Southeast Asia, a region with a collective population of 630 million – half of them under 30 – is one of TikTok’s biggest markets in terms of user numbers.

But the platform has yet to translate the large user base into a major e-commerce revenue source in the region as it faces fierce competition from bigger rivals of Sea’s Shopee, Alibaba’s Lazada and GoTo’s Tokopedia.

“We’re going to invest billions of dollars in Indonesia and Southeast Asia over the next few years,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said at a forum it organized in Jakarta to highlight the social and economic impact of the app in the region.

He said content on its platform was becoming more diversified as it adds more users and expands beyond advertising into e-commerce, allowing consumers to purchase goods through links on the app during livestreaming.

Chew said TikTok has 8,000 employees in Southeast Asia, and 2 million small vendors selling their wares on its platform in Indonesia, the region’s biggest economy.

The investment plan comes as the Chinese-owned company faces scrutiny from some governments and regulators because of concerns that Beijing could use the app to harvest user data or advance its interests.

Countries including Britain and New Zealand have banned the app on government phones, moves TikTok said it believed were based on “fundamental misconceptions” and driven by wider geopolitics.

TikTok has repeatedly denied that it has ever shared data with the Chinese government and has said the company would not do so if asked.

The app has not faced major bans on government devices in Southeast Asia, but it has been under scrutiny over its content.

Indonesia presented one of its first major global policy challenges in 2018, after authorities briefly banned TikTok for posts they said contained “pornography, inappropriate content, and blasphemy.”

In Vietnam, regulators said it would probe TikTok’s operations in the country because “toxic” content on the platform poses a threat to its “youth, culture and tradition.” – Rappler.com

Dorsey, who quit as Twitter CEO in 2021, said on Monday, June 12, that India also threatened the company with raids on employees if it did not comply with government requests to take down certain posts.

“It manifested in ways such as: ‘We will shut Twitter down in India’, which is a very large market for us; ‘we will raid the homes of your employees’, which they did; And this is India, a democratic country,” Dorsey said in an interview with YouTube news show Breaking Points.

Deputy Minister for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a top ranking official in Modi’s government, lashed out against Dorsey in response, calling his assertions an “outright lie”.

“No one went to jail nor was Twitter ‘shut down’. Dorsey’s Twitter regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law,” he said in a post on Twitter.

Dorsey’s comments again put the spotlight on the struggles faced by foreign technology giants operating under Modi’s rule. His government has often criticized Google, Facebook and Twitter for not doing enough to tackle fake or “anti-India” content on their platforms, or for not complying with rules.

The former Twitter CEO’s comments drew widespread attention as it is unusual for global companies operating in India to publicly criticize the government. Last year, Xiaomi in a court filing said India’s financial crime agency threatened its executives with “physical violence” and coercion, an allegation which the agency denied.

Dorsey also mentioned similar pressure from governments in Turkey and Nigeria, which had restricted the platform in their nations at different points over the years before lifting those bans.

Twitter was bought by Elon Musk in a $44 billion deal last year.

Chandrasekhar said Twitter under Dorsey and his team had repeatedly violated Indian law. He didn’t name Musk, but added Twitter had been in compliance since June 2022.

Big Tech vs Modi

Modi and his ministers are prolific users of Twitter, but free speech activists say his administration resorts to excessive censorship of content it thinks is critical of its working. India maintains its content removal orders are aimed at protecting users and sovereignty of the state.

The public spat with Twitter during 2021 saw Modi’s government seeking an “emergency blocking” of the “provocative” Twitter hashtag “#ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide” and dozens of accounts. Farmers’ groups had been protesting against new agriculture laws at the time, one of the biggest challenges faced by the Modi government.

The government later gave in to the farmers’ demands.

Twitter initially complied with the government requests but later restored most of the accounts, citing “insufficient justification”, leading to officials threatening legal consequences.

In subsequent weeks, police visited a Twitter office as part of another probe linked to tagging of some ruling party posts as manipulated. Twitter at the time said it was worried about staff safety.

Dorsey in his interview said many India content take down requests during the farmer protests were “around particular journalists that were critical of the government.”

Since Modi took office in 2014, India has slid from 140th in World Press Freedom Index to 161 this year, out of 180 countries, its lowest ranking ever. – Rappler.com

The subreddit protests follow an announcement by Reddit in April that it would be charging about $0.24 for every 1,000 API calls or approximately under $1 per user every month.

The protest action by the subreddits started on Monday, June 12, and is likely to affect many Reddit users. Some subreddits, such as r/Music, r/gaming, and r/science have millions of subscribers, so the impact of a short-term or, in the case of some subreddits, an indefinite shutdown is palpable.

API changes spark protest

The API changes include charging developers to access the API and make API calls to request information for app users.

According to a Reuters report, the move to charge for the API calls is partly due to generative AI, as subreddits have a lot of data that could potentially make training tools like ChatGPT easier. Thus, using Reddit’s API for that purpose would allow AI companies to directly find and collate data for training purposes.

Reuters added that Steve Huffman, Reddit’s CEO, said in an interview with the New York Times in April the “Reddit corpus of data is really valuable.” Huffman does not want to “need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.”

Must Read

Reddit wants AI companies to pay up for using their content

One third-party app developer – Christian Selig of Apollo – says it would cost about $20 million a year to keep running, based on the pricing details given out. Apollo users made some 7 billion API calls in a month on the app.

As a result of the API pricing changes, Selig said he would shut down Apollo on June 30. Other third-party app developers have followed suit with similar announcements as they cannot afford the costs.

This would leave Reddit’s own application as the beneficiary of such a shutdown, but with many caveats besides.

Affecting communities at large

Some of those affected by the shutdown of third-party apps include the volunteer moderators who use third-party apps to make it easier for them to moderate the communities they manage, as well as those with physical handicaps who use third-party apps for more reliable access.

According to a post on r/save3rdpartyapps, the shutdown of such apps would force them to use an inferior app – Reddit’s own first-party application – that doesn’t have the same accessibility features other apps provided.

“We were assured that this decision’s damage to handicap accessibility was an unintended side effect- though not given an actual apology for it – and told that ‘non-commercial, accessibility-focused apps and tools will continue to have free access’. This neatly omits the fact that many of Reddit’s disabled users depend on the accessibility features of apps which are not specifically ‘accessibility-focused’, but still have superior accessibility features to the official app – many of which have already announced their shutdown,” the post notes.

“I really hope Reddit listens,” Selig wrote on a post thanking people for supporting the Reddit blackout.

“I think showing humanity through apologizing for and recognizing that this process was handled poorly, and concrete promises to give developers more time, would go a long way to making people feel heard and instilling community confidence,” he added. – Rappler.com

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They complained of intermittent access to various services, including Google’s suite of workplace tools, YouTube, and Facebook.

Individuals who were heavily reliant on internet services for communication and daily activities pointed out that the the issue seemed common to the network provider. (READ: PLDT, Globe provide poor #PHInternet services – netizens)

In a message to Rappler, PLDT attributed the intermittent connection issues to a reduction in internet bandwidth capacity by one of their submarine cable partners.

“One of our submarine cable partners confirms a loss in some of its internet bandwidth capacity, and thus causing slower internet browsing. We are now working with our partners to provide alternate capacity that would restore the browsing experience in the next few hours,” the company said.

In a statement on the morning of June 6, PLDT said its “submarine cable partner confirms supplementing additional capacity, restoring browser experience.” The company asked users to restart their routers to refresh the connection.

Losing access

PLDT users had been enduring intermittent interruptions for approximately three hours before the network provider relayed the message.

Keywords such as Google and Gmail trended on Twitter after social media users were unable to access those services. They shared how PLDT’s network issue disrupted crucial tasks. 

“As someone who relies on the internet to get work done, it’s frustrating when connectivity issues arise,” a netizen said in a shared post.

Some students also took to social media to express their difficulties in accessing online platforms used for educational purposes.

A social media user from Sta. Cruz, Manila, left a comment, saying he couldn’t access YouTube from his location.

Another netizen compared his browsing experience between streaming and gaming platforms and social media sites: “Super bagal ang browsers and [social media]. Pero mabilis ang Netflix, Discord, at Valorant ko. ‘Di ko gets?“

(Browsers and social media sites have prolonged loading times, but platforms like Netflix, Discord, and Valorant are not affected by this issue. I don’t understand.)

Others shared they were able to access Google services using a different network, but encountered difficulties specifically with their PLDT connection. 

One subscriber said PLDT users had struggled with internet connection since the era of dial-ups, but they had not seen any improvements in services. “Panahon pa ng dial-up connection, ganyan na reklamo namin. Walang bago,” she said. (Since the period of dial-up connection, that has always been our problem. There’s nothing new.)

A netizen observed that system updates supposed done by PLDT only result in slower connection. “May pa-update update pa kayo. Lalo lang bumagal. Nako po talaga. Scammer kayo, she posted on Facebook.”

(Your updates only slows down the internet further. Scammer.)

Some individuals criticized PLDT for being quick to cut off connections for unpaid bills, yet slow to fix its connectivity issues for paying customers.

One user said, “Sobrang bagal. Pero kapag hindi ka makabayad, putol agad.“

(The internet connection is very slow. But they’re quick to cut your connection if you don’t pay on time.)

Some subscribers of Smart Communications, a subsidiary of PLDT, also encountered disruptions while attempting to connect to the internet and access various online services.

For me, it’s a PLDT issue. I can connect to Google services just fine when I use Globe LTE but not when I use PLDT wifi.

— Lecky (@bekinglecky) June 5, 2023

SmartBro sa amin, pero hindi rin gumagana GMail. Kanina ko pa tinatry. Okay ang YouTube.

— Chesa (@esa865) June 5, 2023

PLDT users expressed heightened dismay over the network’s unresponsiveness and the perceived lack of urgency in addressing the issues.

Expressing frustration over PLDT’s customer’s service, a netizen said, “Dapat may fine ang mga company na puro tanggap ng bayad, ang poor naman ng service!”

(Companies that just get payments from their clients but offer poor customer service in return should be fined.)

In recent months, PLDT subscribers have been airing their frustration over recurring internet connectivity issues and unsatisfactory customer service.

In a May 18 post, a Facebook user called out PLDT for not immediately attending to his connectivity issues. “Do you feel powerful when your ‘customers’ beg you to fix their internet problems for a week now?” he said.

– Rappler.com

Benarroch said in an email that he was looking forward to working with the company’s team to “build Twitter 2.0 together.”

“Welcome to the flock, @benarroch_joe! From one bird to the next,” tweeted incoming Twitter Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino, who was appointed in May. She did not mention the position Benarroch will be taking.

At Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal, Benarroch oversaw communication strategy for its Advertising and Partnerships division, reporting to Yaccarino, who was advertising chief there before joining Twitter.

Benarroch is being appointed following the departure of a number of executives, adding to Yaccarino’s challenges.

Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, said on Thursday that she has resigned from the social media company.

On Friday, Reuters reported that the head of brand safety and ad quality, AJ Brown, has decided to leave.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Benarroch’s appointment on Sunday. – Rappler.com

Irwin, who joined Twitter in June 2022, took over as head of the trust and safety team in November when previous head Yoel Roth resigned. She oversaw content moderation.

An email to Twitter returned an automated reply with a poop emoji. Irwin declined further comment and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Irwin’s departure comes as the platform has struggled to retain advertisers, with brands wary of appearing next to unsuitable content.

Musk announced earlier this month that he hired Linda Yaccarino, former NBCUniversal advertising chief, to become Twitter’s new CEO.

Fortune earlier reported that Irwin’s internal Slack account appeared to have been deactivated.

Since Musk’s acquisition, Twitter has cut costs dramatically and laid off thousands of employees, including many who had worked on efforts to prevent harmful and illegal content, protect election integrity, and surface accurate information on the site.

Musk has promoted a feature called Community Notes, which lets users add context to tweets, as a way to combat misleading information on Twitter.

The company is also facing increasing scrutiny from regulators over its moderation efforts. Twitter withdrew from a voluntary agreement with the European Union to tackle disinformation, while saying it was committed to complying with upcoming internet rules in the EU.

EU industry chief Thierry Breton warned Twitter last week that it would not be able to avoid legal obligations in the EU after quitting the voluntary agreement. – Rappler.com

The report by Bloomberg said Fidelity first reduced the value of its Twitter stake in November – down to 44% of its purchase price. This was followed by further markdowns in December and February. 

In its report, Reuters said, “Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund’s stake in Twitter, which now exists under Musk’s X Holdings Corp, was valued at nearly $6.55 million as of April 28, compared with $7.8 million as of January 31 and almost $8.63 million at November-end.”

Bloomberg added it was unclear how Fidelity arrived at its new, lower valuation or whether it receives any non-public information from the company.

The implications of this point to Twitter being valued now at about $15 billion, a significant downgrade from the price Musk paid for the social media platform back in the day.

Musk’s erratic handling of Twitter – from enabling the alt-right and conspiracy theorists to get a foothold again on the platform to its haphazard pricing for its premium “Twitter Blue” offering – and lack of proper enforcement of the platform’s rules as CEO of the company have not helped matters.

It is hoped, however, that the hiring of Linda Yaccarino as the company’s CEO may move things in a more positive direction. – Rappler.com

The appeal was part of a 20-page document by the Vatican’s communications department titled, “Towards Full Presence. A Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media.”

The document, addressed to all Catholics, warned of the dangers of fake news on social media and other forms of abuse that had turned people into commodities whose data is sold, often without their knowledge or consent.

It condemned polarization and extremism that had led to “digital tribalism” on social media, saying individuals were often locking themselves in silos of opinion that hindered dialogue and often led to violence, abuse and misinformation.

“The Christian style should be reflective, not reactive, on social media. Therefore, we should all be careful not to fall into the digital traps hidden in content that is intentionally designed to sow conflict among users by causing outrage or emotional reactions,” the document said.

“The problem of polemical and superficial, and thus divisive, communication is particularly worrying when it comes from Church leadership: bishops, pastors, and prominent lay leaders,” it said.

A number of conservative Catholic bishops and high-profile commentators, particularly in the United States, have criticized Pope Francis on Twitter, with some having endorsed fierce, far-right video attacks on the pontiff.

“Unfortunately, broken relationships, conflicts, and divisions are not foreign to the Church. For example, when groups that present themselves as ‘Catholic’ use their social media presence to foster division, they are not behaving like a Christian community should,” the document said.

It said particular attention would have to be paid to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) in coming years, urging Catholics to beware machines “that make our decisions for us”.

In 2020, the Vatican joined forces with tech giants Microsoft and IBM to promote the ethical development of AI and call for regulation of intrusive technologies such as facial recognition.

[REFLECTION] Pope Francis to poets, artists: ‘You are eyes that see and dream’

– Rappler.com

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement on Friday, May 26, it had closed 67,000 social media accounts and deleted hundreds of thousands of posts between March 10 and May 22 as part of a broader “rectification” campaign.

Since 2021, China has targeted billions of social media accounts in a bid to “clean” its cyberspace and make it easier for authorities to control.

The latest crackdown targeted accounts on popular Chinese social media apps including WeChat, Douyin, and Weibo that fall under the category of “self media,” a term that broadly refers to accounts that publish news and information but are not government-run or state-approved.

Beijing frequently arrests citizens and censors accounts for publishing or sharing factual information considered sensitive or critical of the Communist Party, the government or the military, especially when such information goes viral.

Of the 67,000 accounts that were permanently closed, almost 8,000 were taken down for “spreading fake news, rumours, and harmful information,” according to CAC.

Around 930,000 other accounts received less severe punishments, from being removed of all followers to the suspension or cancellation of profit-making privileges.

In a separate campaign, the regulator recently closed over 100,000 accounts that allegedly misrepresented news anchors and media agencies to counter the rise of online fake news coverage aided by AI technologies.

The CAC on Friday said its latest campaign had targeted almost 13,000 counterfeit military accounts, with names such as “Chinese Red Army Command”, “Chinese Anti-terrorist Force” and “Strategic Missile Force”.

Some 25,000 other accounts were targeted for impersonating public institutions, such as disease and prevention control centers and state-run research institutes.

Almost 187,000 were punished for impersonating news media businesses, while over 430,000 allegedly offered professional advice or educational services without having relevant professional qualifications.

Around 45,000 accounts were closed for “hyping hot issues, clout-chasing and illegal monetisation.”

The regulator said it had “actively coordinated with public security, market supervision and other departments, to deliver a heavy blow and rectify illegal ‘self-media’.”

“At the same time, (we) also call on the majority of netizens to actively participate in monitoring and reporting (illegal ‘self-media’), provide clues … and jointly maintain a clean cyberspace,” it added. – Rappler.com

OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, last year launched chatbot ChatGPT, offering arguably the most natural interaction to date. That triggered a race to develop features based on game-changing generative artificial intelligence (AI), including TikTok rival Snap Inc whose “My AI” is powered by ChatGPT technology.

TikTok said Tako is designed to help users discover “entertaining and inspiring content” on the app.

Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli-based app intelligence firm Watchful Technologies said it had found Tako on some versions of the TikTok app on Apple Inc mobile devices.

Screenshots and video Watchful shared with Reuters showed the chatbot featuring prominently on TikTok’s interface as a ghost-shaped icon, which users can tap while watching videos to have text-based conversations and get help finding content.

In April, US media outlets reported that TikTok was experimenting with a generative AI tool to allow users to create avatars. China-based parent ByteDance is working on a large AI model, Chinese media reported, but it does not currently offer AI chatbot features on its Chinese equivalent of TikTok, Douyin.

Disclosure filed with the US patent and trademark office last month showed TikTok had submitted a trademark application for “TikTok Tako” in categories including “computer software for the artificial production of human speech and text”.

Asked about Tako, a TikTok spokesperson said the social media platform was always exploring new technology.

“In select markets, we’re testing new ways to power search and discovery on TikTok, and we look forward to learning from our community as we continue to create a safe place that entertains, inspires creativity, and drives culture,” the spokesperson said.

The company did not say why the Philippines was selected.

Video recommendations

Watchful researcher Daniel Buchuk said his team started to find references to Tako on some versions of the TikTok app earlier this month, including on a test version on an iOS device in the United States.

Watchful uses computer vision as well as data analysis to identify and emulate app changes. It monitors devices in different countries but was unable to establish in which markets TikTok was conducting its tests.

Unlike ChatGPT, which is positioned as an all-purpose chatbot, Tako feels more like a navigation assistant with a focus on encouraging users to watch more videos, Buchuk said.

“So if you’re asking ‘When was King Charles’ coronation?’ Tako will tell you the answer, but then you’ll also see relevant TikTok videos,” he said.

Another demonstration by Watchful showed that when a user asks Tako a question, such as “How can we teach respect to children”, the chatbot replies by summarising tips from TikTok users while also recommending related videos.

TikTok has set a disclaimer saying Tako is an experimental chatbot and that responses could be inaccurate. It said it will review conversations with Tako for safety purposes and warned users not to share private information with it. – Rappler.com