Another contender has joined the starting line as the race starts to buy TikTok and save it from closure.

The latest person to take their mark is YouTube star and one of the world’s highest earning creators, MrBeast.

According to reports, MrBeast has teamed up with tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley, who is the founder of the online HR company employer.com. They are taking on rival bids from a team including Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank fame and there are also rumors that Trump’s new best friend, Elon Musk, might throw his hat in too.

All-Cash Bid for TikTok

The Guardian is reporting that MrBeast – whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson – has made a formal bid for the Chinese-owned social media platform. He has partnered with Tinsley and they have offered an all-cash bid.

The confirmation came from US law firm, Paul Hastings, which says that alongside 26-year old Donaldson and Tinsley are a group of “institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals” although they are not named. The statement is short and sweet, and doesn’t detail how much the bid is nor any time frames.

Interestingly, adds the newspaper, the lead lawyer on the bid is Brad Bondi, who is the brother of Trump’s choice as US attorney general, Pam Bondi.

Donaldson had flagged his interest earlier this month, writing on X: “I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned.” He later added on TikTok that he had started talks with a “bunch of billionaires”.

Clock Is Ticking for TikTok Ban

There is a pressing sense of urgency to the situation. TikTok went dark the day before Trump’s inauguration, only to be reinstated with a 75-day extension by the now president. But he hasn’t completely reversed the ban (which he was actually instrumental in) and so TikTok must find a buyer.

As to the price, Trump mentioned the figure of $1tn at a press conference with a 50% US ownership and a “permit” to operate in the country. He also nodded to Musk’s interest while adding that the multibillionaire founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, might also make a bid. Ellison, who was actually at the press conference, reportedly said that it sounded like “a good deal”.

While it is looking likely that a buyer will be found, who that will be and how the platform will then operate is a guess. After all, none of the concerns about national security have disappeared and the scrutiny will no doubt continue in the 75-day period.

Uncertainty Still Reigns for TikTok

In the meanwhile, some of TikTok’s 170 million US users have started looking at alternatives, including, ironically, another Chinese social media app called RedNote. Reuters is reporting that Apple and Google have not reinstated TikTok in their app stores as yet, so rivals definitely have an opportunity to jump in and they’re using it.

But is Trump’s suspension of the ban even legal? And is there steering going on behind closed doors as to who the new owner will be? Plenty of questions to be answered and not a huge amount of time for answers.

Poor TikTok has not only faced a nail-biting teeter at the edge of survival this week, but is also contending with a Chinese rival actively recruiting its influencers.

Now, another rival, Meta’s Instagram, is also reported to be trying to court TikTok influencers over to its platform, with thousands of dollars promised if they will post to Reels.

The alleged deal would see influencers pocket the cash from Meta if they post to Reels first but then are able to publish elsewhere. Meta, though, would get the exclusive.

Capitalizing on the Chaos

According to a report from The Information, Instagram is actively approaching creators and offering them “bonuses” valued at between $10,000 to $50,000 per month.

The Meta execs are obviously hoping this will give the platform a boost of exclusive content from some of TikTok’s biggest names, and attract TikTokers to follow them to Instagram.

TikTok users are actively looking for alternatives as the surge of interest in Shanghai-based social media app, RedNote, has shown and so it’s understandable that Instagram would want to capitalize on the chaos around TikTok’s future as well.

Waiting in the Wings

Instagram’s Reels, launched in 2020, was designed specifically to compete with TikTok. A recent (and not universally loved) decision to switch from square to rectangular profile grids is a measure of exactly how much emulation there is.

The two platforms have always fought a close battle, with Business Insider reporting last June that increased engagement with Reels was directly correlated with decreased usage of TikTok.

The report quotes a Morgan Stanley survey of 2,000 US consumers, which revealed that more than a third of Instagram users use Reels daily, and 78% engage with it monthly. But specifically, it revealed that 26% of reels users are not using TikTok at all, which is an increase on the previous year’s percentage.

The Meta team may be suggesting that TikTok’s popularity is waning but its incoming changes to moderation (and TikTok’s possible reprieve) might yet change the rankings.

Have Reels Bonuses Worked Before?

The Verge suggests that bonus-led schemes to get creators on board have had mixed results for Instagram in the past. The company launched a bonus program in 2021, but it was short-lived with creators complaining about decreasing payments. There is a bonus program on the Instagram site at the moment.

Meta also ran an invite-only bonus program for Threads last spring, but Engadget wrote that, despite the dollars coming in, many were totally baffled by the algorithm.

With the fight for TikTok refugees ongoing, despite the 75-day window, this is one bonus program that Meta needs to work and really catch the big-hitting influencers’ attention. However, it also needs to be good enough to keep them from returning to TikTok or looking elsewhere.

TikTok may now have a 75-day reprieve thanks to President Trump, but when its ban was looming, rival RedNote is reported to have recruited influencers to raise its profile with US users.

The Chinese social media platform enjoyed a boom in interest stateside as TikTokers prepared for their beloved app going dark.

But reports suggest that the company hasn’t just sat back and waited for people to find it. Instead, it actively recruited US-based influencers to bolster its profile by working with a New York-based marketing agency.

Paid Posts

Wired has published an article giving details of a campaign brief it has had eyes on. Created by marketing agency Solare Global, the brief was sent to select TikTok influencers and laid out how they could talk about “how fun and engaging the app [RedNote] is” and “emphasize its user-friendly design and international appeal.”

In the days leading up to the ban, there were reports of just this with influencers making videos about how to set up RedNote accounts and gushing about its “cuteness.”

There are no details on which influencers it was sent to and whether or not they were paid per post (and if so, how much).

Wired adds that it contacted both Xiaohongshu, which is the Chinese name for RedNote, and Solare Global for comment but neither have responded.

RedNote’s Rise

As the TikTok ban approached, users were furiously searching for alternatives and RedNote appealed because of its similarity to its rival; but also because it also shares features with Instagram and even Pinterest.

Just a week ago, the Shanghai-based app surged to the top spot in Apple’s app store listings for free apps in the US. Wired reports that the company has furiously recruited English-speaking moderators as Americans joined and started posting.

However, RedNote has to adhere to the content moderation (or censorship) policies set for it by the Chinese government so this will be problematic with a surge of content coming from outside of China. TikTok, in contrast, is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, but is not available in China.

TikTok’s Revival

However, in the next few weeks, we will see whether RedNote’s popularity continues to rise as TikTok comes back from the cusp. It has been given a 75-day lifeline, with Trump determined to find a resolution to ensure the social media platform’s survival. He hasn’t reversed the ban altogether, though.

Options on the table include the US operations being sold to a team of entrepreneurs, including Shark Tank host, Kevin O’Leary. There are even rumors that Elon Musk is eyeing up the platform.

What the ByteDance execs now have is a little time; but there is still uncertainty and RedNote has shown that it’s only too happy to capitalize on that.

Won’t anybody think of the HR managers!? While companies the world over continue to end or curtail remote working arrangements, human resource leaders are finding the management of return-to-office (RTO) mandates one of the biggest challenges to handle.

That’s according to a new survey that asked more than 1,000 HR leaders about the leave and accommodations landscape within their companies – 1 in 4 respondents said that managing RTO mandates has been one of their top challenges in the last 12 months.

Yet despite an increasing number of employees being forced back into the physical workplace, working remotely remains the most common job accommodation request made to businesses.

Recruitment and Retention

Management platform AbsenceSoft carried out the survey for its 2025 State of Leave and Accommodations paper, which included a cohort of 1,200 HR and People Ops leaders at companies with no less than 500 employees.

One of its key questions was to ask respondents what their top challenges were in 2024, with ‘recruiting the right talent’ coming out on top with 57%.

Other frequent responses were ’employee stress and burnout’ (54%), ‘retaining valuable employees’ (52%) and ’employee health and well being’ (41%).

Due to the changing nature of the working landscape, supporting remote employees has fallen from the second biggest challenge, with just over a third of those surveyed saying it was an issue they faced. 24% said managing RTO mandates.

“With the proliferation of return-to-office mandates, it’s no surprise that remote work is not reported as being as big a challenge in 2025. However, it’s clear that today’s workforce isn’t getting any less stressed, and retention is becoming an issue as employees leave roles for more accommodating work environments.” – AbsenceSoft

Jury Still Out on RTO

HR managers aren’t the only ones who are finding the ‘great return to the office’ problematic.

We reported in October on survey results revealing that RTO mandates are driving employees to look for other jobs, with 73% of respondents having moved on from jobs because they didn’t like their employer’s work policy.

That isn’t stopping companies from proceeding to force staff back to the workplace, though. JP Morgan is the latest big name to issue a five-day-a-week RTO mandate, following in the footsteps of tech giants like Amazon, Dell, and Ubisoft.

While others such as Microsoft and Spotify are resisting such heavy handed workplace strategies.

Requests for Leave Increasing

Other notable findings from the survey included 57% of respondents saying that requests for leaves of absence increased year-on-year in 2024, and the top three reasons for leave risks pertained to recovering from illness or injury (57%), managing mental health-related issues (47%) and caring for an aging relative (37%).

When it comes to job accommodations, 51% of those surveyed said that a desire to work from home or via teleworking was among the top three requests they receive.

“We often think of job accommodations as something physical an employee with a disability needs, such as a chair for back pain or wrist brace for carpal tunnel syndrome. Our survey found that it’s much more likely that an employee will request less costly accommodations related to when and where they work.” – AbsenceSoft

That was followed by intermittent leave or reduced schedules (46%), specialized equipment (35%) and additional breaks (34%).

A select group of US officials are going to get to “meet” the “Ph.D-level” agents from OpenAI behind closed doors.

The meeting, which will reportedly take place on January 30th, is being hosted by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

However, details of what the officials will get to see are scant. When they do hit the press, they are sure to be accompanied by concerns about the power tech companies are unleashing. This is not least because legislation is dramatically lagging behind and because the Trump administration (and its gang of supporting tech bros) are advocates of minimal intervention when it comes to innovating to make big bucks.

What Is a Super Agent?

This is an AI agent that is capable of doing complex human tasks. They have the advantage of being able to deep dive through thousands of pieces of data autonomously and make sense of it – and in a fraction of the time of a human. This is why they have been described as comparable in intelligence to a Ph.D level student. They can tackle a goal, as opposed to a single task, says Axios, which broke the story.

Altman has suggested that this year will be meteoric for his company, as it pushes to make ChatGPT even more appealing.

This is also the year in which the company is striving to create AI agents that could “join the workforce and materially change the output of companies,” he shared in a blog post.

What the officials will actually be getting to see could be something entirely different, aimed specifically at government services, as opposed to bookings.

AI Arms Race

Creating these super agents or Agentic AI is becoming the Holy Grail for those competing in the AI sphere. Meta has been furiously pushing its Llama-powered Meta AI on its social media platforms and messaging apps. It has also made the open source AI model available to the US government to “support the prosperity and security of the United States.”

Meanwhile, Amazon is facing accusations that it is falling behind as it admits that AI Alexa is nowhere near ready for public consumption. This is despite the billions the company has pumped into AI wunderkind Anthropic.

Microsoft is facing similar negativity but specifically from the CEO of Salesforce. Marc Benioff has called Microsoft’s AI assistant, Copilot, a “huge disaster” and “…the new Microsoft Clippy.”

Whatever OpenAI is going to show off has got to be something above and beyond what is available now or even what we can imagine to merit such covertness.

Concerns Abound

While we don’t know the details, the fact that the closed-door meeting is being held with government officials might get federal employees concerned.

They are already facing four years under a president who strongly believes that there is government wastage to attack – and has appointed his DOGE team to do so. Could AI play a role in cutting costs too?

The World Economic Forum warned earlier this month that 41% of companies will make job cuts in the next five years because of AI. With the most powerful men in tech now behind the Trump Administration, could the US Government and its many departments be one of the first places where agentic AI is given a place at the table?

While many experts consider AI to be the future of productivity gains at work, new research has warned that careless use of chatbots by workers may leave their employers exposed to costly data leaks.

It says that nearly one in 10 prompts entered into generative AI tools by workers include sensitive data, with a large number comprising customer data such as billing information.

With the majority of these prompts being inputted into the free versions of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots like Copilot, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, businesses are potentially more exposed than they would be with paid tiers.

Sensitive Customer Information

In a report produced by Harmonic – a cybersecurity startup specializing in artificial intelligence – the company says it analyzed tens of thousands of prompts made by businesses to the planet’s biggest AI chatbots during Q4 2024.

It found that, while the vast majority of usage is harmless (e.g. summarizing text, editing blogs, writing documentation for code), 8.5% of all prompts included sensitive information.

Of that sensitive data, more than 45% instances included information such as customer reports and profiles, payment transactions, billing information, and credit card details.

Harmonic gives an employee entering the particulars of an insurance claim, which will often contain private, detailed information, as an example of using AI to save time.

“While efficient, this practice risks exposing sensitive customer information like billing details, authentication credentials, and payment transactions.” – Harmonic spokesperson

Intellectual Property Concerns

The research revealed that around a quarter of the prompts investigated contained employee data (e.g. personally identifiable information, payroll, employment records), which could leave individuals exposed.

The remainder concerned legal and finance, security, and sensitive code. That will be an even greater concern for businesses, as the leaking of such information could give competitive advantage to other companies, bring about regulatory compliance issues, and “provide attackers with a blueprint for exploiting vulnerabilities.”

“When we think of data leakage, our minds often immediately go to PII, social security numbers, credit cards, and API keys,” says an accompanying blog from Harmonic. “However, for many businesses, the concerns are more often around IP – source code, intellectual property.”

Problem with Free Tiers

Harmonic says that the data it has discovered is even more concerning when considered alongside the fact that most of the prompts are entered using the free tiers of chatbots; more than 50% of all the ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude entries it looked at were on their respective free tiers.

That’s because, the company says, using a free product rather than a paid-for enterprise-level plan means that the business doesn’t get the benefit of extra security features. Plus, many free-tier tools explicitly state they train on customer data, meaning sensitive information entered could be used to improve models, further compounding risks.

It’s not the first time that businesses have been warned against the risks of their staff using AI tools. Consumer tech giant Samsung restricted their use after sensitive code was leaked in 2023, while a study last year revealed that 77% of businesses have faced AI security breaches.

It will surprise absolutely no one that President Trump’s first day in office included an return-to-office mandate.

Addressed to the “heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government,” the notice insists on a full-time return to office and says employees must make it so “as soon as practicable.”

Trump has been open in his feelings towards remote working. In a recent news conference, he stated bluntly: “If people don’t come back to work… they’re going to be dismissed.” While employees working for the likes of Dell and Amazon have pushed back against strict RTO mandates, the White House looks increasingly unlikely to negotiate.

No Explanation

The statement published by The White House is short and snappy. While CEOs of the big tech companies have tried to make their RTO mandates easier to swallow with assertions about team building and collaboration, there has been no such mercy from Trump’s team.

It states that employees must “…take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis.” It does add that “the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.”

The mandate will hit hard, because currently more than half of some departments work remotely. On top of that, the Department of Education and General Services Administration will be among those where the changes will be felt most.

More To Come?

It’s fair to suggest that more mandates will no doubt follow with Trump calling remote working policies “terrible” and “ridiculous.”

His two DOGE chiefs — Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — are also outspoken advocates of having everyone in the office full time. Musk has enforced strict policies at his own ventures and voiced his plan to do the same in Government.

In a Wall Street Journal op ed, the duo wrote: “If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the COVID-era privilege of staying home.”

Musk has also stated that the RTO mandate is a way of slimming down the federal workforce – with a wave of “voluntary terminations.” He said that workers who can’t make being in the office five days a week work for them should quit and move on.

He isn’t alone in taking such a brutal stance. It is a charge that was laid squarely at Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy – though he denied it.

Thorn in His Side

Around 42,000 workers may have a reprieve, as they fall under an agreement signed between President Biden and the Social Security Administration and the American Federation of Government Employees union in early December.

Under the terms of the deal, these employees will have to right to hybrid working until 2029. It sparked an immediate backlash from Republican senators, including Senator James Comer on X.

Trump has suggested that he will seek out a court order to reverse the impact of the deal, leaving thousands of employees facing uncertainty as they become pawns in a battle between the outgoing and incoming administrations and their opposing views on hybrid working.

Meta says that it is not going to shelve third-party fact-checking outside of the US, seeming to give weight to the rumors that the move in America was very much a political one.

Mark Zuckerberg himself laid out the sweeping changes to moderation, claiming that the Community Notes program that would be put in place instead would “empower the community”. He also pointed to X as an example of how this model works, which raised a few wry eyebrows.

However, the Meta chief followed the news just days later with a plea to the then soon-to-be president, Donald Trump – to protect US companies from EU fines, pre-empting a negative response to the moderation move outside of the US.

No Change for Meta Moderation Outside US…Yet

In an interview with Bloomberg, Meta’s head of global business Nicola Mendelsohn suggested that the company is going to keep the present status-quo but didn’t rule out changes in the future.

She said: “We’ll see how that goes as we move it out over the year. So nothing changing in the rest of the world at the moment, we are still working with those fact checkers around the world.”

In the US, Meta has called for users to sign up to its moderation program (Facebook, Instagram, Threads) and roll-out will start in the next couple of months.

What Will Users See in the US?

The changes that will kick off in the US were laid out by Meta’s newly-appointed chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan in a statement that was published alongside Zuckerberg’s video.

Kaplan said that Meta will “stop demoting fact-checked content.” He added too that a “much less obtrusive label indicating that there is additional information for those who want to see it” will replace “full screen interstitial warnings.”

Kaplan added that the company will be “getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender”.

Why Could There Be Issues for Meta in the EU?

The changes have already caused concern. Former Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is co-chair of Meta’s independent oversight board, told the BBC that she was worried that there could be a spike in hate speech, especially towards people in the LGBTQ+ communities. “We are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real-life harm, so we will be watching that space very carefully,” she said.

However, she will not be alone in scrutinizing the content. A pre-emptive war of words has already kicked off between Zuckerberg and EU authorities. In an interview with Joe Rogan, the Meta CEO rallied against the EU fines his company has had to pay in antitrust rulings. He said: “I think it’s a strategic advantage for the US that we have a lot of the strongest companies in the world, and I think it should be part of the US strategy going forward to defend that.”

As reported by Reuters, Zuckerberg went as far as the say that EU rules were choking innovation. “Europe has an ever increasing number of laws institutionalizing censorship and making it difficult to build anything innovative there,” he said. But the European Commission hit straight back and said: “We absolutely refute any claims of censorship.” It also said that it did not prescribe any specific form of moderation for social media platforms but “…whatever model a platform chooses needs to be effective.”

So while Zuckerberg might now have the favor of the US president and approval for his hands-off model, other countries have a very different view of what moderation should look like.

Donald Trump has revoked an executive order put in place by Joe Biden that aimed to “drive safe, secure, and trustworthy development of AI”.

The order, created in October 2023, was the first ever executive order on how artificial intelligence is being developed and used in the US and was seen as a response to experts calling for greater regulation on the sector.

The move seeks to deliver on the Republican Party’s pre-election promise to repeal an act it called “dangerous” and support the development of AI in the United States.

Unleashing the Potential of American Citizens

Among a raft of executive orders signed by Trump on his first day back in the White House – including to give TikTok a 75 day lifeline – was one named the ‘Initial Recissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions’.

The stated purpose of the order is to reverse practices forwarded by the Biden administration that it claims are “deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical”.

“To commence the policies that will make our Nation united, fair, safe, and prosperous again, it is the policy of the United States to restore common sense to the Federal Government and unleash the potential of the American citizen.” — President Trump’s executive order

Among the 78 revoked laws was Biden’s ‘Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence passed on 30th October 2023.

Championing Innovation

Biden’s order broke ground by attempting, among other things, to establish standards for detecting AI-generated content, protect user privacy, lower cases of algorithmic discrimination and address concerns around national security.

At the time, White House Chief of Staff Bruce Reed claimed it to be the “strongest set of actions” any government had taken to safeguard AI (although the EU AI Act 2023 had been passed earlier in the year).

However, the 2024 Republican Party Platform upon which Trump built his campaign to return to the presidency clearly laid out the GOP’s thoughts on and intentions for the order as part of its plans to ‘Champion Innovation’:

“We will repeal Joe Biden’s dangerous Executive Order that hinders AI Innovation, and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology. In its place, Republicans support AI Development rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.” – 2024 Republican Party Platform

Progress vs Protection

The reversal of the order will likely be music to the ears of the cavalcade of big tech CEOS who were in attendance at Trump’s inauguration, which included Elon Musk, Tim Cook and Sam Altman.

Only last week, an executive at OpenAI (that owns ChatGPT and is run my Altman) called artificial intelligence “a race America can and must win” and warned that failure to do so would stifle innovation and allow China and other foreign powers to gain an upper hand with the tech.

But there remain critics of the fast moving nature of the industry and what negative effect upcoming AI trends may have on the country. These fears were writ large when California lawmakers tried passing a controversial AI bill last year, with supporters voicing concerns that its rapid growth could lead to sweeping job cuts.

It may not be a complete reversal of the TikTok ban, but users of the social media platform in the US have been granted an extra 75 days of use while the incoming president considers its future in the country.

On his first day back in the White House, Donald Trump passed an executive order to temporarily halt the ban to allow him to “negotiate a resolution to avoid an abrupt shutdown of the TikTok platform”.

That gives the US government until Saturday 5th April to explore ways with TikTok owner Bytedance and Chinese officials in which the service can be saved in the US.

“TikTok is Back”

Trump promised during is reelection campaign that voting for him would mean a stop to the TikTok ban.

And while the long awaited TikTok ban came into effect on Sunday, its estimated 170 million US users didn’t have to wait for long before normal service was restored – the blackout lasted roughly 12 hours, with a notification from the platform telling its users that: “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”

The reprieve was then made formal on Monday in an executive order formally titled ‘The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’.

National Security Considerations

In the text of the order, Trump took a swipe at outgoing president Joe Biden, saying: “The unfortunate timing of [the ban] — one day before I took office as the 47th President of the United States — interferes with my ability to assess the national security and foreign policy implications of the Act’s prohibitions before they take effect.”

Trump stopped short from reversing the ban altogether and the clock has begun ticking again on the app’s future, giving the government until early April to consider the “national security concerns” posed by TikTok and to “review sensitive intelligence related to those concerns and evaluate the sufficiency of mitigation measures TikTok has taken to date”.

“I am instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.” – Donald Trump’s executive order

However, the 75 days is likely to be seen more as a negotiating window, with the @TeamTrump handle on the president’s own Truth Social platform saying: “President Trump signs an Executive Order to keep TikTok alive so that a deal can be reached”

CEOs Out in Force for the President

In addition to the deadline extension itself, the executive order also instructs the Department of Justice that no action is to be taken against any parties that had not complied with the ban during its brief enactment.

That means any service providers who may have continued to allow TikTok’s use on Sunday – inadvertently or otherwise – will avoid punishment.

This and a raft of other executive orders were passed shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday 20th January, with big tech CEOs in attendance such as Elon Musk (X, SpaceX, Tesla), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Tim Cook (Apple), Sundar Pichai (Google) and Sam Altman (OpenAI) as well as TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chou.

If you’re watching the inauguration of Donald Trump today, you’ll likely see some familiar faces, as a bevy of tech CEOs have accepted invitations to be part of the dais at the Capitol to kick off the new administration.

Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency has set of a domino effect in the tech industry over the last few months. CEOs have quickly gotten in line since the November election, announcing new policies and ditching old features that cater to more “liberal” sensibilities.

Now, the big tech support is in full swing, with a parade of CEOs showing the world that the most innovative industry in the world is very much on board with this administration and whatever it plans to do.

Tech CEOs at Trump’s Inauguration

Trump is set to be sworn into the office of the presidency at 12pm EST in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. The event will be held indoors for the first time since 1985, with colder temperatures expected in the nation’s capital.

While the scores of Trump supporters that traveled to Washington D.C. to see the event will not be in attendance, there will be plenty of big tech CEOs in the spotlight, including:

• Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla
• Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta
• Jeff Bezos, former CEO of Amazon
• Tim Cook, CEO of Apple
• Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google
• Shou Zi Chou, CEO of TikTok
• Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI
• Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber

Attending the inauguration certainly isn’t the only support that these CEOs have shown the incoming president. These CEOs and their companies have contributed $1 million each to the inaugural fund, likely to curry favor with Trump before his next run as president kicks off.

‘An Oligarchy Is Taking Shape’

In his farewell address to the nation, President Joe Biden warned about this kind of support, warning citizens that this “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people” should be at the top of mind throughout the next four years of Trump’s presidency.

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.” – President Joe Biden

To be fair, the US doesn’t really have a leg to stand on when refuting its oligarchic tendencies. The country has been cutting taxes for the rich while denying its citizens basic rights like healthcare and education through outrageous prices and predatory lending schemes. Still, there is mounting evidence that this will get notably worse under Trump, so I guess, thanks for the warning, Joe.

Is Tech Moving Right?

If it was just tech CEOs supporting Trump at his inauguration, that wouldn’t be entirely surprising. After all, billionaires are always going to stick together, right?

Well, it’s unfortunately a bit more pressing than that. As we’ve seen over the last few months, Trump’s rise in popularity has fueled a shift in the tech industry, encouraging decision makers to cater to the controversial president’s base on their platforms.

We’ve got Elon Musk gutting the hate speech protections on X, Mark Zuckerberg discontinuing the use of fact checkers on Facebook, and TikTok thanking the incoming president for helping it avoid the ban in the US. It’s safe to say these platforms are going to continue moving to the right until the rest of us have no choice but to find a suitable alternative.

Was one of your New Year’s resolutions to level up in your career? If so, the good news is that search giant Google is currently hiring for new talent, and lots of available roles don’t even require you to leave your house.

While Google’s selection of remote roles isn’t quite as expansive as other tech companies like Microsoft, over 50 WFH-friendly positions are currently available, with specialisms ranging from sales to cybersecurity.

We’ve rounded up some examples of roles that are currently up for grabs, and also paint a picture of what it could be like to work at the Silicon Valley mega weight from home, to help bring your fully-remote dreams closer to reality.

Fully Remote Jobs at Google for January 2025

Want to know the best way to fight the January blues? Landing your dream job at Google.

At the time of writing, Google is hiring for 56 fully remote positions – 34 more than this time last month. While these roles require employees to report to offices across the US, they’re still able to be carried out remotely. It’s worth looking at the the job listings’ ‘remote location’, however, as certain roles are only hiring remote workers based in specific states.

Take a look at some of Google’s fully remote roles, alongside their remote location, below:

• Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy Manager (Remote location: California, USA)
• Field Sales Representative II, Google Public Sector (Remote location: Florida, USA)
• Field Sales Representative III, Google Public Sector (Remote location: California, USA)
• Cloud Security Platform Engineer, Google Public Sector (Remote location: Anywhere in the USA)
• Senior Cyber Security Consultant, Public Sector (Remote locations: Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, USA)
• Senior Field Sales Representative, Navy, Google Public Sector (Remote location: South Carolina, USA)
• Partner Engineering Manager, Security, Google Cloud (Remote location: California, USA)
• Business Intelligence Sales Specialist III, Google Cloud (Remote location: Florida, USA)
• Cyber Defense Detection Engineer, Mandiant, Google Cloud (Remote location: Ohio, USA)

Take a look at Google’s career page to browse through more remote-friendly job listings.

What Is It Like to Work at Google Remotely?

While Google may no longer unanimously be seen as the best place to work in Silicon Valley, the Mountain View tech company still offers an abundance of in-office perks, including exciting bonuses like free meals from one of its micro kitchens and free access to its on-site gyms. But does this mean that remote employees will be missing out? Well, not entirely.

Remote workers are still entitled to enviable paid time off (PTO) packages, enabling them to take an adequate amount of time off whether they’re sick, going on vacation, or about to take on more caregiving responsibilities. Google also covers the cost of gym memberships for fully-remote employees, to encourage fitness and to help workers reduce stress. These perks, combined with the obvious privilege of working from home, will make working at Google a dream opportunity for many.

But the search giant isn’t the only tech company opening its arms to remote workers, as we explore next.

What Other Top Companies Are Hiring For Fully Remote Roles?

Working at Google will likely be the pinnacle of most people’s careers, but it’s not the only prominent tech company seeking out remote workers.

Microsoft has been a flexible working pioneer since the early days of the pandemic and is bucking the return to office (RTO) trend in 2025 by letting employees work from wherever they’re most productive. While the company officially has a hybrid model in place, it’s also actively hiring for a huge number of fully remote roles, with over 900 WFH-friendly opportunities available this month alone.

Streaming giant Spotify is also renowned for its flexible ‘Work From Anywhere’ policy which supports employees to work wherever they want, while short-term rental platform Airbnb’s ‘Live and Work Anywhere’ program also champions workers to work from anywhere around the globe. The truth is that if you really want to ditch the office in 2025, chances are you’ll be able to – as long as you know where to look. There are plenty of companies committed to remote work in 2025.

For more exciting job listings, check out our guide to fully-remote jobs you can apply for this January.

Since launching in the US market eight years ago, TikTok has been used by millions of Americans to connect with like-minded people, keep up with trends, and escape stress with some light-hearted comic relief.

However, after a long-standing tug-of-war between US politicians and TikTok parent company ByteDance over the app’s shady data collection practices, TikTok is on track to getting banned this week – unless the legislation is overturned or delayed by Congress in the eleventh hour.

Not ready to give up your Sunday night doom scroll? Rest assured, there are ways you can evade the looming ban with a little preparation. We outline how exactly this can be done in simple steps, so you can keep scrolling to your heart’s content if the ban does come into effect.

When Is TikTok Getting Banned In The US?

After a long back-and-forth between US legislators and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, TikTok is on track to get banned in the US on Sunday, January 19. This is unless the Supreme Court accepts a last-minute legal bid from ByteDance, claiming that the action would be unconstitutional.

If the ban takes place this weekend, users aren’t legally obliged to stop using the app, nor will it magically vanish from smartphones. However, with rumors circulating that the Byte-Dance-owned company will make the app unavailable to US users the day the ban goes into effect, we recommend taking precautionary measures while you still can.

How To Access TikTok After The Ban

Not ready to say goodbye to your favorite app? Follow the steps below to side-step TikTok’s looming ban:

1. Keep the app downloaded

If the ban goes ahead on January 19, the TikTok app will no longer be available to download from US app stores. Existing users will still be able to use TikTok if it’s already on their smartphones, though.

So, if you want to carry on using TikTok after its potential ban date, all you need to do is keep the app on your phone. However, you should be aware that as the app won’t be receiving regular updates, it will likely become less secure and more buggy over time.

2. Choose a VPN

To access TikTok after the ban, you’ll also need to use a VPN. VPNs are privacy tools that conceal a user’s Internet Protocol (IP) address. Not only does this obfuscation make it harder for cybercriminals to access user data, but it also allows users to bypass geo-restrictions and access content from anywhere in the world.

Lots of free VPNs don’t offer strong security protocols, however, and in some cases can actually leave devices more vulnerable to exploits like malware and DDoS attacks. To stay on the safe side, we recommend using a trusted provider like SurfShark, as it offers in-built security mechanisms and the fastest server speeds of any VPN we tested.

Pure VPN is another option that can help you avoid lag when scrolling through TikTok, or accessing other streaming services due to its fast response times. Check out our guide to the best VPN providers for iPhone for a detailed comparison of our favorite tools.

3. Open the VPN and select a location where TikTok isn’t blocked

Once you’ve downloaded and opened your chosen VPN, simply change your geo-location to a country where TikTok isn’t banned. Your choice will be pretty extensive as only a handful of countries have banned the app outright, including India, Jordan, Afghanistan, and Nepal.

You should bear in mind that using a VPN with TikTok will change what content you see on the app. So we’d suggest only choosing an English-speaking country, like the UK or Canada if you speak English as a first language. If you’re under 16, we’d recommend against using Australian geo-locations, however, due to the country’s age restrictions.

4. Open VPN and scroll TikTok

Once you’ve completed the steps above, you’ll be free to use TikTok as usual.

If, for any reason, you have to delete the short-form video app, it is also possible to download it again by changing the location of the App Store or Google Play to outside of the US. Doing so will also lift update restrictions on TikTok, so it’s worth taking this extra step if you don’t want your experience on the app to deteriorate in the future.

What Are The Best TikTok Alternatives?

TikTok’s unique algorithm is expert in knowing what content to recommend, but if you aren’t interested in using a VPN, or you’ve been considering moving on from the app anyway, other alternatives exist.

Our top recommendation is YouTube Shorts, as the functionality is already built into the YouTube platform, making it easily accessible, and in many cases, preventing users from having to download a separate app. YouTube Shorts takes your viewing history into account as well, helping provide you with more tailored short-form content.

Instagram Reels is another popular alternative, with a similar interface and algorithm to TikTok, and much of the same short-form content. There are lots of emerging lesser-known platforms too, so check out our full guide to the best TikTok alternatives for our full round-up.

Google has sent a letter in response to a new EU law requiring fact-checks on its search results and YouTube videos. Their response? Google won’t be adding the checks.

Google has never used fact-checking in its content moderation, despite the massive cultural dominance of its search results and YouTube videos — to say nothing of the hallucinations offered by the AI summaries that Google has been appending to most search engine results pages.

The European Commission’s recent Disinformation Code of Practice aims to combat disinformation online. However, like a lot of tech giants in 2025, Google is signalling a lack of interest in playing along.

The Letter

The news was broken by Axios, which obtained a letter penned by Google’s global affairs president Kent Walker to Renate Nikolay, the deputy director general for the European Commission’s content and technology wing.

In it, Walker states that Google won’t commit to the required fact-checking, saying it “simply isn’t appropriate or effective for our services.”

Meeting the EU regulations would call for Google to include fact-checking results alongside Google and Youtube searches, as well as incorporating fact-checks into its ranking systems and algorithms themselves.

According to Axios, Walker instead pointed to the “significant potential” of the user-generated contextual notes that YouTube enabled last year, which function similarly to Twitter/X’s Community Notes program.

Google’s Issues With Disinformation

Google’s AI summaries have been dinged for inaccuracies in the recent past ranging from recommending Elmer’s glue in pizza sauce to claiming former US President James Madison graduated from the University of Wisconsin 21 times. Granted, those examples are from last year, but I’ve spoken to colleagues in just the last month who have noted inaccuracies in Google’s summaries.

Needless to say, this isn’t a great look for the most well-known search engine on the planet.

But making the changes required to turn out dependable results consistently would require significant changes to the tech giant’s algorithm. Judging from its new letter, Google either doesn’t have confidence that it can make those changes, or doesn’t think that it can keep profits high enough while doing so.

Google Isn’t the Only Tech Platform That Won’t Moderate

In 2025, it seems that ditching fact-checkers and moderation is a trend for tech giants.

Most recently, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally announced a Meta policy change that will see an end to fact-checks and a reduction in moderation across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

But the original source for the current trend might be the years-old Twitter takeover by controversial billionaire Elon Musk, who has presided over a Community Notes program that Meta, and now Google, will be cribbing from.

Whatever the case, tech giants appear to be adapting a “not our problem” approach to the content on their world-reshaping platforms.

US Duolingo users have started learning Mandarin en masse, as the date for the US ban of the popular social video platform TikTok has neared.

Why has the ban of a global app led to a massive interest in learning a new language? Mostly because of the viral trend for replacing TikTok with another app: Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote.

RedNote’s surging success doesn’t mean that the app’s US popularity will last much longer than the current news cycle, however. It takes a long time for a new social media platform to reach anywhere near the heights that TikTok earned for itself.

Duolingo Weighs in on the Latest Social Platform Kerfuffle

Duolingo’s status as the most well-known US language teaching app makes it a great yardstick for our nation’s shifting cultural interests.

Now, a new post from Duolingo highlights the sharp uptick in US TikTok users in figuring out Mandarin, the biggest branch of East Asian languages and the one language with the most native speakers worldwide.

According to the post, new Mandarin learners have jumped up by about 216% year-over-year.

Learning Mandarin out of spite? You’re not alone.

We’ve seen a ~216% growth in new Chinese (Mandarin) learners in the US compared to this time last year. https://t.co/9hzwBxfTgD pic.twitter.com/qWM9f5oFYA

— Duolingo (@duolingo) January 15, 2025

How many users will actually stick with the language, however, is a tougher question to answer. As anyone who’s tried Duolingo can tell you, keeping a streak going is a challenge.

The RedNote Hype Cycle Has Kicked Off

Part of the reason why RedNote is such a hit: The enjoyable irony behind a second, far more Chinese app gaining attention from Americans right after the US government has gotten rid of the previous one, whack-a-mole style.

Still, there’s one benefit: The whole ordeal has definitely boosted awareness in the US of the variety of government censorship concerns that often bubble under the news-coverage surface for both China and the United States.

Red Note is doing what they feared Tik Tok would. pic.twitter.com/FhhBRR4HWl

— Jessica (Ka) Burbank (@JessicaLBurbank) January 16, 2025

The conversation has surfaced plenty of xenophobia as well, both from those who think China is inherently evil and those who opt for a “benevolent xenophobia” and decide that China must be inherently good.

Can RedNote Go the Distance?

Although the Chinese app has been positioned as a TikTok-style platform — it even made our list of potential TikTok alternatives — some informed reports are calling it more of a cross between Instagram and Pinterest.

Whatever the case, it’s not clear that the rapid rise of this app can be sustained. Competitors like Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts are well-established, and are backed by tech giants Meta and Google, respectively. Meanwhile, RedNote is designed for Chinese users first, making it a tough sell.

Consider the success story of another primary-color-themed social media upstart: Bluesky has been growing steadily since gaining prominence way back in 2023, and despite the continual struggles of its main competitor, it still has a long way to go. In contrast, RedNote’s US presence is still a blip on the radar.

Well, it’s official: An increased reliance on artificial intelligence has been linked to diminished critical thinking abilities, a new study has found.

This might not come as much of a surprise to any AI naysayers out there. AI tools are huge timesavers, but they’re also a great way to avoid reading, writing, and other activities that can function as a mental gym.

But are AI tools a complete dead end for human advancement, or do they still have a place within a well-rounded tech diet? Here’s how the new study went about determining the downsides of AI, and the specifics of what it found.

The Problem: AI Tools Trigger ‘Cognitive Offloading’

The study, out this month in Societies, is titled “AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking.” It pulls from a mix of surveys and interviews covering 666 UK participants across a range of age groups and educational backgrounds, completed by Michael Gerlich at SBS Swiss Business School.

According to the study, the problems were more of a concern for younger people: “Younger participants exhibited higher dependence on AI tools and lower critical thinking scores compared to older participants.”

In the end, AI tool reliance was a problem due to cognitive offloading, the term for the action of “delegat[ing] cognitive tasks to external aids, reducing […] engagement in deep, reflective thinking.”

In other words, letting AI take over more tasks reduces the type of brain workout that helps people learn. 

The Solution: More “Critical Engagement”

All isn’t lost however, as the study’s findings lead to a simple recommendation to address the problem:

“These results highlight the potential cognitive costs of AI tool reliance, emphasizing the need for educational strategies that promote critical engagement with AI technologies.” – the study

Granted, the solution falls on our overworked educational system, which may not be able to handle yet another pivot in how it educates our youth. However, the answer seems easy enough. We just need to make sure that we’re not losing our ability to critically engage with our work, even if AI tools are serving to complete some of the effort.

This aligns with the warnings that already abound surrounding the use of generative AI chatbots. The biggest one is that they can hallucinate the summaries or answers that they deliver, so all users should take any definitive statements that an LLM offers with a grain of salt.

AI Adoption Isn’t Slowing Down Any Time Soon

The study doesn’t get into the larger implications of AI adoption, but AI tools are currently being rolled out as value-adds to countless software services.

At the same time, C-suite executives everywhere are practically salivating at the idea of cutting their workforces in half under the assumption that the still-unrealized power of AI can make up the difference.

In moderation, a little cognition offloading can be helpful. After all, assistive technology from PCs to smartphones have offered plenty of cognition offloading for decades now. But the potential for overdoing it – according to studies like this new one – remains high.

Like it or not, AI is reshaping the modern world. Let’s hope it’s for the better.

As the battle of words continues between Microsoft and Salesforce over their respective agentic AI offerings, ChatGPT has sneaked in an upgrade that shows it is pushing hard in that area too.

OpenAI is bringing reminder or recurring requests scheduling to its AI assistant as a beta and the roll out will start worldwide this week.

However, the option will just be available for paying customers — those signed up to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro — as the company claws back some funds after its Pro package fails to make money.

What Is the New ChatGPT Beta Feature?

Called Tasks, the feature allows users to set simple reminders using ChatGPT.

These can be reminders for deadlines to pay bills, however, the requests can also be more complex. You could ask ChatGPT to create a plan for your Saturday, for example, taking into account the weather forecast and where you will be.

Users can engage with the new Tasks option from the dropdown menu in the ChatGPT web app but OpenAI says that users might also see the AI assistant make its own suggestions of tasks based on chats you have with it.

Tasks can be managed by chatting with the AI assistant on any platform. However, they can’t be set through Advanced Voice Mode during the beta testing period, but perhaps this is something we can hope for in the future.

Limited Scheduling Abilities…for the Moment

Reminders are something we now use routinely with Siri and Alexa; and so in that respect, ChatGPT is playing catch up. However, this is the first step and OpenAI says that it will use data from this beta testing period to see how users are working with Tasks.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been open in his hopes for AI agents and put this into words in a blog posted a week ago. He wrote: “We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents “join the workforce” and materially change the output of companies.”

According to Bloomberg, one of the first releases could be an agent called Operator, which can book travel and write code.

Innovation for ChatGPT but at What Cost?

With more independent agents, though, comes security concerns. OpenAI’s safeguarding measures have already been put under the spotlight; and continue to be scrutinized.

In particular, both US senators and former OpenAI employees questioned why Altman was a member of the company’s oversight committee. Created to look at company’s creations from a safety angle, this committee’s independence was at stake, critics argued, with Altman on board. He has since stepped down.

However, the creation of formal frameworks for AI technology development continue to prove divisive. While there is support for an AI safety bill, the language of any such legislation is proving hard to get consensus upon.

The last iteration of the AI Safety Bill was blocked by Gavin Newsome, Governor of California, who supports the idea of a bill but said that this version isn’t “…the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology”.

The wrangle continues while the technology companies keep pushing the boundaries of what their agentic AI can do; and we know that their innovation is happening far faster than any legislation.

In what is being termed an ambitious move, President Biden has signed an executive order to help the infrastructure needed for AI operations to be built fast and at scale.

AI data centers are notoriously power hungry and so this is a bid to ensure that this demand can be met.

Tech giants have been working themselves to ensure power supplies for their own AI efforts, with both Google and Microsoft turning to nuclear power to service their needs.

What Has Biden Promised?

The key promise in Biden’s statement is access to land. Both the departments of Defense and Energy will be asked to put forward at least three sites each that could potentially be developed by private companies into AI data centers. The process will be competitive, Biden added.

The land will be leased to these companies but they will own whatever is created there, the statement explains. Some plots will be reserved for small and medium companies working in the AI sphere so that the larger companies don’t dominate.

The construction costs will be borne by the private sector and they will need to have enough clean power generation on site to power whatever facilities they build.

However, the Government is promising help with “constructing, financing, facilitating, and planning the upgrade and development of transmission lines around those sites.”

What’s at Stake?

Biden insists that the move is necessary if the US is to maintain its lead in the AI space. He writes that “we cannot take our lead for granted. We will not let America be out-built when it comes to the technology that will define the future, nor should we sacrifice critical environmental standards and our shared efforts to protect clean air and clean water.”

The outgoing president also talked about the benefits of AI for the nation and argued that these are huge reasons for expediency. AI will have “profound implications for national security and enormous potential to improve Americans’ lives if harnessed responsibly, from helping cure disease to keeping communities safe by mitigating the effects of climate change,” he wrote.

Unprecedented Energy Demands

A report published in July (PDF) by the Department of Energy detailed the demand. It explained: “Connection requests for hyperscale facilities of 3001000MW or larger with lead times of 1-3 years are stretching the capacity of local grids to deliver and supply power at that pace.”

It adds: “The scale of the potential growth of both the electricity and the information technology sectors due to AI is extraordinary and represents the leading edge of projected electricity demand growth.”

Another report from the department, quoted by AP News, suggests that the demand for electricity to power data centers has tripled in the past ten years and could do the same by as early as 2028.

Biden is pushing now for infrastructure to be built so that the power networks and data centers can keep up with the projected AI demand. This order is a bid to keep AI innovation pushing ahead and ensure that the US is not dependent on other countries to support this growth.

There are 170 million US users of TikTok that, by all reports, were going to lose access to their favorite social media app on January 19th.

However, while the app did shut down for a few hours, the TikTok ban in the US was avoided and US users again have the ability to scroll endlessly on vertical videos. Still, many feel like the app isn’t the same after the ban, which is why finding a TikTok alternative has become such a pressing priority.

Fortunately, there are some options out there that will suffice. In this guide, we’ll outline some of the best TikTok alternatives out there, accompanied by unique screenshots from each platform’s video, comments, and discover page interface.

YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts is probably going to be your most logical alternative to TikTok. The service is already built into the YouTube platform, so you likely won’t have to download a new app, and the functionality is remarkably similar, with the same vertical scrolling videos and overall interface of TikTok.

The benefit of using YouTube Shorts is that its algorithm likely already has a leg-up on the other alternatives on this list. If you’ve used YouTube in the past, Shorts takes your likes and viewing history into account. Even if you haven’t used YouTube enough for it to get a feel for what you like, Google — the owner of YouTube — certainly has enough resources to figure it out faster than the likes of Snapchat or Lemon8.

The downside? YouTube Shorts is thoroughly integrated with the rest of the YouTube platform, which can get a bit complicated to use. The Discover page, for example, includes all YouTube videos with merely a small section for Shorts, so you’ll have to get a bit more acclimated to the YouTube platform as a whole, rather than just use a simple alternative.

Instagram Reels

If you’d like to reward Mark Zuckerberg for spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to get TikTok banned in the US, Instagram Reels is the TikTok alternative for you.

Like YouTube Shorts, Reels is a part of Instagram, so there’s a chance you’ve already interacted with it if you use the social media platform on a regular basis. Like all the alternatives on this list, the interface is largely the same, although the Reels in question are both integrated with regular posts, as well as found in the Explore and Reels tabs.

So why are people hesitant to jump on the Reels bandwagon? Well, for starters, Instagram’s parent company Meta is arguably the primary reason for the TikTok ban, encouraging lawmakers to nix the app because of “national security.” Additionally, Instagram Reels is just a lame version of TikTok, offering outdated memes, cringe creators, and a general unfun vibe for users.

Lemon8

It isn’t part of a platform you already use; Lemon8 is its own thing. The social media app launched in Japan in 2020, but it’s seen increasing popularity with US users recently given the looming TikTok ban.

To be clear, though, Lemon8 isn’t a general video app. The  caters primarily to lifestyle creators, offering a wide range of how-to and walkthrough videos that showcase how people live, rather than the viral sensations you find on TikTok.

Even worse, Lemon8 is also owned by ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, so there is potential for Lemon8 to be included in the current US ban, or subject to a future US ban if it becomes too popular. All that to say, Lemon8 could tragically have the same end as TikTok if too many find it to be a viable alternative.

Snapchat Spotlight

Snapchat Spotlight is the way to go when it comes to TikTok alternatives if you’d like to avoid the big tech elephant in the room. Despite many attempts, Snapchat is not owned by Meta, or any other big tech firm, and has been firm in its efforts to stay independent from those kinds of influences.

The Snapchat Spotlight tool is similar to YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, though, in that it’s merely a part of the Snapchat system, and the interface is the same with vertical scrolling videos, hashtags, comments, likes, and all of that stuff you’ve come to love from TikTok.

The primary difference from Snapchat Spotlight and other options on this list, though, is that it doesn’t offer a dedicated Discover page to find new videos. Snapchat is still firmly committed to its Stories functionality, so the explore feature is all stories, but you can still scroll through new videos from users you don’t follow.

RedNote

If you’re looking for a TikTok alternative that flies in the face of those that sought to ban it, RedNote is a Chinese app with a very similar interface to TikTok. Vertical scrolling videos, likes and comments, and a built-in shop to support creators can all be found on this app.

It’s worth noting, however, that RedNote is not just a Chinese-owned app like TikTok; it’s a full-on Chinese app. As of now, the majority of content is created by Chinese users and the majority of comments and captions are in Mandarin. Granted, that could change with the recent influx of American users, but for now, that’s what you’re signing up for.

On top of that, RedNote users are subject to far stricter terms and conditions, with the app adhering to Chinese regulatory and censorship laws. Subsequently, it’s a lot easier to get banned or suspended from using the app if you don’t follow the rules. Unfortunately, the majority of the terms and conditions are also in Mandarin.

Get a VPN

The TikTok ban has been avoided for now, but it’s safe to say that there is always a risk that something like this could happen again. So, is there a way to ensure you’ll always have access to your favorite apps, even if they get banned in your home country?

Your best bet here is using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). These services are generally used to increase security on various devices, but they can also be used to tether your phone to servers in other countries. This means, you’ll be able to convince TikTok that you’re accessing the app from somewhere other than the US.

We’d highly recommend going for a paid VPN, though, as free VPNs are known for shady privacy practices and lax security protocols.

Check out our guide to the best VPNs to learn more

Donald Trump’s inauguration is right around the corner, and his right-hand man Elon Musk is in hot water with the authorities.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that it’s taking Musk to court over his acquisition of Twitter stock in early 2022.

The SEC claims that Musk did not properly notify the commission of his purchasing of more than 5% of common shares in the company and that he bought these at a low price, due to the turbulence ahead of his purchase.

Timing Is Everything

Timing is playing a central role in this legal unfolding in two key ways. Firstly, the SEC has opted to launch this legal bid in the last few days of the Biden administration.

Would this legal bid be trickier under the next president? Trump and Musk are now self-professed pals, and Musk has been given a role in Trump’s government as co-leader of his government efficiency commission.

Secondly, the timing of Musk’s notification of the purchase of the shares is under scrutiny by the SEC. The SEC argues that Musk did not give them notice of his purchase within the stipulated window.

“As a result, Musk was able to continue purchasing shares at artificially low prices, allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for shares he purchased after his beneficial ownership report was due.” – SEC filing

What Will Happen Next?

The SEC alleges that Musk’s actions are a violation of federal security laws and, as such, warrant a lawsuit before a jury. Specifically, Musk bought enough shares to cross a threshold, and carried on buying shares until March 24. This means that he was 11 days late in disclosing the purchases.

However, the big question is whether the case will ever get to court. The current head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, is already in Trump’s crosshairs because of the hardline he takes towards regulation.

Trump is expected to give the role to Paul Atkins, who believes in less regulation – something the Trump-supporting tech bros are obviously keen on.

How Has Musk Responded?

There’s nothing from Musk as yet on X, which is uncharacteristic. However, his lawyer, Alex Spiro, says that the move is politically motivated and even termed it “harassment.”

However, the case comes after years of investigation, including a subpoena and an occasion when the tech billionaire decided not to turn up to a meeting with lawyers as he wanted to go to a SpaceX launch. This means Musk had a part to play in the delays in bringing this case to court. Now it is understandable that the SEC is trying to wrap up its work before the administration changes.

Whoever steps in to the top job at the SEC will find it difficult to push aside what looks like a straight forward violation of SEC rules, though they may have some sway over what punishment Musk faces. There remains the question of whether Musk would even accept a settlement if it was offered or if he would insist of fighting any SEC ruling.

It’s been a turbulent few years for Meta and it looks set to continue as its CEO warns “low performers” that their jobs are on the line.

Mark Zuckerberg has announced plans to slash 5% of the company’s worldwide workforce to prepare for what he is warning will be “an intense year”.

The Meta CEO has made some drastic changes to the company’s working practices already this year, getting rid of third-party moderation in a move that pleased Donald Trump and his cronies; but has already fired up the authorities in the EU and UK.

Who Is Losing Their Job at Meta?

The memo detailing the upcoming cuts hasn’t been made public but was sent to staff and has been shared externally by insiders.

Bloomberg News was the first to alert to the cuts. BBC News followed suite and quotes Zuckerberg as writing: “This is going to be an intense year, and I want to make sure we have the best people on our teams.” He added: “I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster.”

He continued: “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”

Although there are no details as to which teams will be impacted, the first cuts will be felt in the US, said the memo. Staff whose roles are at stake will be told by 10 February and they are being promised a “generous severance”. He also said that there would be some “backfilling” of roles later in the year.

Why More Cuts at Meta?

Well let’s face it, it’s not just Meta that’s letting people go. There have been hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in the tech industry in recent years.

Meta’s large-scale cuts kicked off in November 2023 with the most dramatic lay-offs in the company’s history. Around 11,000 employees lost their jobs, which amounted to 13% of the workforce; and the C-Suite weren’t finished there with more cuts announced in March 2024.

These latest cuts come as Zuckerberg continues to pump resources into AI technology development and has his eyes firmly fixed on competitors.

In a July 2024 letter, Zuckerberg stated, “This year, Llama 3 is competitive with the most advanced models and leading in some areas. Starting next year, we expect future Llama models to become the most advanced in the industry.” But this comes with huge expense.

Trump’s Rocky Relationship with Meta

These cuts also mark the start of a four year term for a president the Meta CEO has had a notoriously rocky relationship with. Trump was even banned from Facebook after the riots at The Capitol.

Zuckerberg may be on better terms with Donald Trump after his decision on monitoring – oh and the $1 million he made to the inauguration fund – but he is now facing the ire of authorities in the EU. And this might mean fines.

Like many tech companies, he might be slimming down his workforce to cut costs in anticipation of this, to raise funds for R&D but also because the economic climate continues to be rocky.