New Report Expresses Warning That TikTok’s Parent Firm Is Actually A Hybrid State-Private Entity

There are plenty of calls for TikTok to be sold off from its parent firm called ByteDance. And in case you were wondering what the reason was, well, this new report is going to answer your question.

The report produced by the Australian Senate accused the app’s parent firm of being a Chinese entity that is actually hybrid because it can’t be deemed as a private and independent working organization.

American president Joe Biden and his current administration have ordered the app to be separated from ByteDance as this is the only way out to prevent a total ban on the country.

As we speak, so many other nations have already started to put out bans, either full or partial in the country. Moreover, other nations have started to implement complete or partial bans of the leading social media app as well.

The report which entails a few leading researchers were sent out to the Senate in Australia and it revealed how ByteDance likes to intertwine or associate itself with the Beijing government. Moreover, such claims don’t really mean a big deal but this report is being acknowledged due to the huge claims being made.

It’s quite comprehensive and the fact that ByteDance is linked to China’s Community Party and that TikTok may be included along the way is very alarming.

Taking a look back at the recent past, we saw several places around the globe signal red flags because of suspicious activity involving the app. It was outlined during Trump’s time that the platform needs to separate itself due to fears of user data getting passed on to officials in the Chinese government.

At the start of March, legislators from some big American parties put forward a bill that would ban the platform in America, and then in December of last year, Congress set forth a bill to ban the app on devices owned by the federal government.

A while back in the same month, Belgian authorities banned the app from being used on different work phones. As far as the UK is concerned, it wished to have the app banned from all devices owned by government officials amid growing security concerns and a similar statement went out regarding Canada doing the same.

In the same month, officials working in Belgium spoke about how employees were no longer allowed to make use of the app on various work phones. Furthermore, New Zealand also opted to ban the app from attaining access to the country’s parliamentary network.

Above all, India banned the app and so many of its developers from functioning in the country, which many felt was a major blow to the firm.

Clearly, there must be something that officials are on about and why regulatory bodies across various regions in the world are really doing everything in their power to restrict the app from getting sensitive data.

Read next: TikTok May Be Under Scrutiny In The US But Its Popularity Soars With 150 Million Active Users
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

TikTok May Be Under Scrutiny In The US But Its Popularity Soars With 150 Million Active Users

TikTok has been having some tough times in the US as American lawmakers continue to put the app through scrutiny.

Let’s not forget about a potential ban in the country with calls for its American division to be sold off and separated from parent firm ByteDance.

But with the negativity does come some positivity and this includes the app celebrating its continued success in terms of popularity in the US. Think along the lines of having 150 million active users in the country- clearly a boost to its morale after all the negativity that surrounds it each day.

The news comes to us thanks to a senior Democratic strategist that revealed how the app is right now making plans to reveal the internal data of its firm in front of Congress very soon. The mighty testimony is all set for a grand unveiling on Thursday and it’s going to be interesting to see what the app has to say in its defense of the allegations that have come against it.

For those who may not be aware, the app’s final reported figure revealed how the current number of active members stood at 100 million subscribers but it did not take too much time to change and bring about a 50% rise from the older figure. This is ever since we saw the Trump administration make plans to get rid of the app as a whole.

Out of the staggering 150 million, there are nearly 12 million subscribers that are young and by that, we mean below the age of 18. And these are the ones to attain the right to vote by 2024.

Moreover, this figure does not even entail kids who are below 13 and on average, the age group for regular users of the app is just 31 years.

As per a report made by a few TikTok creators, there are plans to reach out to the US capital, right ahead of the testimony. They wish to have a chat with the lawmakers. The platform really wants to make its argument strong by stressing how banning the app may pave the way for bigger financial troubles as so many people are relying on this platform for their livelihood in today’s difficult financial period.

Remember, it’s not only the US but a few other bodies in various other nations such as the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and more. The app has received a ban on devices owned by the government too in these countries like the US.

Read next: TikTok Allows Users To Restart Their Feed To Avoid Unwanted Recommendations From Its Algorithm
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Is Brand Safety Essential? 67% of Mobile Advertisers Say Yes

The factors that consumers consider while making purchasing decisions tend to change dramatically from decade to decade or even year to year. Marketers must therefore figure out what the biggest priority is at any given point in time because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping them cater to consumer needs more effectively. It turns out, mobile advertisers have a very specific priority in mind that they deem essential.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 67% of mobile advertisers stated that brand safety was critical to their future success, as per IABEurope report. Customers need to be able to trust brands, and brand safety is a core component in turning that into a reality. The industry has actually made some great strides forward in this regard.

Back in 2019, 36% of marketers felt like they had done a decent job at preventing safety issues from becoming too prevalent. By last year, that proportion had increased to a healthy 53% with all things having been considered and taken into account. 71% of marketers stated that advances in technology have made it easier to focus on brand security than might have been the case otherwise.

However, another thing that this survey revealed was that marketers were facing many of the same challenges as they used to. At least 50% of marketers said that the believed this was the case, and that does not bode well for the future since it suggests that older problems have not been resolved with any degree of permanence.

80% of the marketers who responded to this survey also stated that brand safety requires a customized approach. Adopting a one-size-fits-all approach will not be conducive to bringing any improvement to the level of brand safety that is currently prevalent. It will be interesting to see how brands manage to overcome these challenges during 2023, as well as whether or not they have the chance to fix this issue which has been plaguing the marketing sector for quite some time now.

Read next: This Study Reveals Huge Gap Between PR Professionals and General Population
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

New Study Showcases How Payments For Influencers Have Altered With Time

It was only about two years back when we witnessed a report that spoke about influencer compensation.

And as you can imagine, trends do alter with time. Therefore, a new report by Intellinfluence is helping influencers gain better insight into how the entire compensation process works and how much others in the same industry are getting paid.

In the past, there were no details outlined but today, we’re bringing forward a new report that really elaborates upon the compensation strategy being utilized across various leading social media apps.

Remember, with time, inflation has increased and the economic downturn continues. Moreover, the recession is at its peak and more and more layoffs in big firms are taking place. So read on if you’re in search of how influencers are looking to be paid in today’s modern day and age.

The report comprised a summary of results in the form of compensation questionnaires. This was sent out to influencers based in several regions of the west including the US, UK, and Canada. Remember, this was only recently conducted so it’s definitely very new and reflects today’s pattern of influencer compensation.

A total of 1700 people completed this questionnaire and the graphs showcased mean compensation results in terms of what these people expect, followed by the number of subscriber counts they have attained.

In this particular edition, influencers were not simply asked random questions like what they felt their worth may be. Instead, the authors asked them queries linked to how they felt their payments would alter as the number of subscribers increased.

Remember, each social media platform is different so the study really made sure to cover influencers on different apps and compared their charges depending on subscriber count. And it’s so interesting to see how the entire ordeal is not as simple as it seems. In fact, it’s actually quite difficult.

Influencers are finding it as hard as digital marketers and various brands to deduce the right pricing strategy. Remember, those comprising smaller audiences were seen asking for higher prices than those with a bigger fan following. So as you can see, the struggle was real. So if we had to put it simply, aspirations really turn into a reality as the number of audience members following them grows.

In addition to that, researchers noted how the compensation amount was not as linear as the respective audience size. See, when some inconsistencies do arise, it’s necessary to point them out live as this survey has done.

The team at Intellifluence asked bloggers what they’re receiving at this point in time depending on the per-post engagement. And such blog posts were around 500 to 800 words. In the same way, they were asked what they would expect one year down the line.

On average, most bloggers claim they would expect 40% more compensation in 12 months than what they’re being paid right now.

Since Instagram is popular among influencers, those with less than 1000 followers charge $89 per post while those with one million followers charge $1022 per post. Meanwhile, Facebook influencers have smaller audiences and rival counterparts on Instagram. But those with a bigger follower count charge way less.

Twitter might not be giving a lot in return to its influencers but the study proved how the amount has surged over the previous years. And as far as TikTok is concerned, the amount jumped exponentially when a TikToker passed the 100,000 follower count.

YouTube is one app that continues to dominate as we speak and it’s the second most visited website in the world. The study proved again how those with smaller subscriber counts estimated charged way more than those who were more established.

On average, people wanted at least $555 to do a campaign on the platform!

Read next: AI Advances Lead to Growing Concerns over Potential Risks
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Do YouTube Links Really Reduce Reach on Other Platforms?

Making a video used to be a very costly and time intensive endeavor, but modern technology has made it far easier than might have been the case otherwise. In spite of the fact that this is the case, getting the same kind of reach for the videos that you do end up creating has become far more difficult than it ever was in the past.

While there are a multitude of social media platforms that you can post videos on, these platforms are often unable or perhaps unwilling to give you decent reach if you cross post. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that posting YouTube links to other social media platforms might be the worst way to get your content out there to a wider audience that would be willing to pay attention to it.

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter often bury YouTube links because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing people to prioritize posting native links. They don’t want to send traffic away from their sites, so they often reduce reach so that people are disincentivized from posting YouTube links and instead upload the videos directly to their own platforms.

Twitter is by far the worst platform in this regard, with YouTube links barely getting any views. That is a problem considering just how poor the performance of Twitter’s native video uploading system is, and it can have a harmful impact on users who want to leverage their Twitter followings to get more eyes on their content with all things having been considered and taken into account.

LinkedIn performs marginally better, but even there YouTube links tend to underperform when compared to directly uploaded videos and the like. This just goes to show that you need to post content onto every single platform directly. You can no longer rely on just YouTube to tide you over, otherwise you will remain full locked into the YouTube ecosystem and social media algorithms will inhibit your reach in several different ways.

Data via HootSuite
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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Elon Musk Forces Twitter To Send Automated ‘Poop Emoji’ Responses To Members Of The Press

Twitter Chief Elon Musk never fails to surprise the world with his shenanigans. And now, we’re hearing about how the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had gone about displaying a certain distaste for the press with this next act.

Musk forced the app’s press email to generate auto-replies that comprised nothing more than a poop emoji. Yes, we’re not kidding you on this one. For a while now, Musk has shown how much he hates the press and now he wants to make it official with this childish behavior.

With time, he detailed more about how he fails to trust it and hates to even talk about it.

But this form of action is something new by the tech billionaire that we’ve not come across in a really long time. The fact that it’s being done on a professional level did leave plenty of people stunned as this is supposed to be the platform where concerns and queries by other leading media outlets are addressed. Now, it has turned into a joke.

Why is elon so mean to me? pic.twitter.com/8JyCrhgXxx

— Yanky (@Yanky_Pollak) March 19, 2023

Musk tweeted the change and really stunned the audiences with this news. They were not expecting this when the statement spoke about press@twitter.com responding with poop emojis.

Now keeping all the hilarious comments aside, the real question now is how are media outlets supposed to contact the app for some serious matters as the only outlet for doing so is a joke.

It’s also interesting how the news has gone viral with Musk’s Twitter post being witnessed more than 9 million times. Similarly, it was retweeted at least 3000 times and ended up getting around 42,000 likes.

The billionaire has never had a good relationship with the media, where he’s even gone as far as blasting it for being so relentless and an outlet for generating hate and bad news. He also dubbed all sorts of media content as being fake and racist against both white as well as Asian individuals.

Now, it seems that he wants to do nothing with it as can be seen with this recent move.

Moreover, as you can imagine, one person mentioned how this was like a general user experience. And then another wrote how he hoped to see this poop emoji pop up in all articles while we move forward.

And when asked if this was a temporary joke or a permeant decision, the response again had to do with another poop emoji.

Image: Sheel Mohnot

Read next: Twitter Opts To Downrank Accounts Belonging To Archrivals TikTok, Instagram, Snap, And Meta
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Americans Agree: Online Oversharing is Out of Control

A new study has revealed that most Americans think people are oversharing online.

When posting personal information online in today's digital age, it might be simple to overdo it. Yet, a survey from Secure Data Recovery finds that most Americans believe people disclose too much on social media.

While many people are comfortable giving basic details about themselves, such as their first name (78 percent), birthday (67 percent), birthplace (59 percent), and age (57 percent), the poll of over 1,000 respondents across generations found that other information is viewed as being too intimate for public consumption. Fewer than 20 percent of respondents indicated they would be willing to disclose information about their health, finances, or home.

The survey also revealed variations between generations in terms of social media usage. For instance, millennials were more inclined to communicate political thoughts and post vacation photos than Gen Xers or baby boomers. Gen Xers were more willing to give work updates or suggestions for goods and services than millennials or baby boomers. The generation most unlikely to disclose personal information online was the baby boomer.

People tend to be comfortable sharing the highlights of their lives online, like vacations and graduations. However, more sensitive topics such as divorce or miscarriages are rarely shared among social media circles. As for oversharing - political views, everyday life happenings, bodily functions, and kids were marked by respondents as some of the most common subjects that can get a bit too much exposure on platforms across the web!

While parents used to be enthusiastic about sharing updates about their children online, this trend has been waning as current generations become more aware of the potential threats associated with having personal information posted publicly. The majority of Gen Xers (45 percent) still document and share stories from their kids' lives - although Boomers (27 percent) and Millennials (25 percent) are posting less overall.

Despite knowing that such content can open them up to cybercrime, 24 percent choose not to use social media privacy settings that could protect themselves and those they post about.

Many Americans are aware that digital media is forever, yet a shocking amount of them remain comfortable with sharing personal information openly. About one-third of citizens in the U.S. place their trust solely in their capacity to keep sensitive data safe when interacting online. Despite numerous negligent instances of personal data being compromised over recent years, individuals continue to rely on the concept that they can safeguard information versus malicious entities.

Read next: 87% of UK Adults Have Encountered Scams, New Survey Reveals
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World