Keep scrolling for the K-Pop star trying to radicalise us…?
Creators respond to congress interrogation of TikTok CEO amid potential US ban
TikTokers have flocked to social media in defense of the app following today’s five-hour congressional interrogation of the company’s CEO Shou Zi Chew.
Members of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee questioned Chew today on alleged national security risks posed by TikTok including its ties to China, content moderation, the security of user data, the types of information the app collects, and misinformation.
Clips of the hearing have been published all across TikTok and Twitter, with users reacting to (and tbh, making fun of) the congress members and their lack of social media knowledge.
In one such clip going viral, Rep. Buddy Carter asks if TikTok uses eye-tracking technology— an obvious necessity for any app that offers AR filters including Snapchat and Meta.
When told that TikTok does not “collect body, face, or voice data” to identify users via its filter technology, Carter follows up by asking how the app determines a user’s age.
“We rely on age-gating as our key age assurance […] which is when you ask the user what age they are,” Chew responded.
Another moment causing uproar on social media is when Rep. Richard Hudson asked the most obvious question of all time— if TikTok accesses home Wi-Fi networks.
If a person with TikTok on their phone is connected to a home Wi-Fi network, then yes, the app is accessing a home Wi-Fi network, Chew responded.
Users are also frustrated with the committee’s insistence that Chew answer complex questions with a ‘yes or no’.
Read more about how creators are reacting to the potential US TikTok ban via TIME.
Chaeyoung of K-Pop group TWICE wears shirts with white supremacist symbols *twice* in one week
Chaeyoung, a member of the second biggest K-Pop girl group in the world, shocked internet users this week after wearing a shirt referencing QAnon and another featuring a swastika.
During a performance on the Korean television program Show! MusicCore, Chaeyoung’s outfit featured a large Q filled with the stars and stripes – stylised after the US flag. QAnon’s prominent slogan, “We Go All,” was also written across the T-shirt.
At the time, many internet users defended Chaeyoung – noting she would have nothing to do with the decision and was likely not intentionally promoting the far-right conspiracy theory. In a Twitter thread by author and columnist Emma Marris, she explains how K-Pop celebrities often have limited control over their image and styling.
“K-pop stars typically perform in clothes selected by stylists, who are often looking at design, fonts, etc…and paying less attention to the meaning,” she writes. “Mistakes like these are almost inevitable because Kpop's aesthetic philosophy is a kind of postmodern deployment of decontextualized and remixed symbols and visual ideas. It’s creative and compelling but if you put all of global culture in a blender that includes some dark stuff.”
Days later, Chaeyoung posted a photo to her Instagram wearing a shirt with a swastika. The symbol was seen on Sid Vicious, a former member of the punk rock band Sex Pistols, whose image was featured on her T-shirt.
Fans soon flooded her comment section, condemning the singer for wearing the shirt and sharing it with her 8.6M followers. Amid the backlash, Chaeyoung deleted the photo and addressed her decision in another post.
“I sincerely apologise regarding the Instagram post. I didn’t correctly recognise the meaning of the tilted swastika in the t-shirt I wore,” she wrote. “I deeply apologise for not thoroughly reviewing it, causing concern. I will pay absolute attention in the future to prevent any situation similar from happening again.”
In light of this, K-Pop fans have called on JYP Entertainment – TWICE’s management and record label – to adjust their styling practices. Users in the r/twice subreddit hope that the company starts “double-checking” and “researching” their English-language clothing after this controversy.
Others question if Cheayoung is “actively dog-whistling” with her fashion choices.
Read the full story via Centennial Beauty.
Sofia Coppola’s daughter wins over the internet as TikTok’s new favourite nepo baby
Romy Mars — the daughter of Sofia Coppola and Phoenix lead singer Thomas Mars— went viral this week after trying to charter a helicopter from New York to Maryland on her dad’s credit card to have dinner with a camp friend.
In a now-deleted TikTok, Romy makes a pasta sauce while she’s grounded for “the helicopter fiasco.”
The video has been heralded as a masterpiece in nepo baby art, in which Romy doesn’t know the difference between garlic and onion, says she isn’t allowed to have public social media accounts, and shows off her babysitter’s boyfriend who she refers to as her “replacement parents” because hers are never home.
Estelle Tang for Buzzfeed breaks down why Romy’s video became an instant viral success.
“This TikTok is compelling because it both confirms how we think about celebrity (Romy doesn’t have to cook for herself, and it’s possible she has only been inside a supermarket one to three times), and yields to our loving understanding of what’s important to a teenager (freedom, complaining, friendship, spontaneous air travel). This video also proves that famous people are aware of the much-discussed concept of the nepo baby, and that they agree the optics are bad. […] The scarcity of information about them makes this TikTok an even more pleasurable encounter with their lives: We weren’t ever supposed to have seen this. The otherwise sacrosanct private spaces of the wealthy, breached by one of their own — delicious!”
Read Tang’s complete take on this masterpiece via Buzzfeed.
Emma Chamberlain’s online shop blames fan for “spreading false information” about $10K DM listing
Emma Chamberlain‘s online shop has temporarily closed after a fan claimed the website was selling a DM from the YouTuber for $10,000.
On March 18th, a Twitter user named Layla shared a screenshot reportedly taken from Emma’s store for a “personal thank you note from Emma in Instagram DM” listed for $10,000 or $902.58 a month with ShopPay instalments.
Though celebrities and influencers charging for personal messages or videos is not a new phenomenon, Layla’s post quickly racked up millions of views and thousands of responses from fans outraged by this steep price.
Layla spoke with Buzzfeed about her discovery earlier this week. She told the outlet that she simply Googled Emma’s podcast and stumbled upon the listing. She said initially assumed the price was a typo.
Following the backlash, Emma’s store was temporarily disabled. Cozack, Inc., the team behind Emma’s merch, has since issued a statement calling claims that Emma was selling DMs for $10,000 “false and inaccurate”, while laying blame on Layla for posting the listing on Twitter.
“What we suspect is that data was activated and crawled by Google’s SEO indexing system and discovered by an individual who then began spreading false information to press outlets,” the company wrote. “With the internet’s tendency to create false narratives around sensationalized stories we wanted to provide you with the truth firsthand and from the source.”
On March 21st, Layla added the statement to her Twitter thread and wrote, “The link was accessible on multiple sites including reddit so anyone could have tweeted it”.
Fans came to Layla’s defense, noting that the listing she posted was publicly available information.
Just three days after Layla posted about the DM, Emma addressed the situation in a brief statement to E! News, claiming that she initially thought her site had been hacked. But after seeing nothing “out of the ordinary,” she escalated the concern with Cozack.
Read the full story via Centennial Beauty.
Victoria Paris, Paige Lorenze & TikTok's "Mass Exodus" From NYC
This week’s infinite scroll podcast dives into the reasons why TikTokers, who grew their platforms as NYC lifestyle influencers, are now allegedly mass exiting the city and what this means for Gen Z content creators as a whole. This week’s conversation was inspired by a recent New York Post article titled Influencers are fleeing NYC in droves — it’s the ‘loneliest place’.
Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.