Keir Starmer, the Labour Party leader, is currently in poll position to become the UK Prime Minister after the July 4 elections. While PM Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party faces an uphill battle to retain power, the return of Nigel Farage to front-line politics has only added to his woes. Leading the right-wing Reform UK, the pro-Brexit campaigner has been buoyed by a strong presence on TikTok.

The 60-year-old leader has become an unlikely breakout star on the app, with a five-second clip of him lip-synching Eminem’s “Guess Who’s Back?” pulling in over eight million views. 

Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party), taunts the British PM Rishi Sunak with Eminem’s “Without Me”. pic.twitter.com/Ym3uX0G2Vu

— The Eminem Bible (@Shadyind) June 15, 2024

Mr Farage’s TikTok account has twice the followers as Labour, the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats combined. The Reform UK’s TikTok presence stands out among political parties. With a following of 1,97,000, they far surpass their closest competitor, the Green Party. 

The Tories, Labour, and the Lib Dems did not even have official channels on the app until recently, with parody accounts the first to surface when users searched for the big three. By establishing a presence on TikTok, Mr Farage and Reform UK tapped into a younger demographic, setting themselves apart from other political parties.

The Conservatives top-performing clip, “this will change lives,” features British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promoting his national service policy, It has 4.2 million views. However, Labour’s 11-second response, a clever takedown using Cilla Black’s “Surprise, Surprise,” surpassed it with 5.1 million views.

???? NEW: Rishi Sunak has posted his first TikTok video pic.twitter.com/P0cAg0c8PW

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) May 26, 2024

Nigel Farage’s success on TikTok comes courtesy of 23-year-old Jack Anderton, a self-described “concerned citizen” and right-wing Zoomer. “Zoomer” refers to a member of Generation Z, specifically someone born between 1997 and 2012.

Mr Anderton, a contractor for Farage, has been instrumental in creating content that resonates with a younger voter, as per Politico. His views align with Farage’s, and he has expressed concerns about immigration and Britain’s future. Mr Anderton represents the growing phenomenon of the “Zoomer Right,” a Gen Z conservative movement gaining traction across Europe. Polling shows a large proportion of 18-24-year-olds plan to vote for Reform UK than 25-29-year-olds.

Reform UK’s emergence on TikTok has surprised even party insiders. Initially, their views were modest, but as the party grew nationwide, their TikTok views “rocketed way ahead of any other platform,” says Matt Stevens, Reform’s press officer. 

This surge in popularity has been a pleasant surprise, given TikTok’s predominantly young demographic. Mr Stevens believes this age group is “crying out for change” after years of Conservative rule, making them a key audience for Reform’s message.

A Bengaluru resident named Neha has found a unique way to find a new apartment: by using a viral TikTok trend. Neha created a video using the music from the song “Man In Finance” by TikTok creator Megan Boni. Boni’s song lists qualities she wants in a partner, but Neha changed the lyrics to reflect what she wanted in an apartment, including features like being furnished, having two rooms, and having a balcony. 

The caption shared along with the video read, “Desperate times call for desperate measures. So here’s my take on the trend.”

Watch the viral video here:

Neha’s creative reinterpretation of the original song lyrics has generated significant buzz on social media. The video has amassed over 140,000 views and garnered a wide range of reactions in the comment section.

“This is tougher than finding “finance, trust fund, 6’5, blue eyes,” commented a user.

“I might as well buy one in Mysore. It’s almost the same time to commute if you have one in Electronic City,” wrote another user.

“Bengaluru is like a galaxy. You have to mention which part of the galaxy you are looking at; prices fluctuate accordingly,” commented a third user.

Washington:

TikTok is working on a clone of its recommendation algorithm for its 170 million U.S. users that may result in a version that operates independently of its Chinese parent and be more palatable to American lawmakers who want to ban it, according to sources with direct knowledge of the efforts.

The work on splitting the source code ordered by TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance late last year predated a bill to force a sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations that began gaining steam in Congress this year. The bill was signed into law in April.

The sources, who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the short-form video sharing app, said that once the code is split, it could lay the groundwork for a divestiture of the U.S. assets, although there are no current plans to do so.

TikTok declined to comment. The company has previously said it had no plans to sell the U.S. assets and such a move would be impossible.

TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance sued in U.S. federal court in May, seeking to block the law forcing a sale or ban of the app by Jan. 19. A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday set a fast-track schedule to consider the legal challenges to the new law.

MILLIONS OF LINES OF CODE

In the past few months, hundreds of ByteDance and TikTok engineers in both the U.S. and China were ordered to begin separating millions of lines of code, sifting through the company’s algorithm that pairs users with videos to their liking. The engineers’ mission is to create a separate code base that is independent of systems used by ByteDance’s Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, while eliminating any information linking to Chinese users, two sources with direct knowledge of the project told Reuters.

The previously unreported plan provides a rare look into what a technical separation of TikTok’s U.S. operations could be like, and shows to what lengths TikTok will go to address the bipartisan political risk it faces. U.S. President Biden and other supporters of the law argue TikTok gives Beijing far too much access to reams of data, information that could be used to spy on or influence TikTok’s U.S. users.

Reuters previously reported that a sale of the app with algorithms is highly unlikely. The Chinese government in 2020 added content recommendation algorithms to its export-control list, requiring a divestiture or sale of TikTok’s algorithm to go through its administrative licensing procedures.

The source code for TikTok’s recommendation engine was originally developed by ByteDance engineers in China, and customized for operations in TikTok’s various global markets, including the U.S., according to a legal filing.

ByteDance has attributed TikTok’s popularity to the effectiveness of its recommendation engine, which bases each user’s content feeds on how they interact with the content they watch.

‘OPEN SOURCE’

The complexity of the task that the sources described to Reuters as tedious “dirty work” underscores the difficulty of splitting the underlying code that binds TikTok’s U.S. operations to its Chinese parent. The work is expected to take over a year to complete, these sources said.

TikTok and ByteDance have vowed to battle the U.S. law in court on First Amendment grounds. Nevertheless, engineers continue to operate under orders to disentangle TikTok’s U.S. recommendation engine from ByteDance’s broader network, the sources said.

An earlier plan to silo off U.S. user data, called Project Texas, failed to appease U.S. regulators and lawmakers. Now the company is seeking to escalate its efforts to show its U.S. operations are independent of its Chinese owner.

At one point, TikTok executives considered open sourcing some of TikTok’s algorithm, or making it available to others to access and modify, to demonstrate technological transparency, the sources said.

Executives have communicated plans and provided updates on the code-splitting project during a team all-hands, in internal planning documents and on its internal communications system, called Lark, according to one of the sources who attended the meeting and another source who has viewed the messages.

Reuters could not independently verify internal messages.

Compliance and legal issues involved with determining what parts of the code can be carried over to TikTok are complicating the work, according to one source. Each line of code has to be reviewed to determine if it can go into the separate code base, the sources added.

The goal is to create a new source code repository for a recommendation algorithm serving only TikTok U.S. Once completed, TikTok U.S. will run and maintain its recommendation algorithm independent of TikTok apps in other regions and its Chinese version Douyin. That move would cut it off from the massive engineering development power of its parent company in Beijing, the sources said.

If TikTok completes the work to split the recommendation engine from its Chinese counterpart, TikTok management is aware of the risk that TikTok U.S. may not be able to deliver the same level of performance as the existing TikTok because it is heavily reliant on ByteDance’s engineers in China to update and maintain the code base to maximize user engagement, sources added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

European regulators slapped TikTok with a $368 million fine on Friday for failing to protect children’s privacy, the first time that the popular short video-sharing app has been punished for breaching Europe’s strict data privacy rules.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the lead privacy regulator for Big Tech companies whose European headquarters are largely in Dublin, said it was fining TikTok 345 million euros and reprimanding the platform for the violations dating to the second half of 2020.

The investigation found that the sign-up process for teen users resulted in settings that made their accounts public by default, allowing anyone to view and comment on their videos. Those default settings also posed a risk to children under 13 who gained access to the platform even though they’re not allowed.

Also read: Why TikTok’s security risks keep raising fears

Also, a “family pairing” feature designed for parents to manage settings wasn’t strict enough, allowing adults to turn on direct messaging for users aged 16 and 17 without their consent. And it nudged teen users into more “privacy intrusive” options when signing up and posting videos, the watchdog said.

TikTok said in a statement that it disagrees with the decision, “particularly the level of the fine imposed.”

The company pointed out that the regulator’s criticisms focused on features and settings dating back three years. TikTok said it had made changes well before the investigation began in September 2021, including making all accounts for teens under 16 private by default and disabling direct messaging for 13- to 15-year-olds.

“Most of the decision’s criticisms are no longer relevant as a result of measures we introduced at the start of 2021 — several months before the investigation began,” TikTok’s head of privacy for Europe, Elaine Fox, wrote in a blog post.

The Irish regulator has been criticized for not moving fast enough in its investigations into Big Tech companies since EU privacy laws took effect in 2018. For TikTok, German and Italian regulators disagreed with parts of a draft decision issued a year ago, delaying it further.

To avoid new bottlenecks, the Brussels headquarters of the 27-nation bloc has been given the job of enforcing new regulations to foster digital competition and clean up social media content — rules aimed at maintaining its position as a global leader in tech regulation.

The Irish watchdog also examined TikTok’s measures to verify whether users are at least 13 but found they didn’t break any rules.

The regulator is still carrying out a second investigation into whether TikTok complied with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation when it transferred users’ personal information to China, where its owner, ByteDance, is based.

TikTok has faced accusations it poses a security risk over fears that users’ sensitive information could end up in China. It has embarked on a project to localize European user data to address those concerns: opening a data center in Dublin this month, which will be the first of three in on the continent.

Instagram, WhatsApp and their owner Meta are among other tech giants that have been hit with big fines by the Irish regulator over the past year.

An illustrative photograph showing the new Twitter logo rebranded as X (L) and the previous bird logo reflected in smartphone screens, July 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A survey conducted recently by the journal Nature found that researchers are leaving the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), a place they used frequently to promote their work, interact with the larger scientific community, and share their insights.

In 2016, Emilia Jarochowska, a PhD candidate, reportedly joined X with to boost her career in palaeontology. It was a platform where she could connect with colleagues, look for job opportunities and share her work. But after Elon Musk took over the platform in late 2022, sweeping changes to the platform’s management marred opportunities.

The findings, published by Nature in an article, stated that there are several reasons for the exodus, starting with the direction in which the platform seems to be headed since the takeover. Together with rolling back rules on content moderation, doing away with the blue-tick verification system, shifting to a subscription model where paying members get extra privileges, limiting the number of tweets users can see, and changing the names and logo has caused discomfort and uncertainty, leading to scholars to avoid using the platform.

Also Read | Elon Musk wants to remove the block feature on X

The survey contacted 170,000 scientists who are or have been using the platform, of which nearly 9,200 responded. At least half of them reported that they have reduced the amount of time they spend on X in the last six months. At least 7% of respondents have stopped using it completely while some 46% have joined other social media platforms.

The platform also seems to have also accrued an increasing number of fake accounts, trolls, and hate speech since the change of ownership, the survey noted. The transition from a platform facilitating scientific discourse to one fostering controversy and misinformation has prompted a wave of migration to alternative social media platforms such as Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, and TikTok. 

Despite Mr. Musk’s claims to the contrary, a study revealed an increase in hate speech since his takeover

Also Read | Musk plans to change how news is shared on X

Ziga Malek, an environmental scientist at the Free University of Amsterdam, told Nature he started noticing the presence of far-right accounts espousing science denialism and racism that he had to keep blocking. “X has always been not so nice let’s say, but it is a mess right now,” he said.

Mastodon, established in 2016, has become a popular alternative to X after the takeover for its decentralised and open-access regulations. But the fragmented landscape resulting from a migration has posed challenges to science communication. Previously, X served as a ‘hub’ for scholars to access information through specific hashtags. But with a diaspora across multiple platforms, it has become challenging to say where researchers are congregating, hindering access to their insights.

The impact of these changes extends beyond personal connections. The sense of community fostered on X, particularly for marginalised groups like scientists of colour and female researchers, has been a driving force in addressing issues such as harassment, unequal pay, and inequity. It provided a platform for scientists to collaborate, discuss research fraud, and spotlight topics like scientific colonialism and diversity, the Nature article said.

Also Read | The problem with X? Meta, Microsoft, hundreds more own trademarks to new Twitter name

One change, introduced in February, was the closure of the platform’s application programming interface (API), which allowed scientists to observe how users interacted with one another on the platform. This would feed studies of how people were discussing climate change, how people with autism were making their voices heard, and the platform’s response to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, etc. Research on such topics has suffered a blow ever since access to API was revoked for the general public. 

According to the survey, LinkedIn was the second most popular place to open new accounts followed by Instagram and finally Threads, both of which are owned by Meta.

Even as some scientists feel that with the changing paradigm of X, the sense of community is slipping away, others are sure researchers will come up with unique ways to overcome the challenge. Ms. Jarochowska suggested webinars and other methods of networking might be more fruitful to promote scientific work. “If you appear with your scientific content between videos of cats,” she told Nature, “it’s not a particularly good medium for promotion yourself professionally, anyway.”

Mark Carrigan, a digital sociologist at the Manchester Institute for Education, U.K., said that the void left behind by X can be used to diversify science and democratise academia.