Today
How DeepSeek’s ‘nerdy’ billionaire stunned Silicon Valley
Hedge fund manager and entrepreneur Liang Wenfeng built an AI model on a tight budget despite US attempts to halt China’s high-tech ambitions.
- Eleanor Olcott and Zijing Wu
Yesterday
- Opinion
- Trump diplomacy
Australia must face down US tech bosses and Trump
Global tech giants will still be powerful when Trump is not. Policy settings made today by Anthony Albanese or Peter Dutton need to keep that future in mind.
- Paul Smith
This Month
Oracle in talks with White House to take over TikTok
Under the deal, TikTok’s China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle.
- Dawn Chmielewski, Kanishka Singh and Milana Vinn
Trump shrugs off China TikTok spying threat
The president downplayed any national security risk posed by TikTok, saying it doesn’t matter if China spies on “young kids watching crazy videos”.
- Ben Smith
Why nothing can stop Trump now
Very little stands in the way of the president’s goal of remaking America as he ploughs ahead with signing executive orders.
- Edward Luce
Trump says Musk or Ellison can buy TikTok
The President said he would be open to the US billionaires purchasing social video app TikTok as part of a joint venture with the US government.
- Alexandra S. Levine and Stephanie Lai
- Opinion
- Trump's America
Donald Trump and the art of the diplomatic deal
Donald Trump has always loved a deal. Now he wants to force governments to gamble at his own White House table.
- Jennifer Hewett
- Analysis
- Trump's White House
Trump’s first day shows the ‘triumph of toxic tech capitalism’
For all their previously progressive leanings, the tech sector billionaires know that Donald Trump is the most lucrative ally they could have wished for.
- Paul Smith
A rundown of Trump’s executive actions
The new president wasted no time in announcing steps to implement many of his campaign pledges, including on immigration, energy, the military and federal workforce.
- Stephanie Lai, Skylar Woodhouse and Hadriana Lowenkron
- Opinion
- World politics
Trump promises peace – and war
The president’s speech this time carried far more specific actions, including territorial aggression on America’s neighbours and US troops on the Mexican border.
- Edward Luce
- Exclusive
- Federal election
Dutton and PM turn to TikTok and podcasts in social media election
The Coalition and Labor are doubling down in a social media arms race, even as they team up to implement a world-first ban on under-16s accessing online platforms.
- Michael Read and Tom McIlroy
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Look to AI, not TikTok, for Trump’s China intentions
Trump’s TikTok’s reprieve is a sideshow that reflects his personal popularity on the platform. He will fight much harder in the real geopolitical technological battle – the global struggle for AI supremacy.
- The AFR View
Trump sings, dances and pledges swift day one action
Supporters filled nearly all the 20,000-plus-seat Capital One Arena in downtown Washington for a “Make America Great” victory celebration.
- Will Weissert, Fatima Hussein and Josh Boak
- Opinion
- Social media
TikTok ban repeats the tech regulation cobra effect
History shows digital bans don’t eliminate threats; they just reshape them because the real issue is the systems that allow such vulnerabilities to exist in the first place.
- Whitney Meldrum-Hanna
TikTok starts restoring service after Trump intervenes
The video app started restoring service in the US on Sunday, after Donald Trump announced he would give its owners another three months to find a buyer.
- Updated
- Alexandra S. Levine and Justin Sink
- Updated
- Social media
TikTok starts going dark across the US
Donald Trump had earlier said he would probably give the Chinese-owned social media app an extension from applying the ban upheld by the Supreme Court.
- Updated
- Virginia Van Natta
Can this $14b start-up rescue TikTok’s US operations?
Perplexity AI, an AI-powered search engine start-up, is proposing a merger with $80 billion behemoth TikTok to get around the US ban.
- Julia Love
- Opinion
- Social media
TikTok ban attacks the folk economics young influencers bet on
When users complain about their app being banned, a lot of them are also decrying the circumstances that make online hustling their best shot at economic security.
- Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Analysis
- Social media
It’s crunch time for TikTok, but there is a Trump card
A US ban is set to come into force on Sunday but Australian influencers, who rely on the platform and its American audience, are confident it will be short-lived.
- Updated
- Amelia McGuire
- Updated
- Social media
US Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, leaving app’s fate to Trump
The justices ruled that the law, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress, did not violate free-speech protections in the US Constitution.
- Updated
- Andrew Chung and John Kruzel