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The EU has effectively vanquished a TikTok feature that Europe's digital commissioner described as "toxic" and "addictive as cigarettes." Owner ByteDance said on Wednesday that TikTok Lite's reward-to-watch feature would be suspended. It's been a brutal day for TikTok as President Biden signed a bill (also on Wednesday) forcing ByteDance to sell the platform's US operations or face a ban.
TikTok Lite, launched earlier this month in France and Spain, lets users earn rewards by watching and liking videos. They can then exchange their points for real-world perks like Amazon vouchers or in-app ones like TikTok's virtual currency, which is used to tip creators. The EU Commission said the "task and reward" feature can stimulate "addictive behavior" in children.
"Our children are not guinea pigs for social media," EU commissioner Thierry Breton posted on X (Twitter) on Wednesday. "I take note of TikTok's decision to suspend the #TikTokLite ‘Reward Program' in the EU."
However, he added a parting shot to remind ByteDance it isn't out of the woods: "The cases against TikTok on the risk of addictiveness of the platform continue."
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 Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code.
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 Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp today announced that it is rolling out support for passkeys on iOS, a feature that will let WhatsApp users log in to their accounts on iOS devices using Face ID, Touch ID, or their device passcode.
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DigiDNA today announced the launch of iMazing 3, an updated version of its iPhone and iPad management software designed for Macs and Windows machines.
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