TikTok, owned by the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, has now introduced its e-commerce service, TikTok Shop, in the United States. The company has introduced a Shop Tab feature that displays products from its marketplace to 40 per cent of its app users. The feature will be gradually rolled out to all of the app’s 150 million US users by early October. This update enables users to explore and purchase products directly within the app, offering a new shopping experience on TikTok.
TikTok Shop enables users to purchase products featured in live streams and short videos directly. In addition, it is introducing an e-commerce feature that will provide content creators with fresh revenue streams by matching them with relevant brands for commission-based marketing collaborations. The platform’s “Fulfilled by TikTok” program, which includes storage, packing, and shipping, is also available to sellers.
Initially, TikTok’s e-commerce service was introduced in Indonesia in 2021 and has since expanded to the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its entry into the US e-commerce sector is noteworthy as it aligns with the company’s broader strategy to attract tech-savvy young consumers while diversifying its sources of revenue.
A former TikTok content moderator in Kenya, James Oyange Odhiambo, has alleged that he developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to his work and was unfairly dismissed for advocating for better working conditions.
The law firm representing Odhiambo has sent a letter to TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and the outsourcing company Majorel threatening a lawsuit if their demands are not met within two weeks. The letter alleges that content moderators were, at times, required to watch between 250 and 350 disturbing and violent videos per hour without adequate mental health support. A TikTok spokesperson declined to comment on the accusations made in the letter. ByteDance did not respond to Time’s request for comment.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has filed a lawsuit against the Montana state ban and is seeking a preliminary injunction to block its enforcement that should come into effect on 1 January. Montana passed a law imposing fines of $10,000 for each violation by TikTok. The law does not impose penalties on individual TikTok users.
TikTok filed suit in May and is now asking the US District Judge to issue a preliminary injunction to block the first-of-its-kind US state ban on several grounds, claiming that it infringes on the First Amendment rights of both TikTok and its users. Additionally, the platforms claim that the ban is preempted by federal law and violates the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution.
The company estimates that around 380,000 people in Montana use TikTok out of 150 million users nationwide. The platform also insists that it does not share any data with the Chinese government and warns that the ban would have significant and irreversible effects on its business and brand. Montana, on the other hand, is considering expanding the ban.
TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew confirmed it: China-based employees who pass specific internal security checks can access certain information related to TikTok’s US users, including public videos and comments. All of that data is protected by ‘robust cybersecurity controls’ and is not disclosed to the Chinese government, he said.
TikTok has reiterated that Project Texas, which includes physically storing US user information in data centres on US servers owned by software giant Oracle Corp, is the answer. However, the US Senate Intelligence Committee is concerned about the reliability of TikTok’s promises and has asked the US Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation into whether TikTok misled US lawmakers about China-based employees of its parent company, ByteDance, accessing American user data.
