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The White House just joined TikTok
Gaming Gear

The White House just joined TikTok

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While it was President Joe Biden who signed the law that would force ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok or face a ban, it’s his successor, Donald Trump, who has yet to fulfill his promise of arranging a deal to keep TikTok running, legally, in the United States. The current deadline for a deal is September 17th. Still, it hasn’t stopped Trump’s administration from creating @WhiteHouse on TikTok, which published its first post on Tuesday night: a video celebrating Trump’s accomplishments.

While Trump tried to ban TikTok in 2020, his stance softened during his re-election campaign once his team learned how many supporters Trump had on the platform. In 2024, the Trump campaign launched its own official account, @TeamTrump, and quickly dominated the platform, getting more followers and views on their content than former Vice President Kamala Harris’s now-dormant campaign account — 2.8 billion to 2.2 billion, according to journalist Kyle Tharp. A Republican digital operative close to the campaign heavily credited Trump, a former reality TV star, for his ability to generate attention-grabbing moments that could be transformed into viral content. “TikTok is primarily an entertainment app,” he previously told The Verge, “and our usage of it was just significantly more savvy than [the Democrats].”

Although the legality of and ulterior motives behind a TikTok ban remain a serious question, the Trump administration, for now, appears to find utility in maintaining an account on the platform. “Why would I want to get rid of TikTok?” Trump said on Truth Social in January, sharing a post about the billions of views his campaign account continued to rack up. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated this stance after the government account was launched. “President Trump’s message dominated TikTok during his presidential campaign,” she said in a statement to The Verge, “and we’re excited to build upon those successes and communicate in a way no other administration has before.”





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Nexon respond to claims they're using AI-generated Tiktok streamers to advertise The First Descendant
Game Updates

Nexon respond to claims they’re using AI-generated Tiktok streamers to advertise The First Descendant

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South Korean publishers Nexon are investigating a recent bit of TikTok marketing for their free-to-play shooter The First Descendant, after players spotted some ads that feature AI-generated ‘human’ streamers bigging up the game. Well, we at least have to assume it’s following that, as Nexon’s statement omits mentioning AI in favour of the wonderfully nebulous phrase “certain irregularities”.

If you’ve not seen one of these ads that look to have been posted by The First Descendant’s official account, allow me to show you, because you’ll see right quick why folks have been asking questions. Boom. There are further booms compiled into one Reddit post by user iHardlyTriHard down below.

As you can see, them be some weird renderings of streamy blokes, especially the one who says Nier: Automata in a fashion that’d be hilarious if this wasn’t terrible AI sloppage. Seriously, he pronounces it NEER (pause for ten seconds) audomada. He also gets points for doubling up on his use of free-to-play in his attempt to get you hyped about an F2P update to the F2P looter shooter, which has launched F2Ply.

Anyway, in addition to the more obviously not-streamers, it appears the first one in the compilation below may be based on the likeness of streamer DanieltheDemon. He’s since taken to the comments section of a TikTok about the clips to make clear he didn’t agree to any of this. “I have no affiliation nor contract with The First Descendant,” the streamer wrote. “They stole my face/reactions from my most viral video and used AI to change what my mouth says and a voice that isn’t mine. I did not consent for my likeness to be used…”

While you can’t find these full ads if you go to The First Descendant’s official TikTok account, you can see some of the gameplay clips the AI streamers have been paired with to deliver their samey sales pitches.

What do Nexon have to say about this? The following:

We would like to inform you of certain irregularities identified in the operation of our TikTok Creative Challenge for creators. As a part of our marketing campaign for Season 3: Breakthrough, we recently ran a Creative Challenge program for TikTok creators, which allows creators to voluntarily submit their content to be used as advertising materials. All submitted videos are verified through TikTok’s system to check copyright violations before they are approved as advertising content.

However, we have become aware of cases where the circumstances surrounding the production of certain submitted videos appear inappropriate. Thus, we are conducting a thorough joint investigation with TikTok to determine the facts. We sincerely apologize for the delay in providing this notice as the review is taking longer than expected. Once the verification is complete, we will promptly share an update through an official notice.

So, the company ran a competition of sorts that let anyone create ads for the game, which is a strange example of outsourcing at the very least, then seemingly left final approval for publication to TikTok’s copyright checker, which merrily waved this dodgy stuff through. Either that or Nexon potentially gave it all the green light themselves. Either way, oof.

We’ll have to see what the company say once that investigation’s concluded, but here’s hoping the next statement’s a bit more like the easier-to-parse response offered when Nexon were accused of taking a bit too much inspiration from some Destiny 2 icons.





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Nexon launches investigation into claims AI-generated The First Descendant ads were used on TikTok
Esports

Nexon launches investigation into claims AI-generated The First Descendant ads were used on TikTok

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Nexon said it has launched an investigation after The First Descendant players noticed a number of seemingly AI-generated advertisements on TikTok, including one that used a content creator’s likeness without permission.

The developer/publisher issued a statement after Reddit user iHardlyTriHard penned a viral post collating four AI-like advertisements they had found after “only 10-15 minutes” browsing their For You Page.

The statement did not apologize directly for the AI advertisements but did apologize for “the delay in providing notice as the [investigative] review is taking longer than expected.” Nexon did not, however, explain when it was notified of the adverts, or when it launched its review.

Nexon said it wanted to “inform [players] of certain irregularities identified in the operation of [its] TikTok Creative Challenge for creators,” and said the campaign “allows creators to voluntarily submit their content to be used as advertising materials.” It also stressed that all submitted videos had been “verified through TikTok’s system.”

“However, we have become aware of cases where the circumstances surrounding the production of certain submitted videos appear inappropriate,” the statement added. “Thus, we are conducting a thorough joint investigation with TikTok to determine the facts.

“We sincerely apologize for the delay in providing this notice as the review is taking longer than expected. Once the verification is complete, we will promptly share an update through an official notice. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

Nexon has yet to respond to DanieltheDemon’s public claim that he “did not consent for my likeness to be used.”



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NFT Gaming

TikTok Hits Back At Congressman’s ‘$300 Million Bribe’ Accusation Over Trump Meme Coin

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In brief

  • Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA-32) has accused TikTok’s Chinese owners of a “$300 million bribe” through purchases of U.S. President Donald Trump’s meme coin.
  • In a tweeted rebuttal, TikTok called Sherman’s claim “patently false and irresponsible.”
  • Trump this week announced a 90-day delay to the looming U.S. ban on TikTok.

Social media firm TikTok has pushed back against a Congressman’s accusation that it had purchased TRUMP meme coins in order to “bribe” the U.S. president.

“The Chinese owners of TikTok have announced they are buying ‘Trump Coins’ for $300 million,” Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA-32) tweeted Thursday, adding that, “Trump creates ‘Trump Coins’ at no cost, meaning this is just a $300 million bribe that goes right into his pocket.”

The social media firm tweeted a rebuttal stating that, “Congressman, claiming that the owners of TikTok are buying ‘Trump Coins’ is patently false and irresponsible and doesn’t even accurately reflect a letter you signed last month.”

TikTok did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for clarification on the aforementioned letter.

TikTok and Trump

This week, President Trump announced on Truth Social that he has signed a 90-day extension for the looming U.S. TikTok ban. However, Sherman highlighted that, “The law allows only one single extension, so Trump’s failure to enforce it is illegal,” before accusing the owners of the social media app of bribing the President by buying his official meme coin—which TikTok denies.

TikTok has been facing a possible U.S. ban for more than a year now, following the passing of legislation that required the Chinese-based creators of the app, ByteDance, to sell their U.S. operations. In January 2025, TikTok went dark for a day before Trump signed an executive order to delay the ban for 75 days, which was then extended for another 75 days.

The law allows only one single extension, so Trump’s failure to enforce it is illegal.

However, the Chinese owners of TikToK have announced they are buying “Trump Coins” for $300 million. Trump creates “Trump Coins” at no cost, meaning this is just a $300 million bribe that goes… https://t.co/kBzCMUcN7t

— Congressman Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) June 19, 2025

Trump’s most recent extension would be the second. However, the Supreme Court act that seeks to enforce the TikTok ban states that the President can only grant one extension of “no more than 90 days.” That’s why Congressman Sherman is calling foul play when it comes to the apparent delay.

Sherman’s accusation appears to reference a small tech company called GD Culture Group that, according to The New York Times, has a Chinese subsidiary, only eight employees, and generated no revenue in the year before it announced a $300 million investment plan for the TRUMP meme coin.

Congressman, claiming that the owners of TikTok are buying “Trump Coins” is patently false and irresponsible and doesn’t even accurately reflect a letter you signed last month. https://t.co/8uxxPrKlzP

— TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) June 19, 2025

GD Culture Group launched a TikTok account in August 2024, which uses artificial intelligence to create news content. At the time of writing, it has 123 followers and its most popular video has 533 views. The company also offers marketing, a talent agency business, and other services, all centered around the social media app.

While the company clearly relies on TikTok and has a subsidiary based in China, there is no known official connection between GD Culture Group and ByteDance.

Since the filing in May, according to TradingView, GD Culture Group stock has climbed 307% on the Nasdaq to a market capitalization of $46.86 million.

Earlier this month, Sherman signed a letter addressed to Trump urging the administration to ban both TikTok and the powerful AI model DeepSeek, citing their owners’ connections to the Chinese government.

Meme coins and Trump

Sherman isn’t the only one concerned that the TRUMP meme coin could be a vehicle for foreign actors to gain influence over the President.

Shortly after its January launch, crypto-skeptic Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representative Jake Auchincloss (D-MA-4) called for an investigation into the TRUMP meme coin, citing concerns around conflicts of interest, foreign influence, and national security.

In April, a private dinner was offered to the top 220 holders of the President’s official meme coin. The debate around foreign influence was then reignited, as Trump was set to attend the event, and the top 25 holders were set to receive a separate “ultra-exclusive private VIP Reception.”

Senators Warren and Adam Schiff (D-CA) urged the Office of Government Ethics to investigate the event. More than a hundred protestors gathered outside the event, calling for the end to “crypto corruption.”

One dinner attendee told Decrypt that they were surprised by how big the protests were. Another claimed that the dinner was filled with “sketchy, faceless people,” adding that he was disappointed by the lack of one-to-one time with the President.

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Trump is giving TikTok another ban extension
Gaming Gear

Trump is giving TikTok another ban extension

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For the third time, President Donald Trump will extend the deadline for TikTok to spin out from its Chinese parent company or face a US ban. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a statement Tuesday that Trump will sign an executive order this week extending the deadline another 90 days, landing the new deadline in mid-September.

The Trump administration will spend the next 90 days “working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure,” Leavitt said.

The extension, first signed on January 20th, theoretically offers legal cover for TikTok’s US service providers who are subject to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act from the hundreds of billions in penalties they could face for keeping the app online and in US app stores. But that legal cover was already shaky given that Trump’s extensions are not codified into the law, which was passed overwhelmingly by a bipartisan vote in Congress, and upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court.

As The Verge previously reported, ByteDance and an Oracle-led coalition had nearly hammered out a deal in April, but Trump’s tariffs abruptly blew up the tentative agreement. While trade tensions between the US and China have simmered down, there’s been no recent news about resurrecting that deal or another one. Even when a sale seemed likely, it was unclear whether China would allow ByteDance to sell the valuable algorithm that powers TikTok’s video recommendations.

“The whole thing is a sham if the algorithm doesn’t move from out of Beijing’s hands”

Several lawmakers, including those who’ve criticized a divest-or-ban law for TikTok and ByteDance, have warned that Trump’s repeated extensions are untenable and illegal. After Trump’s last extension in April, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) told The Verge the move was “against the law” and said “the whole thing is a sham if the algorithm doesn’t move from out of Beijing’s hands.”

Even before the second extension, Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Cory Booker (D-NJ), who oppose a ban of TikTok, wrote Trump that it would be “unacceptable and unworkable for your Administration to continue ignoring the requirements in the law.” They warned, “any further extensions of the TikTok deadline will require Oracle, Apple, Google, and other companies to continue risking ruinous legal liability, a difficult decision to justify in perpetuity.”

That’s because TikTok service providers in the US can be fined for facilitating access to the app after the ban deadline, and Trump’s extensions fall outside of the mechanisms allowed for in the law. So far, however, these companies appear to be relying on assurances from the administration that they won’t be sued for keeping TikTok online, although it reportedly took a letter from the US attorney general herself to assuage Apple and Google’s concerns.

A court could evaluate whether Trump’s actions are legal, but only if somebody sues to stop the extension — and so far, nobody has. Earlier this month, though, a Google shareholder filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly failing to share internal records about its decision to flout the law under the Justice Department’s assurances. The same shareholder had already filed suit against the DOJ for allegedly failing to share information about its decision not to enforce the law against Apple and Google.

While members of Trump’s party generally haven’t gone so far as to call his extensions illegal, a dozen House Republicans said in a statement in April that “any resolution must ensure that U.S. law is followed, and that the Chinese Communist Party does not have access to American user data or the ability to manipulate the content consumed by Americans.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told reporters that month that Trump “ought to enforce the statute and ban TikTok. This middle way, I don’t think is viable.”

But it’s not clear what would prevent Trump from approving indefinite extensions or a deal that doesn’t meet the letter of the law. As Hawley acknowledged while speaking to reporters in April, “Congress, we don’t have an enforcement arm of our own.”





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Donald Trump will delay a looming TikTok ban for a third time
Gaming Gear

Donald Trump will delay a looming TikTok ban for a third time

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President Donald Trump will, once again, give TikTok a temporary reprieve as it faces another deadline to sell itself or face a ban in the United States. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Tuesday that Trump will sign another executive order to extend the deadline.

The latest extension — this time for 90 days — is now the third time Trump has punted on a looming TikTok ban since he took office in January. “As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” Leavitt said in a statement reported by CNN. “This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.”

US officials are presumably still negotiating terms of a potential deal that would allow TikTok to remain operational in the United States, though there’s been little news on that front since the last extension in April. A number of potential buyers are interested in acquiring TikTok’s US business, but officials in China would need to sign off on any agreement. In April, several reports suggested that a deal would likely involve the company’s existing US investors rolling over their stakes into a new entity. Those talks were derailed by Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports.



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User loses $6.5m in crypto after buying tampered cold wallet via TikTok China
Crypto Trends

User loses $6.5m in crypto after buying tampered cold wallet via TikTok China

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A user lost $6.5 million in crypto after unknowingly purchasing a compromised cold wallet through TikTok China.

In a recent post on X, blockchain security firm SlowMist reported that a user lost $6.5 million worth of crypto after purchasing a compromised cold crypto wallet through Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. The wallet, though seemingly factory sealed, had its private key compromised at creation. Just hours after the user transferred funds into it, the assets were drained.

“Avoid “Factory sealed” or “Discounted cold wallets” — 99% are tampered,” the firm warned.

The incident mirrors the Trezor Model T incident investigated by Kaspersky in 2023, where a perfectly sealed but counterfeit wallet contained altered firmware and pre-generated seed phrases, allowing attackers to silently drain funds weeks after the user unknowingly activated the compromised device. That device was also bought from an unofficial online seller, who marketed it as brand new and factory sealed.

User @hella, who identified themselves as a close friend of the victim, said that although SlowMist was contacted and began tracing the transaction flow, recovery is unlikely.

“When buying a cold wallet, you must choose a reliable channel. Most of the ones on the internet are fake,” @hella wrote.

He also explained that once the funds were stolen, they were funneled through a laundering network suspected to be linked to Huiwang.

Huiwang (aka Huione Group) is a Cambodian conglomerate linked to the massive crypto-powered, Telegram-based black market and money laundering network known as Haowang Guarantee. Despite reports of a recent shutdown and the removal of its official channels, the network has recently resurfaced under a new domain and remains fully operational. According to Chainalysis, its transaction volumes have even increased after Huione Group’s designation as a primary money laundering concern by FinCEN.



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parents pranking kids on tiktok with egg
Esports

Woman arrested after stealing over $400,000 to spend on TikTok

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A woman in the UK was arrested after manufacturing fraudulent purchases to embezzle money from her employer, with hundreds of thousands of dollars going toward buying gifts for streamers on TikTok. She’s since been sentenced to over 2 years in prison.

She purposely manipulated financial reports to funnel money into her own bank account. She started small, taking a couple hundred dollars here or there and altering the records to make it look like that money essentially disappeared.

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It got to the point where her employer became suspicious. The company was losing a massive amount of money, but no one could figure out why.

As it turns out, 29 year-old Katherine Greenall had stolen a grand total of £443,523, around $601,000 USD, from her employer over the course of a few years. The amount of money she stole and spent is enough to potentially sink the company she worked for and may result in layoffs. And most of it went to TikTok.

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Woman secretly stole money for years to spend on TikTok

Greenall’s employer approached her about the issue on May 1, 2025, unaware that she was the one funneling funds into her bank account. She promised to look into it before taking another £20,000 and disappearing.

While she spent around £142,000 on conventional purchases like parties for relatives, vacations, groceries, and other luxury goods, the rest of this money went straight to TikTok.

She’d buy TikTok coins and use them to donate to users on the platform, sending them gifts that’d show up when they’re streaming.

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TikTok, Canva

According to court reports, she spent £301,162 on TikTok coins, or around $408,000 USD. She essentially took her company’s earnings and used them to donate to streamers.

100 TikTok coins is worth around $1.04, meaning that she bought approximately 42,472,976 TikTok coins with company funds.

The lawyer defending her in court claimed that she was “suffering from a form of addiction to TikTok”, but this defense didn’t hold up in court. The judge acknowledged that spending money on the platform may have been an “escape” for her, but they still sentenced her to 28 months behind bars for her crimes.

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TikTok now blocks search results for #SkinnyTok
Gaming Gear

TikTok now blocks search results for #SkinnyTok

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TikTok no longer shows search results for the hashtag #SkinnyTok. Critics who supported this block said some videos with that label were promoting disordered eating and other unhealthy or risky diet behaviors. We’ve reached out to TikTok for comment on this development.

France’s Minister of State for Digital Affairs Clara Chappaz was one of the politicians leading the pushback against this particular hashtag. She has been campaigning against #SkinnyTok with both French and EU regulators since April. “These videos promoting extreme thinness are revolting and absolutely unacceptable,” Chappaz said. “Digital tools are marvellous in terms of progress and freedom, but badly used they can shatter lives … the social networks cannot escape their responsibility.”

While blocking search results for potentially harmful hashtags is a positive step, it only places hurdles in the path of people who want to seek out similar videos. “Users are savvy,” Cornell University professor Brooke Erin Duffy told The New York Times. “They know how to work these platforms and how to evade their content moderation systems.”

A block on one hashtag is just the latest in TikTok’s piecemeal approach toward content that could encourage eating disorders. In 2020 it placed restrictions on ads that might “promote a negative or harmful body image,” such as fasting apps and weight loss supplements. TikTok began a partnership with the National Eating Disorder Association in 2021 to offer more resources for users with eating disorders. Later that year, it also introduced a new approach to the For You page in an effort to reduce the impact of watching too many repeated clips on a negative topic.



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