List of All Articles with Tag 'tok'

DOHA TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said on Tuesday the state of Montana's ban of the app was

TikTok on Monday filed a suit against Montana over a bill that would ban the popular short-form video app in the state starting early next year.

TikTok filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against Montana after the state passed a law banning the short-video

A creative food lover's McDonald's lasagna has repulsed the internet. In a TikTok video that appears to have been deleted by the original creator but has been reshared on Twitter and other platforms, an unseen woman makes a dish with McDonald's products taking centre stage - for no apparent reason. In the video, she lays Big Macs in a roasting tin and squashes them down. She then pours chips and maple syrup on top, her "secret ingredient". "Trust the process this is going to be so delicious," she says before adding tomato sauce and two pounds of grated cheese and squashing it all down again. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The next bizarre ingredient is sliced bacon which she lays on top of the pile of food before adding ham and yet more maple syrup. If you thought that was the end of the matter, think again. The woman then gets some McChicken sandwiches, removes the patties then places them on top of the ever-growing pile and discarding the buns. "It's just too much dough," she explains, a bastion of logic. But she keeps the mayonnaise and the lettuce... of course. We're not done yet. Give us strength. Next is more tomato sauce, those American sliced cheese squares that have the texture of plastic, before the abomination finally goes in the oven. "It smells good," the man filming the video says after it comes out of the oven. The creation is cut up, presumably for all her guests to pretend to enjoy, but the video cuts before we can see anyone's review. No matter, though, as we can turn to the reviews of people on the internet, who were quick to label the creation an "abomination". We think we will stick with regular lasagna, too. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A woman has sparked a debate across social media after finding an abandoned couch on the street and taking it back to her apartment. Creator Amanda Joy posted a TikTok of the ‘dream couch’ she had found on the street in New York showing the process of getting it into her apartment. Joy believed the couch to be the $8,000 ‘Bubble’ couch from French brand Roche Bobois. Posted on Saturday, the TikTok now has over 40 million views, and over 4 million likes. The rest of the TikTok showed Joy’s dad picking up the couch in his van and the process of cleaning the couch, before moving it into her apartment. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter However, the now viral TikTok has led to some saying the couch is a fake, and others being concerned about bed bugs. User @boymolish shared the TikTok to Twitter with the caption ‘WHY TF AM I NEVER THIS LUCKY’, and the Tweet had many saying that Joy had not cleaned it enough: Some argued that if you throw an 8k coach on the street there has to be an reason, implying that there was something wrong with it. But some disagreed, saying if you’re rich enough, it’s not a big deal to give away such expensive items for free. Others did some digging and argued that it wasn’t an authentic ‘Bubble’ couch, with one Twitter user comparing the material of the couch Joy now had in her apartment, to the one on the website. As a result of the growing debate around her TikTok, Joy posted an update video, specifically responding to a comment that said ‘it looks so good but I’m SO SCARED about it being BED BUG CENTRAL.’ Joy shared with users that the couch was outside on the street for less than 24 hours. She added that they let the couch sit in her dad’s workshop for over two weeks to ensure they couldn’t see any bed bugs. Joy also told viewers that the reason she thought it had been thrown out is because it has ‘a lot of rips,’ which she has covered with pillows, and ‘has some stains.’ At the end of the video, Joy also showed the tag, ‘for anyone who wants to tell me it’s fake.’ Some viewers were still convinced it wasn’t clean enough, suggesting she should get it professionally cleaned and reupholstered. Whilst others said as long as Joy was happy with it, they didn’t care. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

With the invention of phones, gaming consoles and other devices that keep us inside, the wholesome days of playing outside carefree seem to be drifting further away. So much so, that it appears some adults have forgotten how to skip. You know… the thing you used to do as kids around the playground, where you move forward hopping from one leg to another. Thanks to many on TikTok recording their hilarious attempts to try and skip again, the activity is now trending on the platform. What is the Skip Challenge that people are posting on TikTok? Skipping has gone viral on TikTok thanks to multiple videos showing people’s failed attempts at trying it, with the hashtags #skipchallenge and #forgothowtoskip. In the clips, typically a person is being filmed while having an attempt at doing it, with some hilarious results. In one video that has been viewed over 5.3 million times, TikToker Trina Kay tested her son-in-law’s skipping skills and it didn’t go well. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @trinakaydesigns I asked my son-in-law if he remembered how to skip. Here is attempt #1.... #forgothowtoskip #howtoskip #growingupsucks Rather than skip, the man appeared to do more of a prance, leaving Kay and many viewers of the clip in hysterics. Another video that has been viewed 8.7 million times showed a TikToker’s manager bravely doing his failed skipping attempt in front of the whole office. @nickelback_loves_u Thought this “forgot how to skip” trend was a joke. I was mistaken 😂. @Morris-Jenkins #forgothowtoskip #howtoskip #funnyvideos #trending #skipchallenge #fypシ They captioned the clip: “Thought this ‘forgot how to skip’ trend was a joke. I was mistaken.” According to the many failures posted on the platform, it appears we have lost our child-like joy. But, some are trying to recapture it by skipping for the first time in decades. @maryborderskennedy #skip #skippinginstyle #skipchallenge #pawpawsteve In the comments, one person wrote: “This is so funny. I just tried skipping for the first time in probably 30 years. It's not easy to do.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Keri Williams wouldn't have her business without TikTok. She launched The Branded Pinto, her custom hat shop, about two years ago after a video she shared of one of her creations "blew up" on TikTok. Nearly all of her business still comes from the platform.

Charging family members rent can be awkward at the best of times. However, one mum and dad took things to extremes by making their daughter contribute financially just two weeks after she finished school. Erika and Cody Archie divided opinion on TikTok after sharing a video about making their 19-year-old daughter Kylee pay board. The couple shared details of their family dynamic on their ranch with their hundreds of thousands of followers. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter They admitted that they decided to charge Kylee $200 a month in rent within a fortnight of her graduation from high school. @bar7ranch How do you feel about making your adult children pay rent to live at home? This is a REPOST from last year but since its on Fox Business News right now we thought we’d chat about it again! #Parenting #ParentsChargingRent #AdultChildren #DryHumor #Sarcasm #MarriageHumor #Marriage #CoupleTok #RanchTok #AgTok #KeepRanchin #KingOfTikTok #RanchLife #Ranch "Our thought together is that since [Kylee] has graduated I told her... 'June 1st, our rent's due if you continue to live here'," Cody said in a TikTok posted last year, which has been recirculating online. "I thought that was a little harsh, I mean maybe a little leeway," Erika added. "200 bucks a month is plenty cheap to live like a grub in your parents' house,” Cody added. "That's cheaper than she eats in food. We think it teaches them a good lesson in paying bills,” Erika also said. People in the comments section were divided, with one saying: “A definite no for me… I know it’s rare, but I will forever help my kids… no matter the age.” One more said: “There was a couple times where I had to move back home and my oldest daughter was little. We helped and gave my parents money. I think it depends on.” “Right out of high school seems harsh. 18 year olds are still just kids at that age. Maybe take the rent and put it in an account and give it to her,” another added. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

If you already spend hours scrolling through TikTok -- let's face it, who doesn't? -- then you might have just found your dream job.

From optical illusions to world puzzles like Wordle, the internet is full of different method to put our brains to the test - and this "I'm sure you can't find the 4th object" picture is putting people to the test. The picture itself shows three people at the toilets, with one woman sat down while the two are stood over their own respective toilets. At the side of the image are the objects to find: an egg, a glove, an envelope and a crutch. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @e.ugh Let me know when you see it 😈#greenscreensticker For those who want to try and figure out where those things are - the answers are ahead... Given the beige colours of each object, they may be difficult to spot initially, but the brown glove is on the skirt of the person standing in the middle of the image. Next, the egg can be found on the nose of the person on the left-hand side and then the envelope has been can tilted at 90 degrees in order to blend in with the bathroom tiles on the wall. But what about the crutch? Well, no matter how much you scan and analyse the picture, you will not find a crutch hidden in there. In the creator's profile image, it suggests a way to figure out the last part by doing the following: "Tap the + to see it." Though this will only mean you follow this account, and still you won't be able to see a crutch as there isn't one in the picture. This is a popular method to gain followers, so next time you're scratching you head over a TikTok puzzle this is something to always keep an eye out for. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The nefarious potential of digital technology has never been of greater concern. Artificial intelligence is already outsmarting us, and doxxing and deepfake are now firmly part of the common lexicon, so it’s no wonder we live in fear of what lies ahead for our kids. We already lament that young people live their lives as much on social media as they do in the real world, but to what extent can we blame these platforms for everyday mistakes and, even, tragedies? To answer that question, we must turn to two words which strike fear in the hearts of parents around the world. They are: “TikTok” and “challenge”. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter To the uninitiated, trends and challenges are the lifeblood of the video-sharing app. What began as a lighthearted stage for lip-syncing and dance routines (originally called Musical.ly), is now a hive of endless hashtags, each one encouraging a new stunt or craze. TikTok’s algorithm is a formidable and unpredictable beast, with the power to propel content creators to global stardom and seven-figure earnings and churn out entire new brands. But while most of us can forgive the platform for inviting pink sauce and Charli d’Amelio into our homes, we will not forget its more sinister capabilities. Indeed, mums and dads not only have to contend with the influence of certain notorious brainwashers, but they also face the prospect of losing their child to a dangerous prank – all for the sake of a few likes and the fleeting respect of their peers. A number of serious injuries and deaths have now been attributed to misguided attempts at “trends” on the app, with the so-called “blackout challenge” alone deemed culpable for the deaths of at least 20 children aged 14 or under in the past two years, a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation found. Archie Battersbee, 12, was widely reported to have taken part in the self-choking craze before he was found unconscious by his mother back in 2022. He’d suffered a catastrophic brain injury and died four months later. Then, in April this year, 13-year-old Jacob Stevens passed away in hospital six days after taking on the “Benedryl challenge,” according to his grieving dad. And less than a month ago, 16-year-old Mason Dark was left “unrecognisable” with burns after creating a makeshift blowtorch as part of an alleged TikTok stunt. Yet, there is scant, if any, proof that the platform had any part in fuelling the tragedies suffered by each of these particular kids. In the case of Archie, an inquest found that there was “no evidence” to back up his mum’s fear that he’d been doing the blackout challenge. A police report concluded that the 12-year-old had accessed TikTok on his mobile phone on the day of his fatal accident, but officers had been unable to pinpoint exactly what he’d been watching. However, photos and videos downloaded from the device offered no indication that he’d expressed interest in any auto-asphyxiation material. Similarly, TikTok took centre stage in reports on Jacob’s death, but a spokesperson for the company told indy100: "We have never seen this type of content (meaning the Benadryl challenge) trend on our platform and have blocked searches for years to help discourage copycat behaviour.” And although it was almost universally reported that a "TikTok challenge" had inspired Mason to created his near-lethal flamethrower, no outlets were able to provide any details on this. Could it be that he got the idea from another source or platform? Indeed, YouTube hosts numerous make-your-own blowtorch videos, some of which date back a number of years –meaning many of these fad projects were around before TikTok even existed. Still, although TikTok claims that it carefully monitors hashtags so that it can block potentially damaging content, a quick search of “flamethrower challenge” by indy100 yielded at least five examples of creators brandishing dangerous homemade devices. Admittedly one of these was captioned: “Don’t try this at home,” but doesn’t that sound like a challenge in itself? Social media companies are under mounting pressure to protect their young users from online harms and to better enforce age restrictions. And yet, even with the employment of increasingly sophisticated AI and tens of thousands of human moderators, they seem to constantly fall short in their duties. Yet, just look at recent headlines and it’s clear that TikTok seems to be shouldering most of the blame. Perhaps this is because it is the platform of choice among the very young and impressionable – it’s the most popular app in the US, used by almost 70 per cent of 13 to 17-year-olds, according to one survey. But perhaps it’s also because TikTok’s biggest rival launched a major campaign to tarnish its reputation last year, and it's still suffering the repercussions. Meta hired one of the most influential Republican consulting firms in the US to turn the public against the platform, driving home the idea that the app was a danger to American kids and society. The firm, Targeted Victory, used a nationwide media and lobbying push to spread the message that TikTok was a “threat”, according to leaked emails seen by the Washington Post. Among its tactics was to promote dubious stories about alleged “TikTok trends” that, in fact, originated on Facebook, the paper noted. In another email, a staffer for Targeted Victory asked one of the company’s partners: “Any local examples of bad TikTok trends/stories in your markets? [The] dream would be to get stories with headlines like ‘From dances to danger: how TikTok has become the most harmful social media space for kids’”. Following the Post’s investigation, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone defended the campaign saying: “We believe all platforms, including TikTok, should face a level of scrutiny consistent with their growing success.” TikTok responded by saying it was “deeply concerned” about “the stoking of local media reports on alleged trends that have not been found on the platform.” And yet, for all its protestations of innocence when it comes to the housing of high-risk content, TikTok was essentially the architect of its own problems. Back in 2016, Alex Zhu – the co-founder of what was then Musical.ly – boasted that his app was different to its competitors thanks to its promotion of "daily challenges". Every day, the company set users a new task – whether that be a dance routine or a weight-lifting mission – each of which typically spawned more than one million videos, according to Bloomberg. When Musical.ly was bought by Bejing-based platform ByteDance in 2017, and the two merged to become TikTok, the challenges came with it. These trends struck a particular chord with teens stuck at home during the first wave of the Covid pandemic, and so TikTok staff did everything they could to boost interest, for example, by getting influencers to encourage involvement. When more and more dangerous crazes started to crop up (remember the “milk crate challenge”?), TikTok established a “harm spectrum” to help its moderators decide what should be removed, Eric Han, the company’s US head of safety told Bloomberg. Nevertheless, children may be naive but they’re not stupid, and they soon found ways to circumvent the filters and restrictions. Participants adopted new names and hashtags for the dares, in some cases using deliberate typos or code names to signpost their content. The challenges were also carried over to different platforms, infesting social media as a whole with the weird, whacky and outright life-threatening. And so, we come back to our original question: to what extent can we blame these platforms – and, more specifically, TikTok – for the mistakes, injuries and even deaths of the young? The answer is, this shouldn't be about apportioning blame but about taking responsibility and collectively doing everything we can to protect our children. The likes of Facebook, Instagram and, yes, TikTok, too, all need to do more to impose age limits and remove harmful content, and stop putting growth over the safety of their young users. However, we must also accept that kids will always find ways to break the rules, and it's up to us as family members and friends, to remind them that a cheap thrill in your social life isn’t worth losing your whole life over. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

From optical illusions to world puzzles like Wordle, the internet is full of different method to put our brains to the test - and this "I'm sure you can't find the 4th object" picture is putting people to the test. The picture itself shows three people at the toilets, with one woman sat down while the two are stood over their own respective toilets. At the side of the image are the objects to find: an egg, a glove, an envelope and a crutch. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter @e.ugh Ameer Oakley 🌟 on TikTok For those who want to try and figure out where those things are - the answers are ahead... Given the beige colours of each object, they may be difficult to spot initially, but the brown glove is on the skirt of the person standing in the middle of the image. Next, the egg can be found on the nose of the person on the left-hand side and then the envelope has been can tilted at 90 degrees in order to blend in with the bathroom tiles on the wall. But what about the crutch? Well, no matter how much you scan and analyse the picture, you will not find a crutch hidden in there. In the creator's profile image, it suggests a way to figure out the last part by doing the following: "Tap the + to see it." Though this will only mean you follow this account, and still you won't be able to see a crutch as there isn't one in the picture. This is a popular method to gain followers, so next time you're scratching you head over a TikTok puzzle this is something to always keep an eye out for. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.