TikTok

Amazon asks Chinese sellers not to offer cheaper prices on Temu

24 Dec 2024 - 6:00PM

Trump’s TikTok love raises stakes in battle over app’s fate

24 Dec 2024 - 6:34AMvideocam

Meet Caleb Williams’ girlfriend Alina Thyregod, aka the ‘Danish Taylor Swift’

When it comes to NFL WAG outfit watching, it’s not just Taylor Swift who gets it right: Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams’ girlfriend turned heads in her own get up recently – so who is she?

23 Dec 2024 - 6:00PM

Caleb Williams and Alina Thyregod at the Louis Vuitton menswear spring/summer 2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week in June. Photo: Getty Images

Trump favours keeping TikTok in US after ‘billions of views’ during election

US president-elect offers strongest signals yet that he opposes a potential exit of TikTok from the US market.

23 Dec 2024 - 3:14PMvideocam

Social media

Albania PM says TikTok ban was not a ‘rushed reaction to a single incident’

Albania’s prime minister defends TikTok ban, citing careful consideration and concern for youth safety.

23 Dec 2024 - 10:16AM

Albania to ban TikTok for a year after teenager stabbed to death

Parents are concerned by reports of children taking knives and other objects to school over quarrels promoted by stories on the app.

22 Dec 2024 - 6:36AM

Albanian authorities held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents following the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teen after a quarrel that started on TikTok. Photo illustration: AFP

China’s tax authority to demand online influencer, merchant revenue numbers

A newly proposed regulation would require internet platform operators to report revenue information about users.

23 Dec 2024 - 4:15PMvideocam

TikTok ban: US senators urge Biden to extend ByteDance deadline by 90 days

The app’s China-based parent company is mounting a legal challenge against a law forcing it to sell its US assets or face a ban.

20 Dec 2024 - 10:12AM

US TikTok ban: Supreme Court to review law banning Chinese-owned app

The arguments over whether the law violates freedom of speech protected by the US Constitution will be heard on January 10.

19 Dec 2024 - 5:07AMvideocam

TikTok faces a potential US ban. Photo: Faisal Bashir/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

ByteDance

Fund of ByteDance’s billionaire founder gets Hong Kong asset management licence

The investment fund started by the founder of the Chinese owner of TikTok now has regulatory approval to provide services to professional investors.

18 Dec 2024 - 8:00PMvideocam

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming attends the opening ceremony of the 5th World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province, on November 7, 2018. Photo: AP

China-EU relations

TikTok investigated for suspected election interference in Romania

Allegations include ‘recommender systems’ being open to manipulation and influencers not making clear they were paid to promote candidate.

17 Dec 2024 - 7:10PMvideocam

Icons and Influencers

Meet Matilda Djerf, the Swedish influencer working with Hailey Bieber’s Rhode

At just 27, Djerf’s amassed millions of followers and created a wildly successful fashion brand that espouses authenticity – but she’s also faced allegations of workplace bullying and bodyshaming.

17 Dec 2024 - 6:00PM

TikTok asks US Supreme Court to halt divest-or-ban law, pending review

Highest US court is asked to review lower court’s ruling as Donald Trump praises popular video app for helping him connect with young voters.

17 Dec 2024 - 7:10AMvideocam

TikTok has filed an emergency appeal with the US Supreme Court for a temporary halt to a law that would force its owner, ByteDance, to sell the app or face a ban in the US. Image: Shutterstock

Trump meets TikTok CEO after saying China, US can ‘solve all world’s problems’

President-elect said the two countries can work together when pressed about his invitation to the Chinese leader to attend inauguration.

17 Dec 2024 - 5:11PMvideocam

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Xi Jinping and Donald Trump shake hands in November 2017 outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: TNS

Meet OnlyFans’ Lily Phillips, who plans to bed 1,000 men in a day

Controversial OnlyFans user Lily Phillips has unveiled her next challenge: after sleeping with 101 men in one day, she now says she plans to multiply that number by 10.

16 Dec 2024 - 5:00AMvideocam

Apps

TikTok Shop is outperforming Shein and Sephora among US shoppers online

A new consumer trends report found that 45 per cent of surveyed Americans have bought something on TikTok.

16 Dec 2024 - 10:20AM

Music

Why the popular North Star Boys want to ‘inspire Asian-Americans’

We speak to the boy band about their work in expanding Asian-American representation, how they met and why ‘the stars aligned’ for them all.

14 Dec 2024 - 8:03AM

North Star Boys in Causeway Bay, in Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

US asks court to reject TikTok’s bid to stave off law that could ban the app

The Justice Department argued that ‘continued Chinese control of the TikTok application poses a continuing threat to national security’.

13 Dec 2024 - 12:45PM

Who is Sophie Rain, the controversial OnlyFans star and ‘devout Christian’?

Sophie Rain decided to start an OnlyFans account after being fired from her job as a waitress; now, she’s supporting her family with the money she makes from her content.

11 Dec 2024 - 6:01PM

TikTok Shop opens in Spain, Ireland in e-commerce expansion as US ban looms

The Spain launch is TikTok Shop’s first foray into continental Europe, coming three years after opening in the UK, its first European market.

11 Dec 2024 - 5:03PM

TikTok Shop has opened in Spain, marking the first expansion of the service in Europe in three years. Photo: Shutterstock

ByteDance

TikTok pays users to shop, invite friends as US ban looms

TikTok has been working to boost users’ time spent and develop shopping habits ahead of its possible ban from US app stores on January 19.

11 Dec 2024 - 11:30AM

TikTok has been trying to embed itself more in users’ lives ahead of a potential ban in the US next month, which it is challenging in court. Photo: TNS

ByteDance

TikTok fighting uphill battle to reverse sell-or-ban law in US, legal experts say

On Monday, TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance filed an emergency motion to stop the US sell-or-ban law from taking effect on January 19.

10 Dec 2024 - 9:00PM

Meet Dave Blunts, the 500lb rapper who went viral after Juice WRLD Day

A photo of Blunts with his petite girlfriend Isabella went viral, prompting more criticism over his size and health – but despite suffering from heart failure in 2023, the rapper persists.

11 Dec 2024 - 10:12AMvideocam

Opinion | By banning TikTok, US is shooting itself in the foot

A nationwide ban could disrupt the lives of millions who depend on the platform and jeopardise US business interests abroad.

10 Dec 2024 - 10:31AMvideocam

United States

TikTok seeks temporary halt to potential US ban pending Supreme Court review

Company and its parent, ByteDance, say the appellate ruling upholding the law is based on ‘flawed legal rationale’ the court should address.

10 Dec 2024 - 1:45AMvideocam

TikTok and its Chinese parent, ByteDance, seek a temporary halt to a ruling that could lead to a US ban on TikTok, pending a US Supreme Court review. Image: dpa