TIKTOK INC. et al v. TRUMP et al

Filing 15

MOTION for Preliminary Injunction MOTION to Expedite by BYTEDANCE LTD., TIKTOK INC. (Attachments: #1 Memorandum in Support, #2 Declaration, #3 Declaration, #4 Declaration, #5 Declaration, #6 Exhibit, #7 Exhibit, #8 Exhibit, #9 Exhibit, #10 Exhibit, #11 Exhibit, #12 Exhibit, #13 Exhibit, #14 Exhibit, #15 Exhibit, #16 Exhibit, #17 Exhibit, #18 Exhibit, #19 Exhibit, #20 Exhibit, #21 Exhibit, #22 Exhibit, #23 Exhibit, #24 Exhibit, #25 Exhibit, #26 Exhibit, #27 Exhibit, #28 Exhibit, #29 Exhibit, #30 Exhibit, #31 Exhibit, #32 Exhibit, #33 Exhibit, #34 Exhibit, #35 Exhibit, #36 Exhibit, #37 Exhibit, #38 Exhibit, #39 Exhibit, #40 Exhibit, #41 Exhibit, #42 Exhibit, #43 Text of Proposed Order)(Hall, John). Added MOTION to Expedite on 9/24/2020 (zeg).

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EXHIBIT 36

Nexis Newsdesk™

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Nexis
Newsdesk™

TikTok Users Drawn to Rival Platforms
as Trump Threatens U.S. Ban; Triller and
byte rise in the App Store; 'it's been 24
hours of no sleep'
The Wall Street Journal Online

Publish Date: 04 Aug 2020 14:00
Section: TECH
Length: 1054 words

Unfamiliar names such as byte and Triller have charged up the Apple App Store rankings
because they offer short videos like those on TikTok, the social-media breakout facing an
uncertain future in the U.S.
These nascent rivals are actively courting TikTok users, especially top influencers, in some
instances offering cash payments to creators. They are trying to capitalize on a question
that is dominating social-media chatter: What happens if TikTok really goes away?
Kyle Thomas, a 15-year-old TikTok user with more than 16 million followers, said he would
be upset without TikTok. "I spend all of my time on it. As much as it is my job, it's also my
entertainment," he said. "If I can't have it, I wouldn't be sure what to do."
The founders of the short-form video app Clash said they launched the service last weekmonths earlier than anticipated-to attract increasingly anxious social-media stars who
made their home and livelihood on TikTok.
Other companies are rolling out copycat features. Facebook Inc.'s Instagram is on the cusp
of debuting its new TikTok-like service, called Reels.

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The moves by TikTok's large and small rivals come as the company's parent, ByteDance
Ltd. of Beijing, responds to an unprecedented amount of pressure from the White House
because of national-security concerns . Some Trump administration officials have said they
want TikTok to be fully American-owned, although President Trump said Monday he would
approve a purchase of TikTok's U.S. operations if the government receives "a lot of money"
in exchange.
Among the potential suitors for TikTok is Microsoft Corp. On Sunday, Microsoft said it
would move quickly to pursue discussions with ByteDance and aims to complete the
negotiations by Sept. 15. It isn't clear if a deal will come to fruition.
Agents and managers of popular online influencers have long pushed clients to build
audiences on multiple platforms, but the current uncertainty has pushed some TikTok stars
to hedge their bets.
"It's the perfect time to play into the vulnerability and insecurities of creators," said
Krishna Subramanian, chief executive of social-media data company Captiv8 Inc. "If TikTok
disappears, what happens? Where do you go? If they get incentivized by a platform, you can
easily see them creating content on these other platforms and channels."
Triller and byte (no relation to ByteDance) on Sunday were ranked the top two free iPhone
apps in the U.S., while TikTok was number five, according to Sensor Tower data. Daily app
rankings tend to fluctuate but Triller and byte have climbed in both the App Store and
Google Play in recent months. Even with the latest rankings, TikTok has a much larger user
base, with 100 million users in the U.S. and hundreds of millions more world-wide.
Triller, a music and video app that looks similar to TikTok, has seen several influencers from
TikTok open accounts over the past several weeks, including this weekend.
"It's been 24 hours of no sleep," said Ryan Kavanaugh, a Hollywood veteran whose filmproduction company Proxima Media invested in Triller .
A spokeswoman for byte, created by Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann, said the company
saw a huge influx of creators sign up for the app.
A TikTok ban in the U.S. wouldn't be the first time social media influencers have had to
forcibly abandon their large followings and move to unfamiliar platforms. India earlier this
summer banned many Chinese apps, including TikTok , amid a dispute between the two
countries. When Twitter Inc. effectively shut down Vine , a social-media app that allowed
users to share short video clips, in 2016, many of the platform's biggest stars were forced
to rebuild their followings on YouTube and Instagram.

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Clash, co-founded by a former Vine creator, launched Friday night, hours after Mr. Trump
expressed opposition to a TikTok sale and said he preferred to ban the app altogether.
Clash CEO Brendon McNerney said he was sitting on a plane in a Vine sweatshirt when he
got the news that Twitter was shutting down the looping video app in 2016. So he feels the
pain of TikTok creators who are now grappling with uncertainty about the fate of the
social-media powerhouse.
"I actually saw the demise of Vine," Mr. McNerney said. "I remember how that rocked all
my creator friends."
Clash has been paying creators to test its service, and has climbed U.S. iPhone app
download rankings in the free photo and video app category, ranking No. 14 as of Monday,
according to Sensor Tower data.
Instagram's Reels has offered some creators hundreds of thousands of dollars to use the
coming feature, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
TikTok users have been encouraging their followers to subscribe to their channels,
sometimes newly created, on other platforms, with Instagram and YouTube appearing to
be popular destinations, said Alessandro Bogliari, CEO of the Influencer Marketing
Factory, a marketing agency that works with brands and social-media personalities.
But it isn't so simple. Many TikTok stars have just a fraction of the following on other
platforms, and it may be tough for influencers to get their TikTok fans to follow them
elsewhere.
"I don't know how they're going to get folks to jump," said Kena Peay, a cooking and hiking
influencer who previously worked at Instagram.
Charli D'Amelio-one of TikTok's biggest stars, with 76 million followers-has increasingly
been posting on Instagram, where she has a little more than 25 million followers, Mr.
Subramanian said. Ms. D'Amelio, who declined to comment, also has about 320,000
followers on Triller.
Brittany Furlan, 33, a California-based comedian and actress with more than a million
followers on TikTok, had millions of followers on Vine before leaving a few months ahead
of the shutdown. She advised fellow TikTok users who may be forced to move to other
platforms to not be discouraged.
"Just don't stop creating," Ms. Furlan said, and advised them to use as many other social
media platforms "as you can to get your views and get people to see it and share it."

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