followers. Media Matters also identified three content creators who advertised the ShellxFortnite map in several videos posted on the gas company’s official YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram accounts.

    The creators directly promoting Shell’s gasoline propaganda have a combined audience of 8.5 million TikTok followers, 1.5 million Instagram followers, and over 11 million YouTube subscribers.

    In August, Shell even paid out for a sponsored post on IGN as well as a three-part series featuring IGN staff playing Fortnite and exploring the Shell-sponsored map. The videos are covered in Shell logos and featured on a fancy IGN-hosted website dedicated to the oil company’s Fortnite map.

    Kids aren’t buying this crap

    So how’s all this money and effort paying off? As far as I can tell, not great. For example, looking at that IGN article, it’s got only two comments and both are negative. On YouTube, the IGN videos have mostly received negative comments from viewers, with many calling out the outlet for sponsoring an oil company. Elsewhere, the official trailers put out by Shell for their Fortnite creation are similarly receiving negative comments.

    “Drop in this season and complete the objective: ‘Do irreparable damage to the environment with Shell!” is the top-rated comment on this trailer for the map.

    This is all part of an ongoing campaign by big oil companies, like Shell, to connect with younger people via online influencers and content creators. In 2021, Earther reported that Shell and Phillips 66 had started campaigns with Instagram influencers. These sponsored deals and ads aren’t just about promoting oil companies and their products. These large corporations know that as climate change gets worse, it’s getting harder to convince young people to keep buying gas-powered cars and supporting the fossil fuel industry.

    As Media Matters pointed out, in a 2021 survey of young people between the ages of 16-25, about 75% said the future is frightening because of climate change. It’s hard to sell gasoline and diesel to teens who know it’s destroying the planet and their futures. And it doesn’t look like some Instagram models and Fortnite videos on IGN promoting Shell are going to be enough to change their minds.

      .

    Zack Zwiezen

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  • Senate Votes To Ban TikTok On Government Devices

    Senate Votes To Ban TikTok On Government Devices

    The Senate has unanimously approved legislation that would ban the use of TikTok on government phones and devices as part of the push to combat security concerns related to the Chinese-owned social media company. What do you think?

    “God help the staffer who has to explain to Biden what he’s signing.”

    Samantha Graham, Textiles Coordinator

    “Good. I prefer our congress people’s data to be stolen by an American company.”

    James Gomez, Medical Librarian

    “Now the only hurdle is teaching senile legislators how to delete an app from their phone.”

    Shawn Ko, Debate Coach

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  • Big Ships

    Big Ships

    Tom Hicks is an artist based in the UK.

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    Luke Plunkett

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