TikTok Loses Head of US Trust and Safety [Content Made Simple]
Issue #309: LinkedIn growth, Brazil law, and more.
TOP OF THE WEEK
TikTok’s head of US trust and safety is leaving
Quote:
TikTok’s fate in the US feels as uncertain as ever right now, with states like Montana trying to ban the app and the bipartisan RESTRICT Act making its way through Congress. The Biden administration has sent smoke signals indicating that TikTok’s USDS proposal isn’t enough to appease its national security concerns and that it will likely demand a full divestiture of TikTok from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. The Chinese government obviously doesn’t like that idea, which, as the saying goes, puts TikTok between a rock and a hard place.
Commentary:
This seems…not very good! Does not bode well at all!
THE TRIVIA QUESTION
Who is considered (by a handful of sources) to be the most famous “John” in the world?
Answer at the bottom.
HITTING THE LINKS
Link #1: Brazil pushes back on big tech firms' campaign against 'fake news law'
This is an interesting development down in South America.
Brazil's government and judiciary objected on Tuesday to big tech firms campaigning against an internet regulation bill aimed at cracking down on fake news, alleging undue interference in the debate in Congress.
Bill 2630, also known as the Fake News Law, puts the onus on the internet companies, search engines and social messaging services to find and report illegal material, instead of leaving it to the courts, charging hefty fines for failures to do so.
Link #2: LinkedIn’s Now Up to 930 Million Members, Continues to See Strong Engagement
LinkedIn continues to grow. Hm. Sad. (Not a big fan myself.)
LinkedIn has reported seeing ‘record levels of engagement’ once again, via parent company Microsoft’s quarterly update, with sessions up 15% in the most recent period.
Though as we’ve noted previously, what that means also isn’t entirely clear. LinkedIn has reported ‘record levels of engagement’ in every update since 2018, but without insight into the metrics behind that claim, it’s hard to take too much from that.
Link #3: BlackBerry director Matt Johnson on why the iPhone won and why most tech movies aren’t good
This movie seems interesting! I may try to watch it on a streaming service at some point.
I was totally riveted by BlackBerry, the new movie directed by Matt Johnson about the rise and fall of Research In Motion (RIM) and the epic product it created. The movie is stylistically somewhere in the middle of The Social Network, General Magic, and Silicon Valley, following a ragtag bunch of engineers and one very dedicated suit as they try to invent the future. It’s not exactly nonfiction, but nor is it exactly fiction. And a lot of it feels true, even when it’s not.
THE FUNNY PART
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Trivia Answer: John F. Kennedy (though a couple sites said John Cena)