LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators said Wednesday they're seeking details from TikTok on a new app from the video sharing platform that pays users to watch videos.
The European Commission said it sent TikTok a “request for information” on the TikTok Lite app that has been quietly released in France and Spain.
The commission wants to know about the risk assessment that TikTok should have carried out before deploying the app in the European Union.
Such evaluations are required under the bloc's Digital Services Act, a sweeping law that took effect last year with the aim of cleaning up social media platforms. The commission is the 27-nation bloc's executive arm and top enforcer of digital regulations.
TikTok Lite lets users "earn great rewards," according to its app store listing. The app, which launched this month in France and Spain, is slimmed-down version of the main TikTok app and doesn't come with ecommerce or livestreaming features. Rewards are restricted to users 18 years and older.
The commission said the app lets users earn points by doing things like watching videos, liking content and following content creators. The points can be exchanged for rewards including Amazon vouchers and gift cards on PayPal.
TikTok has 24 hours to turn over the risk assessment. The commission is interested in what it says about the app's potential impact on the protection of minors, “as well as on the mental health of users, in particular in relation to the potential stimulation of addictive behaviour.”
It's also seeking other information on the measures TikTok has put in place to mitigate such “systemic risks," which the company has until April 26 to provide.
FILE - The TikTok logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen which displays the TikTok home screen, Saturday, March 18, 2023, in Boston. European Union regulators said Wednesday, April 17, 2024, they're seeking details from TikTok on a new app from the video sharing platform that pays users to watch videos. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s hush money trial resumes Tuesday with testimony from the third prosecution witness, Gary Farro, a banker who helped Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen open accounts.
Cohen used one to buy the silence of porn performer Stormy Daniels. She alleged a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies.
The first week of testimony was the scene-setter for jurors: Manhattan prosecutors portrayed what they say was an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by burying negative stories.
For his part, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee has been campaigning in his off-hours, but is required to be in court when it is in session, four days a week.
The charges center on $130,000 in payments that Trump’s company made to Cohen. Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of those payments and falsely recorded them as legal expenses.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The case is the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president and the first of four prosecutions of Trump to reach a jury.
Currently:
— Key players: Who’s who at Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial
— The hush money case is just one of Trump’s legal cases. See the others here
— These people were charged with interfering in the 2020 election. Some are still in politics today
— The National Enquirer was the go-to American tabloid for many years. Donald Trump helped change that
— Trump and DeSantis meet to make peace and discuss fundraising for the former president’s campaign
Here's the latest:
Judge Juan M. Merchan may decide this week on prosecutors’ request to fine Trump for what they say were violations of a gag order that bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to the case.
The judge also has set a hearing Thursday on another batch of alleged gag order violations.
In an order first made in March and later revised, Merchan barred Trump from making public statements about probable trial witnesses “concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding.”
Merchan’s order didn’t give specific examples of what types of statements about witnesses were banned. He noted the order was not intended to prevent the former president from responding to political attacks.
The gag order also barred Trump from making public statements of any type about jurors, court staff, lawyers in the case or relatives of prosecutors or of the judge.
Defense lawyers in Donald Trump’s hush money trial dug Friday into assertions of the former publisher of the National Enquirer and his efforts to protect Trump from negative stories during the 2016 election.
The first week of testimony was the scene-setter for jurors: Manhattan prosecutors portrayed what they say was an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by burying negative stories. Now prosecutors are working on filling in the details of how they believe Trump and his allies pulled it off.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker’s testimony last week provided jurors with a stunning inside look at the supermarket tabloid’s “catch-and-kill” practice of purchasing the rights to stories so they never see the light of day.
Trump’s longtime executive assistant, Rhona Graff, told jurors she recalled seeing Stormy Daniels in a reception area of Trump Tower, though the date of the visit wasn’t clear.
Gary Farro, a private client adviser who previously worked at First Republic Bank, testifies on the witness stand in Manhattan criminal court, Friday, April 26, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Former President Donald Trump, followed by his attorney Todd Blanche, exits the courtroom during his trial at Manhattan criminal court , Friday, April 26, 2024, in New York. (Curtis Means/DailyMail.com via AP)
Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, April 26, 2024. (Dave Sanders/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
