TikTok is officially rolling out Footnotes, a community fact-checking program that’s supposed to add helpful context to videos. With this update, US-based users will start seeing Footnotes on videos in the coming weeks, and will also get the option to rate them.

After allowing people to join the Footnotes pilot in April, TikTok says almost 80,000 users in the US have qualified to become contributors, allowing them to write and rate notes on videos. When contributors agree that a footnote is helpful, it will appear on the video for the broader TikTok community in the US. TikTok says the Footnotes ranking system will get “smarter” over time as contributors write and rate notes on a range of different topics. It will also give users the ability to report Footnotes that may violate its community guidelines.

The feature uses a “bridging-based system” that aims to find a “consensus between people with different opinions.” It’s similar to how community notes work on X, which the platform says incorporates “diverse perspectives.” Meta has also launched community notes across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, while YouTube is piloting a crowdsourced fact-checking feature, too.

• TikTok is launching its own version of community notes in the US called "footnotes."
• The tool lets TikTok users chip in on identifying bad or misleading information in videos.
• The company is joining peers like Meta and X in asking users to help moderate content.

Fact-checkers, start your engines.

TikTok is launching a new "footnotes" feature in the US on Wednesday that allows users to add context or corrective information to videos.

The crowdsourcing tool is similar to X (formerly Twitter) or Meta's community notes. It lets users flag videos they believe contain false claims, information that needs clarification, or media that has been edited or artificially generated. Other users then rate the submission's accuracy and helpfulness. If enough support it, it could get added below an offending video.

The footnotes feature arrives at a key moment for TikTok, which has grown into a popular news source for young people. Last year, 17% of US adults said they regularly get news on the site, up from 3% in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.

TikTok is not relying solely on footnotes to address misinformation.

The company said it uses automation and human moderators to track down false content, working with a global network of fact-checkers to identify misinformation in different markets. But for app users, footnotes may quickly become one of the more visible forms of content review happening on the app.

To start posting footnotes, a user must be based in the US, have been on the app for at least six months, and have no recent community violations on their record. The company said it had registered around 80,000 participants to seed the product at launch.

One challenge that may crop up for TikTok is defining what is or isn't good information in a footnote (an area of contention in the US media landscape where political divisions run deep).

When submitting a footnote, TikTok asks users to provide a link to a "reliable source" to support their claim, though TikTok isn't dictating what is or isn't reliable.

"In the beginning, we're letting our users choose which links to upload and after we go live, we'll be taking a look at some of the sources that come in," Erica Ruzic, TikTok's global head of integrity and authenticity product, said on Tuesday at an event hosted at the company's New York offices. "We will let our users decide what they're deeming an authoritative source to begin."

Initially, footnotes will only appear on the original offending video, which means duets or stitches won't get flagged. They also won't appear on content from advertisers.

The effectiveness of the program may depend on TikTok's ability to prevent its system from being gamed, as bad actors might try to flood the zone with misinformation on a particular topic, Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, said during a Tuesday panel at TikTok's offices.

The speed at which a footnote is submitted, reviewed, and posted will also be an important factor in the program's impact.

"When bad content that's harmful goes viral, it doesn't go viral in two weeks, it goes viral in one hour," Roberta Braga, founder and executive director of the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas, said during the panel.

• People have been using ChatGPT and other AI tools to "manifest" their ideal lives.
• My colleague reported on this late last year, and I keep seeing the trend on TikTok still today.
• So I thought about it: Should I give in and join the AI manifesters and visualize my dream life?

It's a TikTok trend that's been going on for some time now — people using ChatGPT and other AI tools to "manifest" their dream lives.

So far, I've avoided it, but when one of my editors noticed it trending again, I had to at least consider it: Am I the type of person who'd manifest? And then use AI to show me what my ideal life would look like?

My colleague Ana Altchek noticed the trend back in September. "Users are sharing how AI has helped them enhance their traditional manifestation practices, such as visualizations, vision boards, positive affirmations, mantras, and rewiring negative beliefs," she reported at the time.

ChatGPT shows your dream life

I decided to investigate for myself, and I found that people essentially prompt AI to create a story about their dream life, based on their goals.

Let's say your goals were to be rich, have flawless skin, snag a hunky husband and two kids, and live in a villa in Italy where you garden tomatoes. Enter those goals — manifest them, if you will — and it would whip up a story for you.

Then, you could use it to create an action plan to actually get there.

I tried this out myself, asking ChatGPT to tell me a story about a day in my life in that Italian villa. I can't deny it delivered an appealing tale:

The sun slipped gently over the Tuscan hills, casting gold across the rolling vineyards and awakening Villa Rosabella, your sun-washed estate tucked among olive trees and cypress-lined roads. The sheets were linen, cool and crisp, and the smell of blooming jasmine drifted in through open French doors. You stretched, not a wrinkle on your face, your skin dewy and flawless, like you'd just walked out of a spa in Capri (because you had — last weekend).

But when I asked it to give me steps to achieve this dream life, things got a little wonky. Although it had some decent practical advice about how to achieve flawless skin ("get a consultation with a top dermatologist,") things got slightly more complicated when it came to the "becoming rich" part of the dream. It suggested things like, "Scale income to $500K+ annual revenue," which ... OK, sure?

To be fair, had I given it slightly more specific goals, it might have come up with a better plan. But I need to admit my bias here: I'm not really into the idea of manifesting. I'm happy for anyone who finds this useful, but it's just not for me.

A while back, I DM'ed some of the people I'd seen talking about this life hack on social media. A few of them told me they really did believe in the power of manifestation — and had clear life goals in mind. (I realized that these women were younger than I am, just starting out in their adult lives. Whereas I'm old enough that my only life goal is just to ride this thing out.)

Manifesting on video

There's also a new twist to the AI manifestations: video. The New York Times reported last week that people are using tools like Runway, Google's Veo 3, or a tool called Freepik to enter a real image of themselves that's then used to illustrate a real (fake) life. For example, I could upload a picture of myself, and then have AI create a video of me sauntering around my Tuscan tomato grove.

I wanted to give it a try, so I tried to use Freepik, which one of the women interviewed by the Times used. But there was a catch: Freepik required a paid account to create video— and there's no way I'm going to scale my income to $500,000 if I'm throwing it all away on AI tools, so I declined.

Personally, I don't think I want to see a video of myself in a dream life, anyway.

I don't think it would make me feel bad per se — or jealous of my dream AI self. And I'm not afraid that the AI version of me might come to life and murder and replace me. I simply do not wish to engage with such content. It just does not appeal to me at all.

Perhaps I lack a growth mindset — the desire to truly improve my life. Perhaps I should be more open to AI manifesting! But also, I am happy to just use my imagination, and tend the one scraggly cherry tomato plant in my yard.

Donald Trump vowed to save TikTok before taking office, claiming only he could make a deal to keep the app operational in the US despite national security concerns.

But then, he put Vice President JD Vance in charge of the deal, and after months of negotiations, the US still doesn't seem to have found terms for a sale that the Chinese government is willing to approve. Now, Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has confirmed that if China won't approve the latest version of the deal—which could result in a buggy version of TikTok made just for the US—the administration is willing to shut down TikTok. And soon.

On Thursday, Lutnick told CNBC that TikTok would stop operating in the US if China and TikTok owner ByteDance won't sell the app to buyers that Trump lined up, along with control over TikTok's algorithm.

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TikTok will now let songwriters highlight tracks they’ve written or co-written directly on their profiles. The list of songs will live within the “Music” tab on their profile, similar to the one TikTok already offers for artists on the platform. Users who register as songwriters will also get a “Songwriter” label beneath their account name.

These new features build upon some of TikTok’s existing tools for songwriters, including the “New” tag that appears on newly released music and the ability for users to save a song on a music streaming service. TikTok also rolled out a “BehindTheSong” hub in 2023, where songwriters, artists, and producers can share more about the making of their music, in addition to the more recently launched “Off the Record” series with artists like Shakira, Charli XCX, and Meghan Trainor.

Music is a huge part of TikTok, with the platform helping boost the popularity of songs and even drive TikTokers to stardom. It has also worked with artists like Taylor Swift to build hubs to promote their music, and added the ability for users to save songs to their SoundCloud accounts in May. In 2023, it launched a standalone music streaming app, but shut it down in 2024. 

For now, TikTok is launching its new songwriter features in a closed beta with a “limited number” of publisher partners. Songwriters and publishers can sign up for a waitlist to gain access to these features in the future.

Even with the TikTok divest-or-ban law officially in effect since January, the app has only shut down service in the US for one day. Now, The Information reports that an agreement for a sale satisfying the law’s requirements is close and would come with a new, separate version of the app.

Any deal, however, would need approval from the Chinese government, which is also still wrangling with the Trump administration over tariffs.

The outlet reports that the Trump administration says it’s close to working out a sale to a group of “non-Chinese” investors, including Oracle, with current majority owner ByteDance maintaining a minority stake that would satisfy the terms of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

Earlier today, the Wall Street Journal reported that the General Services Administration says Oracle has reached a new agreement with the federal government that “is the first of its kind that provides the entire government with a discount on cloud infrastructure,” with a 75 percent discount on licensed software.

TikTok’s staff is reportedly working on a new version of the app — dubbed M2, to the current app’s internal M designation — for release in app stores on September 5th. Trump issued a third legally questionable extension of the deadline to ban TikTok from US app stores last month, which is set to expire in mid-September. According to The Information’s unnamed source, under the current timeline, the original TikTok app would leave app stores as the new one launches and then stop working entirely in March 2026.

The release of Google's Veo 3 video generator in May represented a disconcerting leap in AI video quality. While many of the viral AI videos we've seen are harmless fun, the model's pixel-perfect output can also be used for nefarious purposes. On TikTok, which may or may not be banned in the coming months, users have noticed a surplus of racist AI videos, courtesy of Google's Veo 3.

According to a report from MediaMatters, numerous TikTok accounts have started posting AI-generated videos that use racist and antisemitic tropes in recent weeks. Most of the AI vitriol is aimed at Black people, depicting them as "the usual suspects" in crimes, absent parents, and monkeys with an affinity for watermelon. The content also targets immigrants and Jewish people. The videos top out at eight seconds and bear the "Veo" watermark, confirming they came from Google's leading AI model.

The compilation video below has examples pulled from TikTok since the release of Veo 3, but be warned, it contains racist and antisemitic content. Some of the videos are shocking, which is likely the point—nothing drives engagement on social media like anger and drama. MediaMatters reports that the original posts have numerous comments echoing the stereotypes used in the video.

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• President Donald Trump said in an interview aired Sunday that the US had found a buyer for TikTok.
• Trump told Fox News the buyer was a group of "very wealthy people."
• The president has repeatedly delayed the enforcement of a TikTok divest-or-ban law.

President Donald Trump says the United States has found a buyer for TikTok.

In an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday, the president said the buyer was a group of "very wealthy people" that he would reveal in "about two weeks" — his favorite timeline.

Trump added that he would "probably" need China's approval for a sale to go ahead, but appeared confident that Chinese leader Xi Jinping would back it.

Trump has stepped in three times so far to extend a deadline for TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to find a new buyer or effectively cease operating in the United States.

An executive order on June 19 extended the deadline to September 17.

In a statement at the time, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration wanted to ensure US users would continue to be able to access the app.

"As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark," she said. "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."

TikTok missed its original January 19 deadline and briefly shut down for millions of Americans before Trump intervened.

"Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now," a message on the app read for affected users. "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now."

A number of high-profile figures have previously expressed interest in purchasing the platform, including "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Trump also previously said he would support his once-staunch ally, Elon Musk, if he wanted to buy the app.

Musk said in January that he has been "against a TikTok ban for a long time," adding that he believed it "goes against freedom of speech." However, the Tesla CEO told the WELT Economic Summit later that month that he had not made a bid for the app.

"I don't have any plans for what would I do if I had TikTok," he added.

For the third time, President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for TikTok to spin out from its Chinese parent company or face a US ban. As White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a statement Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order on Thursday 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.

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.”

Update June 19th, 12:00 PM: Post has been updated to note Trump signed the order extending the deadline.

The White House confirmed that Donald Trump has extended the deadline for a TikTok sale for a third time, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Now, China-based ByteDance has 90 days to divest its US assets or potentially be forced to shut down US operations. Trump's announcement came one day before the June 19 deadline he established through his last extension. That extension was necessary after Vice President JD Vance failed to make a "high-level" deal expected in April, which Politico branded a "make or break moment" where Vance could have secured a big win.

Yesterday, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that China was holding up the sale, suggesting that China may have an upper hand in TikTok negotiations, and perhaps TikTok is losing its sheen as a US bargaining chip in Trump's bigger trade war.

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