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M&M Breaking News

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M&M Breaking News

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  • Pentagon to swap traditional media with pro-Trump outlets under new rotational program for Defense Department workspace One America News Network would soon replace NBC News and Breitbart would swap with National Public Radio in coveted Pentagon press corps workspace under a plan shared with journalists Friday night. In what the Pentagon is calling a new “annual media rotation program,” The New York Post will also be invited to move into The New York Times’ workspace. And a fourth outlet affected by the rotation program, Politico, would be replaced by HuffPost. Three of the changes, set to take effect on February 14, elevate relatively small and ardently pro-Trump media outlets while sidelining more popular, more mainstream news organizations. The fourth is the exception: HuffPost, which has a progressive brand, is openly critical of President Donald Trump. Curiously, though, the site does not currently have a Pentagon correspondent. “If the Trump Administration and Secretary Hegseth are interested in more hard-hitting coverage of their stewardship of the Defense Department from HuffPost, we are ready to deliver,” a HuffPost spokesperson said Friday night. NBC News said in a statement, “We’re disappointed by the decision to deny us access to a broadcasting booth at the Pentagon that we’ve used for many decades. Despite the significant obstacles this presents to our ability to gather and report news in the national public interest, we will continue to report with the same integrity and rigor NBC News always has.” CNN has reached out to representatives for The New York Times, NPR and Politico for comment. The Friday night announcement is bound to provoke challenges from members of the Pentagon press corps. But it is in line with the Trump administration’s stated goals to challenge long-held norms and create space for new, opinionated online media outlets. Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Ullyot said in the internal memo to the Pentagon Press Association that the changes apply to individual office spaces in the “Correspondents’ Corridor” at the Defense Department — both a practical and symbolic move. The year-by-year rotation program will “broaden access to the limited space of the Correspondents’ Corridor to outlets that have not previously enjoyed the privilege and journalistic value of working from physical office space in the Pentagon,” Ullyot wrote. Officials apparently chose one outlet “from each press medium” — print, online, radio and TV — to forfeit their existing space for one years’ time. The news outlets that are being replaced were effectively given two weeks’ notice. Members of the Pentagon press corps were left wondering why The Times, NBC, NPR and Politico were told to vacate the office space, and whether the decisions were related to their rigorous coverage of new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host who took charge at the Pentagon earlier this week. “To be clear, the outlets that vacate the spaces loaned to them” by the defense secretary “will remain as full members of the Pentagon Press Corps,” Ullyot wrote. “They will continue to enjoy the same media access to the Pentagon and will be able to attend and cover briefings and be considered for travel with civilian and military leaders in the Department as they have previously. The only change will be giving up their physical workspaces in the building to allow new outlets to have their turn to become resident members of the Pentagon Press Corps.” Ullyot’s memo billed the rotation system as a fair way to welcome more media outlets into US military headquarters, but the announcement came under immediate scrutiny. Breitbart, for example, was selected as a radio outlet, replacing NPR this year. But Breitbart – a well-known web site for pro-Trump coverage and commentary – barely has a radio operation of its own. The word “radio” doesn’t appear on its home page at all. The media outlet has a distribution deal with SiriusXM and one big podcast, Breitbart News Daily. Its footprint pales in comparison to NPR, which provides news coverage for local stations all across the country. One America News was selected as TV outlet, replacing NBC this year. While NBC produces some of the most-watched news programs in the country, like “NBC Nightly News” and “Today,” One America is so small that it eschewed the Nielsen ratings measurement service. The far-right channel, headquartered in San Diego, faced multiple lawsuits stemming from the outlet’s lies about the 2020 election. Kevin Baron, a former vice president of the Pentagon Press Association, called the development “the erasure of journalism at the Pentagon.” “Kicking out reporters HURTS coverage. If you can’t file your stories from inside the building you are disadvantaged. If you don’t have a work space you are disadvantaged,” Baron said in a series of posts on X.
  • The Fed is about to run into an unstoppable force: Donald Trump In its first key decision of President Donald Trump’s second term, the Federal Reserve is widely expected to hit pause on rate cuts Wednesday. It’s not a decision that is likely to land well with Trump, who has argued that the president should have some say in Fed decisions, explaining “I think I know interest rates much better than they do, and I think I know it certainly much better than the one who’s primarily in charge of making that decision.” Fed Chair Jerome Powell will have a chance Wednesday afternoon to counter that point during his post-meeting news conference, when he lays out the reasoning behind the central bank’s latest decision. After finally cutting rates three times in a row late last year, the Fed is about to begin a holding pattern that could stretch through the spring, mostly because of inflation’s limited progress in recent months. A strong US economy — with low unemployment and healthy growth — also suggests the Fed can comfortably hold off on cutting rates as it waits for inflation to slow further. Fed officials have communicated as much in recent speeches, while also stressing that rates will likely come down eventually. However, traders continue to bet that there won’t be a cut at the Fed’s March meeting, either. Wall Street will be listening closely to Powell for any hints on the timing of future rate cuts. Investors probably won’t get much clarity there, since questions linger over how Trump’s proposed policies could affect the economy. “I think Chair Powell is going to do everything he can to minimize a commitment to any future specific policy path,” said Michael Pugliese, senior economist at Wells Fargo. “The Fed is already studying the impacts of broad tariffs, narrow tariffs, different tariff rates, but because there’s not a lot of policy uncertainty here, I’m not sure that they’re inclined to do too much in response to it when the situation is so fluid.” The Trump factor In 2018 after the first Trump administration went on a tariff spree, Fed officials in most simulations deemed it appropriate to “see through” the tariff increases, or not hike rates in response, according to a declassified document detailing policy alternatives known as the “tealbook.” But in one scenario, a combination of a trade war with other countries and rising inflation expectations was the formula for the central bank to raise interest rates. Trump last week threatened 25% tariffs on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, two of America’s biggest trading partners, starting February 1, unless those countries offer concessions. If enacted, such a move could jack up prices, undoing some of the welcome progress on inflation the Fed has seen in recent years. But it’s also clear that Trump likes to use tariff threats as a negotiation tactic — and that even the threat of tariffs can create economic waves. Trump on Sunday announced massive retaliatory tariffs on Colombia, after the South American country blocked US military flights carrying undocumented migrants from landing. Coffee futures surged on the news and Colombian President Gustav Petro threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all goods from the US. Shortly after the announcement, Colombia reached an agreement with the White House, resuming repatriation flights and preventing any tariffs from taking effect. Inflation progress back on track? Inflation seemed to have stalled out in the second half of 2024, with some of that stickiness due to base effects, or unfavorable comparisons with data from a year earlier when price pressures eased dramatically. Rising food prices, which are known to be volatile, have also pushed up overall inflation recently. Inflation figures for December, however, showed that progress got back on track. The Consumer Price Index for December rose more than anticipated, but a measure stripping out volatile food and energy prices slowed for the first time in months, rising just 0.2% from November and easing to 3.2% after staying stuck at 3.3% since September. A chorus of Fed officials cheered the data, saying additional progress could put imminent rate cuts back on the table. “If we continue getting numbers like this, it’s reasonable to think rate cuts could happen in the first half of the year,” Fed Governor Christopher Waller told CNBC earlier this month. “I’m optimistic that this disinflationary trend will continue and we’ll get back closer to (the Fed’s target of) 2% a little quicker than maybe others are thinking.” Waller, an influential voice at the Fed, said he hasn’t completely ruled out a rate cut in March. The Commerce Department releases the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, along with December data on household spending and income, on Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.
  • What Trump’s public scolding of Bank of America’s CEO was really about In case any corporate executives were sitting around this week wondering what the next four years might look like, a pretty telling moment at Davos should offer them a sense of what it means to do business in the era of Trump 2.0. ICYMI: Davos, aka the annual World Economic Forum confab in the Swiss Alps, brings together the world’s leading figures in business, tech, investing and economics. (Think long days of academic panels followed by chummy cocktails and steak and the most elite corporate scuttlebutt on the planet.) Naturally, President Donald Trump’s keynote — he video-conferenced from Washington — was well attended. But it wasn’t Trump’s vision for lower corporate taxes or tariffs that dominated Thursday’s happy hour, according to the New York Times’ Lauren Hirsch. Instead, the chatter centered on Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America, who thought he was teeing up a softball for the president but soon found himself in Trump’s crosshairs. What happened next was a public berating of one of the most powerful financiers in the world — a warning shot to the private sector, direct from Trump’s mouth: The administration won’t stand for “woke” ideology in the ranks of the federal government, and companies had better get on board, too. During a Q&A session, Trump touted his plans to reduce inflation before abruptly shifting the focus back to Moynihan. “You’ve done a fantastic job, but I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank,” Trump said. “You and Jamie and everybody… What you’re doing is wrong.” Jaws hit the floor, the Times reported. What Trump was referring to is an allegation that major lenders, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase (run by Jamie Dimon), have been “debanking” conservative and religious groups over their politics. Both banks have repeatedly denied the claim, which became a right-wing talking point last spring after more than a dozen state auditors and treasurers wrote an open letter to Moynihan, citing a few examples in which right-wing or religious organizations’ accounts were shut down. (BofA previously stated those instances were unrelated to any political or religious leanings.) Bank of America spokesperson Bill Halldin reiterated to CNN on Thursday that the bank serves 70 million clients, including conservatives, and has “no political litmus test.” And JPMorgan representative Patricia Wexler said in a statement: “We have never and would never close an account for political reasons, full stop.” The scolding is the point The point of Trump’s jab at Moynihan was not to stand up for a handful of groups that had to change banks. The point was to send a warning to every executive in the room, and everyone watching the livestream around the world, that any slight — real or imagined — against his base won’t be tolerated. It’s a stunning shift for a Republican Party that, up until recently, embraced a laissez-faire approach to business. For decades, conservative orthodoxy bristled at any sign of government meddling in corporate affairs, whether through federal regulations or corporate taxes. But the calculus has changed in line with Trump’s carrot-and-stick philosophy: Sure, we’ll slash your taxes — but it’ll cost you. Related article Trump targets DEI and civil service protections, striking fear in some federal workers The “debanking” claim echoes a broader sense among some on the right who believe they are victims of a left-wing agenda that has taken root in Corporate America. A string of perceived injustices have snowballed into an active campaign — at first on social media, now from the White House — against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Bud Light may not have caused the backlash, but its brief 2023 ad partnership with a trans influencer poured lighter fluid on the right’s simmering resentments. After a single piece of sponsored content showed up on Instagram, conservative influencers and media blew the story up into a conspiratorial narrative about the creep of “woke” culture into everything. It wasn’t just the coastal elites with their pronouns and porous borders — this was Budweiser. The King of Beers, suddenly standing with the LGBTQ+ community. Even as Bud Light capitulated and tried to walk back the ad spot, consumers revolted and the brand lost more than $1 billion in sales in the year that followed. Since then, dozens of brands — Walmart, Ford and Target, to name just a few — have seemingly caved to right-wing activists by announcing rollbacks to their DEI programs. Many of those “wins” are overstated by the activists, as many of the companies, like McDonald’s, have simply tweaked the language they use rather than alter their operations. Still, with Trump’s ascension to the presidency, the DEI backlash has graduated from a social media campaign by a handful of rabble-rousers to the official policy of the federal government. This week, Trump signed executive orders clawing back federal DEI programs and even ordered government agencies to investigate such efforts at publicly traded companies. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people would be laid off as a result, though dozens have already been placed on administrative leave. The former acting head of the Office of Personnel Management, Rob Shriver, told NPR that “given the broad brush that they have painted, it’s potentially very large numbers of people.” Not all companies are ready to throw in the towel, of course. On Thursday, Costco shareholders voted overwhelmingly against a proposal from a conservative think thank that would have compelled the retailer to quantify the risks of maintaining its DEI initiatives. Apple rejected a similar proposal this month. And even JPMorgan Chase — not exactly a bastion of liberalism — on Wednesday seemed to draw a line in the sand. Dimon, asked by CNBC about activist pressure to abandon DEI, stood firm, stating: “Bring them on.”
  • Meet the woman bringing AI to Mongolia’s nomadic herders Amy Gunia It might have seemed an unlikely statement for a speaker at a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel discussing the development of artificial intelligence, but Bolor-Erdene Battsengel opened her contribution by talking about her livestock. “I come from a herder community, I still own 300 sheep,” the 32-year-old former Mongolian government official said on Monday at the annual WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland. It was a fitting introduction to explain to the audience why she’s so passionate about her work on digital inclusion in Mongolia, a democratic country sandwiched between Russia and China, where about 30% of the 3.5 million inhabitants are nomadic herders. Battsengel is the founder of AI Academy Asia, which aims to train 500 teachers to provide AI education to rural communities in Mongolia, and will hold its official launch event on January 27. “If we can give people access to equal education … it can create enormous impact,” she told CNN. For decades, experts have warned of a growing digital divide between people with access to computers and the Internet, and those without. Globally, 2.2 billion children and young people don’t have access to the Internet at home. In Mongolia, about 84% of the population uses the Internet. Almost 40% of jobs around the world could be affected by AI, according to the chief of International Monetary Fund, who also warned in a blog post last year that “AI will likely worsen overall inequality.” Some observers are cautioning that the benefits could be skewed in favor of countries with the financial might to plow into research and development, infrastructure like computing resources, and English-speaking nations. Battsengel worries about the impact that imbalance will have in Mongolia, where there are other social disparities. “Schools in the countryside, they do not have computer science teachers,” she says. “We have education inequality, we have income inequality, we have gender inequality … if you add digital inequality, it will create the gap so much bigger and I think that’s so unfair to children growing up in these communities around the world.” A horse-mounted herder watches his sheep and goats in Khishig-Undur, Bulgan province, Mongolia, on July 5, 2024. Equality in AI Battsengel, who is a member of the WEF Forum of Young Global Leaders, told CNN that she has experienced firsthand the power of education. Born in a rural Mongolian community, she moved with her family to the country’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, at the age of 10. She faced bullying for her rural roots, so she threw herself into her studies and skipped three grades, finishing high school at the age of 14. At 29, she became the first Vice Minister of Digital Development – and the youngest member of Mongolia’s government. In that role, she spearheaded the “E-Mongolia” initiative to digitize services so people in remote areas could do things like renew their passports and file their taxes online, instead of traveling long distances to government offices. In 2021, Battsengel founded Girls Code, a non-profit that provides coding bootcamps and mentoring to girls aged between 16 and 18 from nomadic and disadvantaged communities in Mongolia. Girls Code has produced 120 graduates, some of whom have gone on to study at Harvard, MIT and Cambridge, created apps, and founded startups, according to Battsengel. With AI Academy Asia, she hopes to scale up that work, extending its reach to more people, including boys, so they can leverage AI in their work and studies. That could be vital as the technology upends the way people across the world work and live. Trends such as technological change and demographic shifts are expected to generate 78 million new jobs by 2030, with some of the fastest growth in technology, data, and AI, according to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report 2025. But making sure that the benefits of AI are shared equally requires tailoring national AI strategies to local challenges, according to “Blueprint for Intelligent Economies,” a report launched by WEF at Davos, in collaboration with KPMG. AI Academy Asia has developed curriculums to teach herders practical skills, says Battsengel. Last winter, a weather phenomenon called “dzud” that causes extreme winter conditions, killed millions of cattle, sheep, yaks, horses and goats in Mongolia – threatening the livelihoods of its herders. By learning how to leverage AI to predict weather and manage the health of their livestock, herders might be better able to withstand future dzuds, she says. Battsengel adds: “I really hope that they use the knowledge (of AI), even in the countryside, to really improve their quality of life.”
  • TikTok is back online but its ultimate fate in America still lies in Trump’s hands TikTok is now accessible again in the United States. Just how long that lasts will likely depend on incoming President Donald Trump. TikTok restored access for American users midday on Sunday after a whirlwind 14 hours during which the app temporarily shut itself down. TikTok credited Trump for bringing the app back, after he pledged to sign an executive order to delay enforcement of the law that had required the app to spin off from its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned as of Sunday. “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Sunday. He added that he would not hold TikTok’s technology partners — including Apple, Google and cloud computing company Oracle — liable for continuing to make the app available until he signed the order. Related article TikTok is back online after Trump pledged to restore it It was that reassurance that he wouldn’t fine its tech partners, TikTok said, that allowed it to bring back US users’ access. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok,” TikTok said in a statement Sunday. “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.” The app’s return was welcomed by many of its 170 million American users. “I was fully crying myself to sleep last night because it was just so sad and I felt like I’d lost a whole community and a job,” influencer Shay Sullivan, who has 1.1 million followers on TikTok, told CNN on Sunday. “Now, I’m just overjoyed. I’m having the best day … it was definitely a roller coaster.” Still, bringing the app back for good may not be straightforward. Ultimately, the law, which passed with bipartisan support and was signed by outgoing President Joe Biden last April, requires TikTok parent company ByteDance to sell the app to a buyer from the United States or one of its allies because of concerns that the app could pose a national security risk. And so far, ByteDance has, at least publicly, resisted the idea of a sale. Trump on Sunday suggested that an American buyer should purchase half of the company and run it as a 50-50 joint venture with its current owners. But it’s unclear if that solution would satisfy those in Congress who passed the law, including members of Trump’s own party concerned about foreign control of a popular platform. Putting the pressure on Trump TikTok didn’t necessarily have to shut itself down. The law requires only that TikTok’s technology partners — including Oracle, which hosts TikTok’s content in the United States, and Apple and Google, which host the app on their app stores — stop supporting the app or face fines of up to $5,000 per person who has access to the platform starting Sunday. The Biden administration suggested last week that it would leave it up to Trump to implement and enforce the law once he took office. Despite that assurance, a person close to TikTok said “multiple critical service partners” indicated to TikTok that they were concerned that the ban might be enforced starting Sunday — so the company decided to go dark. The shutdown appeared aimed at ratcheting up pressure on Trump to act quickly; restoring access to the app could serve as a kind of immediate political victory for the incoming president with America’s youth, although it was Trump who first tried to ban the app during his previous term. TikTok appealed to Trump in its pop-up message on the app starting late Saturday night notifying users that the app was unavailable in the United States. “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office,” the company posted in its pop-up message. “Please stay tuned!” TikTok CEO Shou Chew — who is expected to be seated prominently at the inauguration Monday — also lauded Trump in a video Friday, saying, “we are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform, one who has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process.” And TikTok thanked Trump when it restored the app, telling users, “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” Trump has suggested that he believes TikTok played a role in his election victory by bringing in young voters. A 90-day extension Trump told NBC News on Saturday he would “most likely” delay the ban on TikTok for 90 days shortly after he takes office on Monday, before confirming that plan in his Truth Social post Sunday. With an executive order, Trump could attempt to delay enforcement of the ban to give TikTok parent company ByteDance more time to find a suitable buyer. Still, even that effort could face legal challenges or pushback from Congress. The law gives the president the option to extend the ban deadline only if a deal to sell the platform is in process, and so far, ByteDance has publicly rejected the possibility of a sale. Both ByteDance and Chinese officials have also indicated they would be unwilling to sell TikTok’s US assets with its popular algorithm, the app’s secret sauce that makes it so valuable. Spinning off an American-only version of TikTok could also mean the rest of the world has to download a new app to access US users’ content. Related article Instagram rolls out TikTok-like features amid uncertainty about rival’s future Several prominent Republican lawmakers have indicated they will resist an extension of the law. “Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date,” Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska said in a joint statement. “For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China. Only then will Americans be protected from the grave threat posed to their privacy and security by a communist-controlled TikTok.” Cotton also said Sunday that “any company that hosts, distributes, services or other facilitates” was still taking a chance in helping restore TikTok ahead of Trump’s planned executive order. He said they could face “hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs.” But ByteDance may now reconsider its stance on a sale, having had to shut down the platform, albeit only briefly. At least two potential buyers — a group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and “Shark Tank’s” Kevin O’Leary, as well as AI search engine PerplexityAI — have submitted formal bids for the app, and others have reportedly shown interest in TikTok. McCourt’s buyer group has said it would buy TikTok’s US assets without the algorithm and rebuild the app, but tech giants like Meta and YouTube have for years worked to replicate TikTok’s popular algorithm without quite succeeding. O’Leary told CNN he met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month to discuss the outlook for the app. And McCourt told CNN that ByteDance’s bankers have acknowledged receipt of the group’s bid, expected to be valued around $20 billion. Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal also reported last week that China is weighing a sale to Elon Musk. Musk may have the resources to buy the app, and he’s a major Trump supporter and about to take a quasi-role in his government. But it’s unclear that he would want to, and he has not publicly commented on the reports. TikTok called the reports “pure fiction.” If ByteDance chooses to engage, Trump could perhaps argue that significant progress has been made on a deal and he has met the legal threshold needed to pause the ban. But until a sale ultimately goes through, TikTok’s future will remain very much in doubt.
  • TikTok is set to be banned Sunday. Here’s what it means for you Clare Duffy The clock is ticking down on TikTok in America. A law that requires TikTok to find a new, non-Chinese owner or face a ban is scheduled to go into effect Sunday — and there is little indication the company is set to pull off a sale before then. That means 170 million Americans could lose access to a platform they use to find entertainment, news and community, or even run a business, after TikTok became the first new platform in years to pose a real competitive threat to American social media stalwarts like Instagram and YouTube. The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the law, bringing the ban one step closer. But although the ban deadline is now just two days away, there are still many unknowns about what exactly will happen. Will TikTok shut itself off entirely in the United States? That’s not what users or experts had expected, but one report indicated it may do just that. Will the outgoing President Joe Biden administration provide direction? That’s not sounding likely. Will incoming President Trump intervene? If the list of expected attendees at his inauguration is any indication, it’s likely he’ll try. Here’s what we know — and what we don’t — about the ban deadline day. Will my app go away? Experts had expected the app to be removed on Sunday from the Apple and Google app stores — which could face fines under the law for continuing to host TikTok after the deadline. That would mean anyone without the app already on their phones couldn’t download it, but existing users could continue accessing it, without security updates, until it eventually becomes glitchy or stops working. Related article They built careers on TikTok. Now they’re bracing for a possible ban But a Biden administration official told CNN Thursday that the outgoing president plans to leave it to Trump to enforce the ban. “Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership. Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement,” the official said. That could mean that, given Trump takes office the day after the ban takes effect, there would be no one to explicitly instruct app stores to remove the platform on Sunday, potentially leaving them to decide for themselves whether to comply. But even if the app stores left TikTok alone, the company may decide to pull the plug itself. The Information reported Wednesday that TikTok was preparing to shut itself down entirely on Sunday and instead direct users to an informational page about the ban. So, users should mentally and emotionally prepare to potentially lose access to the app starting Sunday, unless they want to download a VPN to get around the ban. Why TikTok has been banned The central allegation against TikTok is that the company poses a potential national security risk. US officials have worried that the Chinese government could pressure TikTok or its parent company, ByteDance, into handing over the personal information of its US users, which could then be used for Chinese intelligence operations or the spreading of Chinese-backed disinformation. There’s no evidence yet that that has actually happened. Still, policymakers and security experts have said China’s national security laws make it a possibility — identifying a kernel of risk that fits into a broader anti-China narrative linked to issues including trade, human rights and authoritarianism. Those concerns were renewed after a report this year suggested US user data had been repeatedly accessed by China-based employees. TikTok has disputed the report. President Joe Biden signed a bill in April that requires the platform to be sold to a new, non-Chinese owner or be banned in the United States. What’s Trump going to do? Although the idea of a TikTok ban was born during Trump’s first presidency, he has since made a 180-degree turn and said he wants to save the app. Related article Biden administration weighed options with impending TikTok ban, but decision will likely fall to Trump The complicating factor: the ban is set to go into effect one day before Trump takes office. Trump had asked the Supreme Court to temporarily pause the ban’s implementation to give him time, as president, to negotiate a sale of TikTok. And sources familiar with his plans told CNN on Wednesday that he was weighing whether to delay the ban and preserve Americans’ access to the platform while he works on a deal. TikTok CEO Shou Chew is set to be seated on the dais, alongside other leading tech CEOs, at Trump’s inauguration — perhaps a sign of just how serious the incoming president is about trying to save the app. And with some in Congress now suggesting that TikTok might need more time to find a buyer, Trump could find support in trying to push off the ban to a later date. The law gives the president the option to extend the ban by 90 days, but triggering the extension requires evidence that parties working on purchasing have made significant progress, including binding legal agreements for such a deal — and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, hasn’t publicly updated its stance that the app is not for sale. Is a sale still possible? Even if the TikTok ban does go into effect, a sale of the app to a non-Chinese owner could restore access for US users. A group formed by billionaire entrepreneur and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and including “Shark Tank”-famous investor Kevin O’Leary made a formal bid to buy TikTok from China-based ByteDance earlier this month. The group wants to buy TikTok’s US assets, albeit without the app’s beloved algorithm — which China has indicated it will not allow to be sold — and rebuild the platform with what they say would be a more transparent feed, and more user control over their data. Chinese officials have also reportedly discussed the possibility of selling TikTok to X owner Elon Musk, whom they might consider the friendliest possible American owner. Musk and ByteDance have not commented on the reports; TikTok called them “pure fiction.” McCourt told CNN on Thursday that while ByteDance’s bankers have confirmed receipt of his group’s offer, he expected the company was “waiting to hear what the Supreme Court does” before seriously engaging in any acquisition conversations. “But they haven’t told us to go fly a kite,” he said, adding that following the court’s ruling, “I hope we can have a robust conversation.” But here’s the thing: Even if TikTok is sold and Americans can keep using it, it will in many ways be a different app. Because China is almost certain to block the sale of the algorithm along with TikTok’s US assets, the app’s “For You” feed will have to be rebuilt by the new owner — which will be no easy task. Many tech giants have already spent years trying to replicate TikTok’s algorithm without quite succeeding. Spinning off an American-only version of TikTok could also mean the rest of the world has to download a new app to access US users’ content. The bottom line is, until Sunday — and probably extending at least into next week — there may be more questions than answers for TikTok users about the app’s future.
  • TikTok will be banned without a savior. Here are the alternative apps users are flocking to Clare Duffy A woman scrolls the Chinese social networking and e-commerce app Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, in Beijing on January 15. The app has taken off in the United States ahead of the likely ban of TikTok. New York CNN — TikTok is still three days away from a likely ban in the United States, but many users are already bidding the app farewell and seeking out alternatives. Influencer Jasmine Chiswell posted a video Tuesday, showing her frowning over text that reads: “Me saying goodbye to 18 million best friends because TikTok is getting banned,” with sad face and broken heart emojis. The fear of a ban amped up following a report late Tuesday from The Information that TikTok will shut itself down entirely for US users come Sunday, if it doesn’t win its challenge to the Supreme Court or find an American owner by then. Before the report, many people had expected US app stores to remove TikTok but that existing users could continue accessing the app on their phones, at least for a while. Related article TikTok is running out of time and options Still, there is no shortage of TikTok copycat apps eager to welcome those users, now calling themselves “TikTok refugees,” onto their platforms. But the apps surging in popularity this week aren’t the obvious TikTok rivals, like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Snapchat Spotlight or X. Instead, a slate of newer apps have surged on app stores this week, including RedNote (also known as Xiaohongshu), Lemon8, Clapper, Flip and Fanbase. The competition to become the new home for TikTok users is a reminder that even after yearslong efforts by mainstream, big tech platforms to replicate the short-form video app’s popular features, users still feel there’s no true TikTok replacement. “A just government for the people, by the people does not force its people to use Instagram Reels,” creator Mike Gottschalk said in a TikTok video. “Instagram is stealing my data in the exact same way TikTok is. We can all pretend that there’s going to be a new app that rides in as a knight in shining armor and replaces TikTok, but I think we all know that it’s just going to be Reels. And that is how empires crumble.” The alternatives Topping the charts on Apple’s and Google’s app stores this week: RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, a China-based app reminiscent of Instagram that’s popular for sharing tips on travel, makeup and fashion. Many of the American users who joined the app this week suggested they were doing so out of spite for the US government, which banned TikTok over national security concerns related to its China-based parent company. Take away their TikTok, they said, and they’d just join another Chinese app. “I surrender all my data to China. Here you go, China, in exchange for keeping my TikTok, you can have all my information,” a TikTok user who goes by @Thiqydusty said in a video. But the influx of new users to RedNote — which was previously confined mainly to the Chinese-speaking world — has also led to some funny moments of cultural exchange in recent days, with users offering up Mandarin lessons, sharing information about Chinese and English internet slang, and calling for the app to implement automatic subtitles in both languages. Lemon8, a Pinterest-like app from TikTok parent company ByteDance, has also gained newfound popularity this week. The company first began pushing the app to American users in early 2023, when TikTok CEO Shou Chew was hauled before Congress to testify about the app’s data protection practices. Related article TikTok needs a US buyer so bad it might seek out Elon Musk But both of those platforms could ultimately be subject to a law that prohibits apps controlled by a US “foreign adversary” — the same law that’s set to ban TikTok. (Some security experts have already raised concerns that RedNote could also pass along US user data to the Chinese government and that many Americans won’t understand what they’re allowing when they agree to the app’s terms of service, which are only available in Mandarin.) “This definition includes TikTok and any other social media and mobile application that is controlled by China or by shareholders connected to China,” said Elettra Bietti, assistant professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University. She added that it would be up to the president to issue a public notice that the platforms were subject to enforcement under the law. “To me, the proliferation of Chinese apps is showing the limits of an app-by-app designation under (the law), and also the US government’s limited ability to control how US citizens use the internet and on which forum they choose to express themselves,” Bietti said. Of course, there are non-Chinese alternatives, too. Clapper, a short-form video platform that has a live audio conversation feature similar to X, told CNN that it gained 1.4 million new users in the past week, including 400,000 on Wednesday alone. And Flip — a shopping-focused short-form video app that’s currently No. 6 on the Apple App Store — posted an apology to users Sunday after unexpectedly rapid growth caused the app to be “either very slow or completely down for most users.” “Audiences that live on TikTok, they’re not going to go to one single destination… I think they’re going to got to many different ones, depending on where their communities are and what type of content (they make),” said Jake Maughan, head of influencer marketing at advertising firm BENlabs. Instagram and YouTube in the backseat? To be sure, mainstream platforms like Instagram and YouTube still almost certainly stand to benefit if TikTok goes away, despite the newfound competition. Big tech companies have in recent years reoriented their businesses to better compete with TikTok, causing a broader shift in the social media ecosystem away from friend-based feeds to prioritizing entertainment and new content that keeps people scrolling longer. But downloads of Snapchat and YouTube fell this week compared to the week prior, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. And while Instagram downloads were up 2% week-on-week, the number of daily active users was essentially the same as the previous week. Many users say those apps are still missing the magic of TikTok. The frustrations range from small annoyances — for example, unlike on TikTok, you can’t pause an Instagram Reels video unless you hold your finger down on the screen — to more esoteric issues, like community. On TikTok, users say they can be more creative and less polished and they’ll be rewarded for that in the comments, whereas Instagram often has more negativity. And because each of the platforms favors slightly different content, success as an influencer on TikTok doesn’t guarantee success on the other apps. Related article They built careers on TikTok. Now they’re bracing for a possible ban Molinaro told CNN that on TikTok, “I get to be a little bit freer, more myself. I get to kind of take the curation away from it, and I just get to talk freely with (my followers) and have fun with them.” “TikTok favors realism. I feel like the other platforms are almost a little bit more vain, whereas TikTok is all about showing up and being your authentic self and a lot of people can resonate with that,” creator Stormi Steele told CNN. Steele worries, too, about losing access to TikTok Shop, the app’s storefront feature that lets creators host live selling events. She said her brand, Canvas Beauty, currently earns $2 million to $3.5 million each month on TikTok. But ultimately, it’s the TikTok algorithm that sets the app apart, feeding users videos based on sometimes scarily-accurate predictions of what they’ll find entertaining, whether they follow those creators or not. Any alternative will have to replicate that algorithm in order to become a real TikTok replacement. “The algorithm that TikTok has created and refined is unmatched. And even YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels and whatnot, those algorithms feel antiquated compared to TikTok,” Maughan said. “TikTok, it was novel. The idea that anybody can go viral, and you can shoot your shot, and you can go from zero to millions (of followers) overnight — you still don’t get that anywhere else.”
  • Meta oversight co-chair says the company looks like it’s ‘buckling to political pressure’ by ending fact-checking program Meta’s decision to end its fact-checking program looks like the company is “caving” to political pressures, said Meta’s oversight board co-chair Michael McConnell. McConnell, who is a law professor at Stanford University, told NPR on Friday that he would have liked to have seen changes made during “less contentious and partisan times so that they would be considered on the merits rather than looking like this is, you know, Donald Trump is president and now they’re caving.” Changes to Meta’s fact-checking program come within two weeks of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and after CEO Mark Zuckerberg dined at Mar-a-Lago in November. Meta and other tech giants, which have faced fierce criticism from Trump in recent years, have made large donations to Trump’s inaugural fund. Meta did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. “I do think that there’s bad optics here,” said McConnell, who said he was speaking personally and not on behalf of the board. “It certainly looks like this is buckling to political pressure.” Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that Meta’s partnership with third-party fact-checkers would be replaced with user-generated “community notes” at Facebook, Instagram and Threads, a policy similar to Elon Musk’s X. The company also quietly updated its hateful conduct policy, striking old rules about content that cannot be posted, including referring to “women as household objects or property” or “transgender or non-binary people as ‘it.’” “Fact-checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created,” Zuckerberg said in a video announcing the new policy. “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far.” Zuckerberg acknowledged that the changes would “reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down,” but there would be more harmful content on the platform. McConnell said official revisions to Meta’s hate speech policy “came as a surprise” to board members. Meta first implemented its fact-checking program in 2016 after claims it didn’t stop foreign actors, especially Russia, from using its platforms to spread disinformation. Meta has since faced scrutiny for misinformation about elections, anti-vaccination stories, violence and hate speech. Meta’s newly appointed Chief of Global Affairs Joel Kaplan told Fox News on Tuesday that Meta’s use of third-party fact-checkers was “well-intentioned” but showed too much political bias. Trump later said he watched Kaplan’s appearance and said Meta has “come a long way.” Trump is among the Republicans who have criticized Meta for what they view as censorship of right-wing voices. McConnell said there is “pretty overwhelming evidence” that fact-checkers correct more content from right-wing users, but knowing whether those users spread more misinformation is “a very difficult thing to measure.” He also said there has been “active and vigorous debate” within the Meta oversight board. “The oversight board is a global enterprise, and there’s a huge difference in the way in which Americans think about freedom of speech and other places around the world,” McConnell said. “And that really plays out. It’s also true that the fact-checking program has been much more contentious and controversial in the United States, not so much elsewhere.” McConnell said he doesn’t know what this change means for future elections or foreign government propaganda on the social media platforms. “There is really no magic bullet to this problem,” he said. “But much of this has to do with not whether the information is true or false but where it’s coming from.” CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report.
  • They built careers on TikTok. Now they’re bracing for a possible ban People gather for a press conference about their opposition to a potential TikTok ban on Capitol Hill Joanne Molinaro’s life changed when she found TikTok. She had clawed all the way up to being a partner at a big Chicago law firm after more than a decade of working in corporate litigation. And it nearly crushed her. “I was thinking to myself … lucky me to have this job that pays my bills,” Molinaro said in an interview with CNN’s Terms of Service podcast. “And so what if it’s soul-sucking and it makes me want to curl up at night into fetal position and cry? That’s okay because this is what adults do.” Like many people who were bored at home in the pandemic spring of 2020, Molinaro downloaded TikTok for fun. She mainly watched other people’s videos, although she also posted some cooking videos of her own. But then, one of her videos unexpectedly went viral. Just over a year later, Molinaro withdrew from partnership at her firm to go full-time as a TikTok creator. She’s since built a brand around her profile, @TheKoreanVegan, publishing a cookbook with the same name and racking up more than 3 million followers across TikTok and Instagram. Molinaro is just one of many TikTok influencers who are now bracing for a possible ban of the app in the United States — and the loss of her six-figure income that could come with it. Terms of Service with Clare Duffy - Square A US law that could ban TikTok is set to go into effect on January 19, unless the app is sold or the law is blocked by the Supreme Court. On Friday, the Supreme Court is heard oral arguments on TikTok’s legal challenge to the law, which the company claims violates its First Amendment rights and those of its 170 million American users. The US government has argued that the app poses a risk to national security because its parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. “TikTok collects vast swaths of data about tens of millions of Americans, which the (People’s Republic of China) could use for espionage or blackmail,” the US Justice Department stated in a legal filing to the Supreme Court. “And the PRC could covertly manipulate the platform to advance its geopolitical interests and harm the United States.” The court appeared likely to uphold the law and allow the ban to go into effect, with both liberal and conservative justices directing a series of tough and skeptical questions at lawyers for TikTok and the app’s users. Several key justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, worried about the potential national security concerns that two presidents have raised about the platform. Historically, the court has deferred to the other branches of government on matters of national security. “Are we supposed to ignore the fact that (TikTok’s) ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?” Roberts said. And during more than two hours of arguments, many of the justices appeared to view the sell-or-ban law not primarily as one with First Amendment implications, but rather an effort to regulate foreign control of popular app. But TikTok lawyer, Noel Francisco, repeatedly argued that the law violates its free speech rights, and that separating TikTok’s US presence from ByteDance is an unreasonable solution. “Any new TikTok would be a fundamentally different platform with different content, which is yet another reason why I think this is a content-based restriction that falls directly on TikTok,” Francisco said. Financial impact of a ban Many TikTok users aren’t concerned by the Chinese government, at least if the revenue they generate is any indication. By TikTok’s own estimate, the 7 million US small businesses that use the app stand to lose $1 billion in revenue, and around 2 million creators would suffer $300 million in lost earnings in just one month, if the app is banned. “A TikTok ban would be absolutely catastrophic for the creators and the small businesses who rely on it,” said Jess Maddox, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama who researches social media and internet culture. “I’ve spent my career talking to creators and influencers, they are resilient, they’ll pivot, but it will be a struggle in the meantime and take a hit to them financially.” TikTok’s popularity skyrocketed in 2020 thanks in large part to its unique algorithm, which prioritizes showing users entertaining content whether or not it’s from an account they follow. It was unlike older mainstay platforms’ feeds, which had largely been based on reinforcing existing social connections. Users flocked to the app, as did creators, who found it far easier to quickly build an audience and discover almost overnight success if they correctly predicted what the algorithm would want. That’s what happened to Eli Rallo, who downloaded the app in 2020 as a senior in college, stuck at home because of Covid-19. (L-R): Joanne Molinaro, Eli Rallo. The two creators are working to grow other income streams ahead of a possible TikTok ban. “I was messing around with my brothers one night… in our kitchen. And I made a video of us filling up a jar of snacks with trail mix and I put music behind it. It was kind of random, very Gen Z humor-esque,” Rallo told CNN. “And the next day it had, like, 200,000 views. I was shocked. And then I just started to make videos from there.” Social media has been Rallo’s full-time job since October 2021; she now has more than 1 million followers across TikTok and Instagram and is in the process of writing her second book. “My career just simply would not be where it is today without TikTok,” she said. Rallo says she now regularly inks five-figure deals with brands to promote their products on TikTok. She’s part of the “creator economy” that Goldman Sachs has estimated could be worth $480 billion by 2027. Related article ‘Shark Tank’s’ Kevin O’Leary and billionaire Frank McCourt want to buy TikTok. One problem: It’s not for sale But she’s worried that could change if the app is banned. “I am very concerned, if I’m being honest, about what would happen because I do think my financial situation would change,” she said. “I’m very lucky that I make money from my books, and I’m very lucky that I make money from brands on Instagram. I think we would see an uptick in deals on Instagram, but the TikTok money is definitely the bulk of my income.” Molinaro said she’s already seeing the financial impact of a potential ban, starting back in April when President Joe Biden signed the sale-or-ban law. In 2024, Molinaro estimates she took in 30% less money from sponsors. “Those brands are not willing to spend dollars right now because they’re terrified. ‘Oh, why would I spend money on a campaign that’s going to just fall flat on its face in a few days?’” she said. “That has directly impacted me, and I’m sure it’s impacted a lot of influencers.” Opportunity on other platforms A TikTok ban could boost competitors like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. But for people who make earn their income on TikTok, it may be difficult to shift to depending entirely on those other platforms. It can take time to build up a following on other apps large enough to draw big sponsorships, as their TikTok followers may or may not follow them. And other platforms’ algorithms often prioritize different things — maybe longer videos or certain kinds of music — and it can take time for people to adjust their strategies. TikTok supporters hold signs at a news conference expressing concerns about the sale-or-ban legislation, outside of the US Capitol Building on March 12, 2024 in Washington, DC “It’s not the same technology. It’s not the same type of user. It’s not the same culture,” Maddox said. And a ban could have ripple effects beyond individuals on TikTok. Many influencers employ teams to support their careers, such as agents, accountants and lawyers to review brand deals. “Many people think, oh, a TikTok ban is going to mean these glamorous, frivolous influencers are going to have to get real jobs,” Maddox said. “Yes, there’s the top 1% that is making a lot of money and living a very glamorous lifestyle. But the reality is the people who are going to be most hurt by a TikTok ban are those staunchly middle-class Americans who are using this for information, for entertainment, to grow their business, their following, and grow their community.” For now, Rallo and Molinaro say they’re working to diversify their businesses and grow their followings elsewhere, including other social platforms or email newsletters. “Social media, somebody once described it to me, it’s like building real estate on sand. You never know,” Molinaro said
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