Users say they are seeing fewer livestreams, and some activity is being removed or flagged at higher rates for violating community guidelines, including for behavior that was previously permitted.

Second, however, TikTok does present a danger. But it’s the same danger all the social media platforms present: they collect large amounts of personal data from users, including teens. (Some call TikTok's collection excessive.) But this is a story we’ve heard over and over.  They monetize invasive information for advertisers, no matter the danger.

Following an executive order from President Donald Trump, U.S. TikTok users are reportedly seeing signs of increased censorship on the app, once seen as a free-speech haven. After going offline for a brief period due to new laws aimed at addressing national security concerns,

In a historic development, Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok has become the center of a bipartisan bill to ban the app nationwide in the name of national security. Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the UC Berkeley School of Information and a prominent scholar in the study of state censorship,

As self-described " TikTok refugees" pour onto the Chinese social media app RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, some foreign netizens are already running up against the country's extensive censorship apparatus. Newsweek reached out to Xiaohongshu with a request for comment via a general contact email address.

Google Maps reclassifies the United States as a "sensitive country" after changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

The Supreme Court upheld a law that requires TikTok's Chinese owner to sell off the app's U.S. business or face a nationwide ban Sunday.

TikTok has fought the ban, most recently before the Supreme Court. Free-speech advocates contend that the ban would violate First Amendment rights. But the justices sided with the government on January 17,

"It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship ... or updating TikTok in the United States. App Store management (including Apple and Google) will need to decide ...

In the meantime, Biden's stated refusal to enforce the ban means that owners of U.S. smartphone app stores, such as Apple and Google, might decide to leave TikTok alone. In other words ...

The app had more than 170 million monthly users in the U.S. The black-out is the result of a law forcing the service offline unless it sheds its ties to ByteDance, its China-based parent company.

Google and Apple removed the app from their digital ... TikTok does not operate in China, where ByteDance instead offers Douyin, the Chinese sibling of TikTok that follows Beijing’s strict censorship rules. Under the law, mobile app stores are barred ...