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Zoe Thomas: This is your Tech News Briefing for Monday, August 29th. I'm Zoe Thomas for the Wall Street Journal. When you've got a question, let's say what's the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies, or how do I balance my finances, where do you turn for information? Friends? Family? The Google search bar? Well, more people these days are turning instead to TikTok. The app may be known for viral dance trends and practical jokes, but users are increasingly choosing it to find information and news. On today's show Cordelia James from our personal tech team joins us to discuss why searching TikTok for information can be risky and how to verify what you find there. That's after these headlines. Facebook parent Meta has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the platform of allowing third parties, including the now defunct consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, of accessing private user data. A court filing from Friday showed the parties have reached an agreement in principle, but didn't provide many other details. Meta declined to comment on the potential settlement agreement. Attorneys for the plaintiffs couldn't be reached for comment. The suit followed revelations that Cambridge Analytica, which had worked for former president Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, had improperly gathered and used data on Facebook users. Following the incident, Facebook agreed to pay fines in the US and UK and make changes to its privacy practices. The company hasn't admitted to any wrongdoing, and Cambridge Analytica, which closed in 2018, has denied wrongdoing. We report exclusively that Panasonic is in talks with Tesla to build an additional roughly $4 billion electric vehicle battery plant in the US. Sources say Oklahoma is looking like the top contender for the new plant's location. In July Panasonic announced plans to build an EV plant in Kansas, and people familiar with the plan say the two facilities would be twins with similar capacity. EV makers, including Tesla, are looking to boost production of EV batteries amid supply chain disruptions and increased demand. Password manager LastPass said last week that some of its source code and proprietary information was stolen, but added that no information on its more than 33 million users had been taken. Cyber security experts recommend using password managers to store unique login details because hackers often use credentials stolen from a breach on one site to steal from people who use the same logins on multiple platforms. LastPass says it's implemented additional security measures and is working with a cyber security and forensics firm. SpaceX and T-Mobile say they plan to work together to use satellites to provide voice and data coverage across the US, even in remote areas that don't currently have service. At an event last week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the plan would mean, "No dead zones anywhere." Our reporter Thomas Gryta says the idea is to turn SpaceX's Starlink satellites into the equivalent of cell phone towers.
Thomas Gryta: So you're using the same radio frequencies that the ground network would use, but you're sending them from the sky. This isn't easy to do, and it will be a low bandwidth connection, so it can handle text messages, but you aren't going bring up Google Maps on this. T-Mobile said it plans to offer the service for free to customers.
Zoe Thomas: The companies plan to start testing text messaging services by the end of next year. The plan still needs regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which couldn't be reached for comment. And Google says it plans to identify healthcare facilities that provide abortion services in its maps and search functions following the Supreme Court ruling in June that overturned Roe V. Wade. The company says it's been working on the update for months and will rely on information provided by a business or authoritative data sources for the labels. All right, coming up, more young people are turning to TikTok for answers online. Should Google be worried? We'll discuss after the break. For more than 20 years, if you wanted to find information on the internet, you Googled it. There are other search engines, of course, but Google is the one that became a verb. Now that trend seems to be shifting. Millions of people, especially young people are turning to TikTok for answers.
Speaker 3: Why would I Google something when I can go on TikTok, watch a 15 second video, gives me the full low down on how to make something, if something's good, how-
Speaker 4: TikTok is legit better than Google for a lot of things. Go to the TikTok search bar and search "How to cut a watermelon." You're going to find 500 videos that are insanely better than anything you'd find on Google.
Speaker 5: Anything you can imagine you can find on TikTok, and not only can you find it quick, but you can find it in video form.
Zoe Thomas: M, but how trustworthy are the answers you might find on TikTok? And what does Google think of this trend? Cordelia James reported on this for the Wall Street Journal's personal tech team and she joins us now. Hey Cordelia. Thanks for being here.
Cordelia James: Hi Zoe. Thank you so much for having me.
Zoe Thomas: Okay, so more people are turning to TikTok to find answers, but what kinds of questions are they asking?
Cordelia James: Yeah, so an internal survey at Google found that 40% of young people, so people between the ages of 18 and 24, are using TikTok as a source of information for all kinds of things. Some examples like fitness ideas, fashion inspiration, things to do, places to go, travel, food recommendations, recipes, all kinds of things that you can find on an app that gives you a lot more visual results than a typical Google search, as well as something that's super quick and fast.
Zoe Thomas: I mean, some of those questions seem like things you might already turn to social media for. What to do on a weekend or fashion tips. Should Google be worried?
Cordelia James: So Google actually doesn't have too much to worry about just yet, I would say, mostly because the survey that they did found that more often than not, people would still use Google in addition to TikTok. However, for those who only rely on TikTok as the key source of information, that can be a little troublesome because not all of the results that they might get immediately on the app are always accurate.
Zoe Thomas: Okay, so what makes it problematic then for the people who are turning to TikTok for information?
Cordelia James: Yeah, so TikTok's algorithm gives you information based on your interests and what videos are the most popular at the time. When it comes to those kinds of videos, they don't necessarily always have to come from reliable sources. So if you're using the app to search for information, such as, let's say, health advice, but you're not really getting it from an actual nutritionist, then you might be using some of these skills and these tips from someone that might actually do you more harm than good. So you want to make sure that you're going off platform to do a little extra research to make sure you're getting information from an accurate and trusted source.
Zoe Thomas: Did you find any examples of where that was happening?
Cordelia James: So an example of this would be an avocado hack, which was often circulating around the app, and which different users would see videos of someone placing an avocado in a container filled with water and putting it in their fridge and it was supposedly allowing their avocados to last a little bit longer without turning brown. However, the FDA eventually had to come out and say that, "Hey, that's actually not really safe due to pathogens in the water that could actually cause all kinds of illnesses."
Zoe Thomas: Other social media platforms have been criticized for the amount of misinformation that's on their platform. Is that something TikTok has to deal with as well, and how is it addressing that?
Cordelia James: Most definitely. So TikTok was actually in the news a lot earlier this year regarding misinformation circulating regarding the war in Ukraine. So after that, the app has... Mind you, this app is still in its infancy, so this is something that it's still readily trying to work on and trying to find ways to address. It's just that the fact that it has such a strong influence that makes this really scary at times. But since then, the app has partnered with a bunch of independent fact checking organizations and it makes sure to screen videos even before it gets on the app, as well as when users report them directly. So it's a team between using technology as well as real people to make sure that the information going out there is actually safe or not harmful. However, that can be really hard. It's harder for the algorithm to pinpoint misinformation exactly. Compared to, say, a symbol or something that's inappropriate or something along those lines. So it's definitely something that they're still having to work on. But the good news is that TikTok told me that if a video is deemed false, it is removed from the platform completely. If it is true or it doesn't have any harmful misinformation, it stays up. But if fact checking is still underway or the information is still unsubstantiated, then it won't be in the for you page, but it might still appear in search. So that's something that you have to make sure that you're looking out for.
Zoe Thomas: Okay, so for the people who do want to use TikTok as a search engine, what do they need to bear in mind when they're looking up questions?
Cordelia James: So a few things to keep in mind if you're using the app as a search engine. Think about what it is that you're trying to use and apply to your actual everyday life. So things such as medical information or financial information might have a lot more risk than, say, you just choosing what kind of restaurant you want to go to. But regardless of it, you should make sure that the videos that you are choosing to watch are actually from people that you can trust or organizations that you can trust.
Zoe Thomas: Cordelia, you spoke to some TikTok users who used the platform to search for information. When you spoke to them, were they skeptical of the kinds of information they found in these videos, or did they just take it at face value?
Cordelia James: A lot of people really took things at face value. The people that I spoke to, often it just wasn't really a big concern for them on the app. These are things that just seemed like very everyday, low risk situations, or at least they might seem like, because you might not really feel the need to do any additional leg work. Because it's like... While you're on these apps, it feels like you're talking to a trusted friend. These are creators that you've followed for an extended period of time, you probably trust a lot more. You just have to make sure that you're aware of the fact that not everything that you hear on TikTok is right and you want to make sure you're practicing your media literacy skills to make sure you're getting the best information. Also, TikTok did mention to me that when it comes to verified check marks, something to just keep in mind is that that's meant to say that this person is who they say they are, not necessarily that they are an expert on whatever topic that they're talking about.
Zoe Thomas: All right. That's Cordelia James from our personal tech team. Thanks for joining us, Cordelia.
Cordelia James: Thanks again, Zoe.
Zoe Thomas: Okay, that's it for today's Tech News Briefing. Don't forget, if you're a fan of the show, please take a second to leave a review and a five star rating. It helps other people find the show and lets us know you like what we're doing. And if you want more tech stories, check out our website, wsj.com. I'm Zoe Thomas for the Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening.