TikTok
On Thursday, August 6, 2020 President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing broad sanctions against the popular video app TikTok. Under the executive order, the Chinese-owned app faces pressure to sell its U.S. assets to American companies.
Citing national security reasons, starting in 45 days, all transactions between American companies and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, will be outlawed – a move that, experts say, will likely lead to the app disappearing from app stores on smartphones.
The White House said in the order that TikTok captures broad amounts of user data, while TikTok argues the data it captures is on par with data collected by tech companies like Facebook — but the White House says the app’s ability to share data with its parent company is what makes it different.
Read more about the TikTok executive order here.
Reels
With TikTok’s future in the U.S. unclear at the moment, Facebook has launched Reels on Instagram in over 50 countries as a competitor to the popular app. Reels allows users to make videos to music, filters and effects, similar to TikTok.
Reels is not a new app – it’s built into Instagram – and allows users to have private or public accounts. The biggest formatting difference between TikTok and Reels comes from the Instagram platform, which allows users to send a video directly to their social media friends and use pre-built filters and tools, and Reels doesn’t allow users to upload audio or duet other videos.
Where stories were created with sharing moments in mind, Reels was created to focus more on the entertainment side of the camera-oriented app.
Learn more about Reels here.
Do you have questions about implementing Reels in your business? Moxie Consulting is working on recommendations for how Reels can be implemented to help clients’ social media efforts moving forward.