“PEOPLE’S BID FOR TIKTOK”
Trump similarly attempted to ban TikTok in the US on national security concerns during his first stint in the White House.
TikTok temporarily shut down in the US in January and disappeared from app stores as the deadline for the law approached, to the dismay of millions of users.
Trump suspended its implementation for two-and-a-half months after beginning his second term on Jan 20, seeking a solution with Beijing.
TikTok subsequently restored service in the US and returned to the Apple and Google app stores in February.
Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Perplexity recently expressed its interest in buying TikTok.
Perplexity laid out in a blog post a vision for integrating its AI-powered internet search capabilities with the popular video-snippet sharing app.
“Combining Perplexity’s answer engine with TikTok’s extensive video library would allow us to build the best search experience in the world,” the San Francisco-based firm said.
Although TikTok does not appear overly motivated regarding the sale of the app, potential buyers include an initiative called “The People’s Bid for TikTok”, launched by real estate and sports tycoon Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative.
Others in the running are Microsoft, Oracle and a group that includes Internet personality MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson.
“Any acquisition by a consortium of investors could in effect keep ByteDance in control of the algorithm, while any acquisition by a competitor would likely create a monopoly in the short form video and information space,” Perplexity said in its post.
“All of society benefits when content feeds are liberated from the manipulations of foreign governments and globalist monopolists.”
Source: CNA
