President Biden just signed a bill that could ban President Biden from using TikTok. But Mr. Biden plans to keep using TikTok until Mr. Biden’s new law forces Mr. Biden off it. His political team in Wilmington, Del., after all, considers TikTok a vital tool to reach young voters who could be crucial to his […]
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Blinken’s Visit to China: What to Know
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is meeting officials in China this week as disputes over wars, trade, technology and security are testing the two countries’ efforts to stabilize the relationship. The United States is heading into an election year in which President Biden will face intense pressure to confront China’s authoritarian government and offer […]
Read MoreThere Is No TikTok in China, Only Douyin. Here’s What It Is.
In China, there is no TikTok. There is only Douyin. After President Biden signed a bill on Wednesday forcing Chinese company ByteDance to sell its ownership of TikTok, the United States moved one step closer to an internet without the short video app. The legislation opened the door to a possible ban of the social […]
Read MoreOn TikTok, Potential Ban of App Leads to Resignation and Frustration
As Congress voted Tuesday night on legislation that could ban TikTok, Americans were posting their real-time reactions on the embattled video-sharing app. The Senate passed a revised TikTok bill, tied to a package to provide aid for Israel and Ukraine, with a 79-18 vote, and President Biden signed it into law Wednesday. It will force […]
Read MoreWhat a TikTok Ban Could Actually Mean, and More
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Read MoreBlinken Goes to China With Potential Trouble on Horizon
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will arrive in China on Wednesday to try to preserve the recent and delicate stabilization of ties between the United States and China, as tensions over trade, territorial disputes and national security threaten to derail relations again. Even as Mr. Blinken’s plane approached Shanghai, the challenges ahead were apparent. […]
Read MoreCongress Passed a Bill That Could Ban TikTok. Now Comes the Hard Part.
A bill that would force a sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner, ByteDance — or ban it outright — was passed by the Senate on Tuesday and is expected to be signed quickly into law by President Biden. Now the process is likely to get even more complicated. Congress passed the measure citing national […]
Read MoreHere’s What’s in the Foreign Aid Package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan
The Senate on Tuesday was moving toward approving a $95.3 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that has been stalled for months. The legislation, a version of which passed the Senate in February with bipartisan support, scaled a critical procedural hurdle earlier Tuesday by a vote of 80 to 19, reflecting widespread […]
Read MoreMyanmar’s Young Rebels Find the Bright Sides to an Internet Blackout
In the night, the mountain air not quite chill enough to still the insects, young people gathered around a glow. The light attracting them was not a phone screen, that electric lure for people almost everywhere, but a bonfire. From around the blaze, music radiated. Fingers strummed a guitar. Voices layered lyrics about love, democracy […]
Read MoreWhy Congress Voted to Force a Sale of TikTok in the U.S.
A push to force the sale in the United States of the short-form video app TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, took a leap forward as the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Saturday to ban the social media platform unless it is sold to a government-approved buyer. The Senate is expected […]
Read MoreThe Crookie Delights Paris
All it took for the crookie to take shape was a baker looking for a diversion, his time-tested croissant recipe and a few cookies for inspiration. It took TikTok to make it go viral. Stéphane Louvard created the crookie almost a year and a half ago when he came up with the idea of putting […]
Read MoreApple Says It Was Ordered to Pull WhatsApp From China App Store
Apple said it pulled the Meta-owned apps WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China on Friday on government orders, potentially escalating the war over technology between the United States and China. The House of Representatives was preparing to vote on a bill as soon as this weekend that would force the Chinese internet […]
Read MoreCongress Ramps Up the Pressure on TikTok
The clock ticks for TikTok The push to either split TikTok from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or ban it in the U.S. is gaining momentum thanks to a legislative maneuver by the House Speaker Mike Johnson. The bill’s progress comes as The Times reveals more details about the video platform’s origin story — and the […]
Read MoreTikTok’s Origin Story: Court Files Show Role of GOP Megadonor Jeff Yass
In 2009, long before Jeff Yass became a Republican megadonor, his firm, Susquehanna International Group, invested in a Chinese real estate start-up that boasted a sophisticated search algorithm. The company, 99Fang, promised to help buyers find their perfect homes. Behind the scenes, employees of a Chinese subsidiary of Mr. Yass’s firm were so deeply involved, […]
Read MoreThe House Pushes for a TikTok ban, and Southern Africa Faces a Food Crisis
Tune in, and tell us what you think at theheadlines@nytimes.com. For corrections, email nytnews@nytimes.com. For more audio journalism and storytelling, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Read MoreTakeaways From a Trove of ByteDance Records
Somehow, thousands of pages of sealed court documents relating to the birth of TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, were mistakenly released by a Pennsylvania court. Before they were made secret again, I read them. The documents — emails, chat transcripts and memos — are a fascinating window into ByteDance’s origins. They show that Susquehanna International Group, the […]
Read MoreTikTok Bill to Be Bundled With Aid to Ukraine and Israel, House Speaker Indicates
The House on Wednesday made another push to force through legislation that would require the sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner or ban the app in the United States, accelerating an effort to disrupt the popular social media app. Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated that he intends to package the measure, a modified version […]
Read MoreWhat a TikTok Ban Would Mean for the U.S. Defense of an Open Internet
For decades, the United States has fashioned itself the champion of an open internet, arguing that the web should be largely unregulated and that digital data should flow around the globe unhindered by borders. The government has argued against internet censorship abroad and even funded software that lets people in autocratic states get around online […]
Read More‘Hard Fork’: A.I.’s Data Wall, a Surprise Privacy Bill, and What Happened to the TikTok Ban?
Listen and follow ‘Hard Fork’Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube This week, the companies building artificial intelligence are facing a limit to what training data is publicly available on the internet. Will that stop them from building God? Then, a new bipartisan national privacy law proposal just dropped. We ask what’s in it. And […]
Read MoreGet Tech Out of the Classroom Before It’s Too Late
Jaime Lewis noticed that her eighth-grade son’s grades were slipping several months ago. She suspected it was because he was watching YouTube during class on his school-issued laptop, and her suspicions were validated. “I heard this from two of his teachers and confirmed with my son: Yes, he watches YouTube during class, and no, he […]
Read MoreMaryland Passes 2 Major Privacy Bills, Despite Tech Industry Pushback
The Maryland Legislature this weekend passed two sweeping privacy bills that aim to restrict how powerful tech platforms can harvest and use the personal data of consumers and young people — despite strong objections from industry trade groups representing giants like Amazon, Google and Meta. One bill, the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, would impose […]
Read MoreWilly Wonka’s Unknown Lands a New Acting Gig in London
On one chilly evening in March, after the sun had set and when most school-aged children were begrudgingly starting their homework, Felicia Dawkins, 16, enthusiastically hopped on the phone from Scotland to share that her life had changed — for the better. She introduced herself with the kind of bubbly energy and giddiness that only […]
Read MoreTikTok Spends Millions on Ad Blitz as Congress Considers Banning the App
In a TV commercial, Sister Monica Clare, a nun in northern New Jersey, walks through a church that’s bathed in sunlight and sits in a pew, crossing herself. Her message: TikTok is a force for good. “Because of TikTok, I’ve created a community where people can feel safe asking questions about spirituality,” she says in […]
Read MoreU.S. and China Continue to Talk, but Economic Divide Remains Wide
When Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen traveled to Beijing last summer, her mission was to re-establish a dialogue between the world’s largest economies and stabilize a relationship that appeared to have reached rock bottom. The United States and China created formal economic working groups to keep the conversation going. Months later, Ms. Yellen met with […]
Read More‘Carefluencers’ Are Helping Older Loved Ones, and Posting About It
On the east side of San Jose, Calif., there is an abuela who seems to have more grandchildren than she can count. “A lot of people see me and they hug me,” Mardonia Galeana, 89, said in Spanish. “I don’t even know them, but sometimes they ask me for a blessing on the street and […]
Read MoreMike Gallagher on Why Conservatives Want TikTok Sold
Last month, the House passed a bill that would require TikTok’s parent company to sell its U.S. business to a company without ties to the Chinese government, or face a ban of the TikTok app in the United States. In Washington, which has become increasingly hawkish toward the Chinese government, worries and fears about the […]
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