TikTok’s Last Dance
TikTok has a month left in the US, The Los Angeles Times wants you to know when it’s biased, and Wicked rules the screen and stage simultaneously
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Happy Monday, Future Party. The asset market is giving major 2020 vibes these days — Bitcoin hit $100,000, meme coins are popping off (and losing people money), and Roaring Kitty is back to lead Redditors to investing glory (they hope). In other words, people are feeling risky. Sounds… dangerous.
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TikTok Could Be Gone Next Month
A panel of three federal judges unanimously ruled against TikTok’s free-speech lawsuit that hoped to overturn the divest-or-ban bill… putting TikTok on a path of being shut down in the US on January 19th on national security concerns.
Why It Hits: The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which passed in April, makes it illegal for app stores to host platforms owned by foreign adversaries that allow Americans to “create an account or profile to generate, share, and view text, images, videos, real-time communications, or similar content” — a law designed with TikTok in the crosshairs. The ruling suggests that speech itself, not platforms for speech, are what’s protected by the Constitution.
Behind the Ruling: TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans, is running out of options to stay in the US.
The judges agreed that the law would keep China from allegedly pushing propaganda on the platform (which Beijing can do under its national intelligence law) and accessing data on Americans.
The ruling makes it difficult for the next administration to simply reverse the ban (as President-Elect Donald Trump has suggested he might), so TikTok plans to appeal.
That leaves the Supreme Court potentially having the final say… if they decide to take up the case. Even then, it’s unlikely that it’ll rule differently.
If the Supreme Court doesn’t take up the case, app stores will need to remove TikTok by January 19th or face hefty fines, and TikTok will need to wind down its US operations if it decides that it still doesn’t want to sell to a US company.
The Future: All eyes are on what the Trump administration will do when it assumes power on January 20th. The campaign to remove the platform actually started under Trump’s first administration, but he’s since flip-flopped on the issue — probably only because 32% of Americans support a ban, per Pew Research Center. Trump could instruct his Justice Department not to enforce the law (which could be a legal headache), but it may be likelier that he’ll attempt to broker a deal to score a political win.
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The Los Angeles Times Will Flip Its Biases With A Button
LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong announced the paper is working on a “bias meter” that would give readers context of any bias in articles and potentially give people a version of the article from an opposite perspective.
The Big Picture: With the mainstream media losing trust — fairly or unfairly — among so many Americans, publishers are looking for ways to show that they can either be transparent about their biases or present various viewpoints.
Behind the Curtain: Speaking with LA Times editorial board member Scott Jennings on his Flyover Country podcast, Soon-Shiong laid out the publisher’s new tech innovation set to roll out next month.
The bias meter would apply to both news reporting and opinion pieces.
It would allow readers to press a button to give them both sides of a story (we’re assuming this may be partly done by AI).
Comments will be a larger part of the LA Times ecosystem, which Soon-Shiong says “are as important as sometimes the story because you get a feel of what people are thinking and [...] you can have a conversation, a discourse, a respectful disagreement.”
Closing Thoughts: Soon-Shiong believes that the tool will help curb “confirmation bias” among writers, editors, and readers. The paper’s editorial guild didn’t dig the suggestion that they held bias, fearing the claim hurts their credibility. Still, the LA Times isn’t the first to try to balance the scales (there’s NewsGuard, A Starting Point, and almost The Messenger), but the publication would be the first major newspaper to do so… which may kick off a trend.
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DEEP DIVES
Read: Forbes profiles Shaboozey on his breakout year, thanks to the still chart-topping “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
Listen: The Future of Everything details how drones are becoming a key lifesaving tool in rural areas.
Watch: Spike Jonze and Mary Wigmore direct a new Coldplay music video that’s really just an excuse to make a short film of 98-year-old legend Dick Van Dyke dancing.
Would you use a tool that shows you both sides of a news story? |
72.3% of you voted The classics in Friday’s poll: Do you prefer buying new snack flavors or sticking with the classics?
“Because I know that they will never let me down…”
“I typically don’t eat snacks at all. But if I had to, I would stick to a classic like plain potato chips.”
“Nothing wrong with the classics, but I’m here for the new new.”
“I work in advertising with several food/bev companies, so I always keep an eye out for the latest flavor trends.”
“I love to go out of my way to try new flavors! I find some really good combinations that way. Shout out to the Oreo Pop Rock flavors or Red Hot Goldfish. I also don’t have a normal palette and love to add goldfish to my ice cream and have pickle margaritas, to name some examples.”
Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.
QUICK HITS
→ Entertainment / Media
🎞️ The Thanksgiving box-office love is continuing for another weekend as Wicked, Moana 2, and Gladiator II reap huge ticket sales.
🧙♀️ When Wicked, the movie, ruled the box office during Thanksgiving, Wicked, the play, also ruled Broadway.
🎤 Dolly Parton has launched an open casting call to play herself in the Broadway production, Dolly: An Original Musical.
→ Technology
🤖 OpenAI’s new “thinking” o1 system sometimes secretly carried out its own tasks, even against humans’ explicit instructions.
📱 xAI’s Grok chatbot is rolling out to all users on X, not just Premium subscribers.
🛰️ Two European satellites launched with the goal of creating the first artificial solar eclipse.
→ Creator Economy
🛒 Creator-brand management startup Petra is acquiring ecommerce-logistics firm Factored Quality.
🧮 Meta is testing the ability for Threads users to see metrics for individual posts.
🤳 Twitch announced that advertisers are pulling back from streamers focused on political content.
Let us know how we are doing... |
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.
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