Khaby Lame is TikTok’s most followed creator. Now he’s trying to become one of its richest by taking his company public. My colleague @luciamoses.bsky.social and I dug into it here: www.businessinsider.com/tiktoker-kha...

My colleague Sydney Bradley and I wrote about what a crapshoot it's become to try to get famous on social media as algorithms on TikTok and Instagram become more personalized, hurting influencers' chances of becoming universally recognized celebrities. www.businessinsider.com/social-media...

RALLY FOR NEWS, NOT SLOP: Join us at 1PM ET Thursday outside @BusinessInsider HQ. We will be rallying to let management know what we think of their plans to roll out AI-generated news stories. Details here … #NewsNotSlop (1/3)

The headline of this story doesn't capture the wild journey that @henrychandonnet.bsky.social and his subject (and their AI girlfriend) take you on www.businessinsider.com/man-in-love-...

My TikTok book is out in stores today! Why should you read it? Because 1 in 5 Americans now get their news from this thing. We should all understand how it works. It was inevitable that strongmen would seek to control a tool this powerful. The book is the story of what happened when they did.

No more paying retail for MrBeast as he enters his fiscal responsibility stage to become the next Disney. Details from @danwhateley.bsky.social & me: www.businessinsider.com/mrbeast-beas...

I wrote about what goes into making a MrBeast YouTube video, from his ideation team, to the work of on-set producers, and editors who have to turn hundreds of hours of footage into a 20-minute post. And be careful to avoid content that is "cringe" www.businessinsider.com/mrbeast-how-...

New: You can now book hotels directly on TikTok in the US, and creators can get a commission if their video about the property drives you to book a stay www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-now-l...

Silicon Valley today is dramatically changed from a year or two ago. We wrote a series of stories looking at how AI is transforming labor, landscape, innovation, and even religion. Here's my story on the 'shut up and grind' crackdown sweeping through big tech: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/t...

NEW: Google dubbed an error from its healthcare AI model, Med-Gemini, a typo. Experts say it demonstrates the risks of AI in medicine. www.theverge.com/health/71804...

The news media doesn't operate as a monolith, but with local news gone, we're wasting so much time covering the same national stories (see AI news, Coldplay 'kiss cam' posts). It'd serve audiences better to have each reporter dig into a specific beat that was only occasionally nationally relevant.

News outlets need to think of themselves as talent incubators and celebrate journalists who will inevitably at some point go independent. Launching these talent is a sign that a legacy institution is a participant in the creator economy vs. being replaced by it. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/b...

Gen Z are creeps

"The traditional platform economy is being reshaped as commercial platforms and government institutions merge into a monstrous hybrid of business monopoly and state authority." www.wired.com/story/enshit...

ByteDance brought in ex-Amazon folks to turn TikTok Shop into a U.S. commerce empire, but culture clashes erupted, copy Amazon or copy Douyin? After missing targets, ByteDance leadership has taken the wheel, sidelining the Seattle-based Amazon vets in favor of a more China-led playbook.

TikTok went on an Amazon hiring spree to launch its e-commerce business in the US. Now it's pulling back. I wrote about it here www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-hired...

Did NY Times actually interview someone about Canada's tariff response whose last name is Canada?

New: Trump is racing to curb TikTok's ties to China. But inside the company, a string of recent US executive departures and team restructurings has given Chinese leaders a tighter grip on its American business, 16 current and former staffers told me www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-insid...

People are stealing lemons from Whole Foods as a form of political protest: "If a billionaire can steal from me, I can scrape a little off the top, too," a source told @emilystewart.bsky.social www.businessinsider.com/stealing-ama...

I've been regularly reporting on the growth of TikTok Shop in the US. So I was surprised to learn that inside the company, leadership isn't so happy. In February, its e-commerce head called out the US for underperforming. Since then, it's been cracking down. www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-shop-...

Reading through the chatlogs, I realized sadly that I am the JD Vance in my group chats. Confused, weirdly emotional, can't follow the conversation, derails everything at the last min. www.businessinsider.com/signal-group...

I wrote about what it's like to work at TikTok as it faces a possible US ban. Employees told me that they're experiencing burnout amid reorgs, tough performance goals, and other workplace pressures. Some are going on mental-health leave to get a break. www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-staff...

Egg aisle looking a little bleak

SCOOP: DOGE Is Working on Software That Automates the Firing of Government Workers www.wired.com/story/doge-a...

Allegations of a Big Tech company using the threat of federal government intervention to get deals done are extremely concerning. I hope @DOGE will get on this immediately. www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-li...

Maryland-based Uscreen, which helps creators launch apps, engage fans, monetize memberships, and more, raised $150M from PSG Equity, giving PSG a majority stake (Dan Whateley/Business Insider) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

We tackled the big question: how much should Hollywood pay attention to MrBeast? www.businessinsider.com/mrbeast-busi...

there should be a contest for best egg pun in a headline

brands are resorting to killing off their mascots to get attention in this blaringly noisy moment on the internet

SCOOP: DOGE has built a "firewall" separating Elon Musk's team from the ~200 legacy USDS staffers. “They don’t talk to us,” one USDS worker tells me. “As far as I can tell, they’re hiding,” says another. www.wired.com/story/musk-d...

Some thoughts on the First Amendment implications if the U.S. government ends up owning part of TikTok, in this @danwhateley.bsky.social @businessinsider.com piece. www.businessinsider.com/why-us-gover...

Trump has said he wants the US government to get a stake in a TikTok sale. But how would that work? Could TikTok still moderate content like pornography or hate speech without sparking First Amendment challenges? I talked to legal experts to find out. www.businessinsider.com/why-us-gover...

Tech workers are finding small ways to push back at their CEOs pro-Trump knee-bending, with @mikeisaac.bsky.social @kateconger.com www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/t...

hm doesn't feel good to have your creative work taken without your permission in order to train an AI model

politics has forced its way into every reporter's beat this year www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/t...

Here's our oral history of what happened during the 14 hours when TikTok shut off www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-ban-s...

Gonna remember that TikTok tried to sell me some kind of bottom-dweller aquarium product in the last hours before it ‘went dark’

what is happening

Lol all the tech reporters listening to the Supreme Court talk about hardcore porn while we await a possible TikTok ban ruling

New: TikTok says it will "go dark" later this month without Supreme Court intervention, meaning it's not just an app store ban. Existing users would likely stop seeing videos. www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-says-...

TikTok tells LA staff impacted by wildfires to use personal/sick hours if they can’t work from home techcrunch.com/2025/...

LinkedIn seems to use AI to generate 'job seeker' insights about companies. This one for Ticketmaster is so funny from an anti-trust scrutiny perspective

"I never stopped reporting. On my release I set out to identify the man who had taken me, and to learn more about the spy unit that had carried out his orders." So great to see the indomitable Evan Gershkovich back in the paper. www.wsj.com/world/russia...

I spoke to the father of a kid that made $30,000 in under ten mins on a cryptocoin he'd created. He didn't believe it at first. But when angry messages started to flood in, he realised his son was telling the truth—if not quite the full story. www.wired.com/story/memeco...

Someone made a fake Enron account on TikTok

How do you choose the right Santa on Cameo when there are 55?

I wrote about TikTok's Black Friday, which crossed $100 million in single-day sales in the US. Its experiment with social commerce (which pissed off some users) is clearly starting to pay off www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-drove...

One person figured out how to change the name of their wifi network

"What defines an album is entirely up to the artist. I think constraints can breed creativity, and historically they have. But I think that the removal of those constraints has given artists the ability to just create on their own terms." - Nathan Hubbard www.businessinsider.com/spotify-tikt...