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Speaker 1: In breaking news happening right now in the United States,

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Speaker 1: TikTok has reportedly just gone live again. TikTok has just

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Speaker 1: gone live again after going dark overnight. This comes moments

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Speaker 1: after Trump started essentially negotiating a deal to save TikTok

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Speaker 1: live on his True social platform, saying he wanted a

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Speaker 1: fifty to fifty US China joint venture and he wanted

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Speaker 1: it all back online in time for his inaugurations. America

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Speaker 1: can watch kaya urif is yuif, I should say, is

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Speaker 1: with us. He's a reporter at the Information covering the

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Speaker 1: creator economy. Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, thanks so much for having me.

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Speaker 1: So just now it's come back on. So it's full

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Speaker 1: access right now. Are you on TikTok?

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Speaker 2: Yes, this morning it was glitching for me a little bit,

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Speaker 2: but now it is fully back, which is just this

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Speaker 2: story is just giving all of us whiplash because no

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Speaker 2: one expected it to be restored quite this soon.

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Speaker 1: What exactly was it was TikTok's to say decision to

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Speaker 1: go dark, wasn't it. They didn't have to do that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So earlier this week, my colleague and I Sylvia

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Speaker 2: Varnam O'Regan, who is a Kiwi We reported that TikTok

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Speaker 2: was decided to go dark proactively to shield its service

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Speaker 2: providers from liability because the law actually doesn't ask TikTok

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Speaker 2: to go offline and it makes it illegal for its

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Speaker 2: service providers to continue providing service. So TikTok took that step.

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Speaker 2: But TikTok disappeared from the app store, so those service

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Speaker 2: providers did also cut off service as well as TikTok yesterday.

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Speaker 1: So does that name now that it's gone live again,

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Speaker 1: that it's potentially putting itself at legal risk.

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Speaker 2: Yes, but it sounds like from the statement from TikTok

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Speaker 2: that they were provided the necessary clarity from President Trump

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Speaker 2: that the service providers felt that they were not face penalties.

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Speaker 2: What's so interesting, though, is we're still on Sunday and

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Speaker 2: it's still the Biden administration, so Trump does not take

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Speaker 2: office until tomorrow, so it is quite shocking to see

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Speaker 2: them take this step and feel that those assurances are,

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Speaker 2: you know, enough for them to not get fined.

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Speaker 1: Who do you think, because Trump's talking about a fifty

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Speaker 1: to fifty joint benja, who do you think would be

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Speaker 1: the obvious contender from the American side.

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Speaker 2: It's so interesting because there's been you know, in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty when Trump kicked off this whole conversation and wanted

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Speaker 2: to ban TikTok. Initially there was Walmart, there was Oracle,

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Speaker 2: there were these big American companies. And this time around,

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Speaker 2: you know, there have been some buyers. You know, Kevin

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Speaker 2: O'Leary from Shark Tank Fame has teamed up with billionaire

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Speaker 2: former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt on a bid.

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Speaker 2: So there are you know, mister Beast, the biggest YouTuber

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Speaker 2: has expressed interest in, you know, working with investors. But

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Speaker 2: these are all kind of ideas that have been floated perplexity,

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Speaker 2: and AI company has said they're interested in buying TikTok.

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Speaker 2: So there are certainly people who are interested, but the

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Speaker 2: question is, you know, what is the cost? How are

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Speaker 2: they going to hammer out a deal? So there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of open questions still and whether a fifty percent

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Speaker 2: ownership position would satisfy the law.

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Speaker 1: Just finally, a lot of people might be listening to

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Speaker 1: this thinking, do you know what, I just don't care.

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Speaker 1: It's a bunch of people dancing in front of their phones,

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Speaker 1: so what if you can't see it? Right now.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I mean there are millions of creators who

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Speaker 2: make their livelihoods through TikTok, or at least a majority

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Speaker 2: of them. Same thing with small businesses, so the economic

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Speaker 2: impact of this would really be enormous, as well as

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Speaker 2: the community of users who love TikTok who have found

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Speaker 2: you know, community and niches there and entertainment. So it

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Speaker 2: really has gone so much far beyond dance videos but

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Speaker 2: into mental health and fitness and all these other categories.

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Speaker 1: All right, thanks so much for that, and we'll wait

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Speaker 1: and see what happens. Obviously a lot happening with Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump involved. That is a kaya Yurie if she's a

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Speaker 1: reporter of the information covering the creator economy. For more

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Speaker 1: from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks.

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