Lemon8, CapCut, and Gauth are among the other victims of the US ban on ByteDance-owned apps.

The party symbolized the euphoria of the tech industry on the cusp of the Trump presidency. The guest list included Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Miriam Adelson and the vice president-elect, JD Vance.

The divest-or-ban law aimed at TikTok is also taking down other ByteDance-linked apps, including the popular card game Marvel Snap. The app suddenly cut off access Saturday night, seemingly without warning, surprising gamers who werent aware of its connection to ByteDance.The card game battler set in the Marvel universe is developed by Second Dinner, which is based in California. But the game is published by Nuverse, a company owned by ByteDance. As a result, its subject to the same shutdown order. In a statement on X, Second Dinner called the takedown a surprise and said, Marvel Snap isnt going anywhere. Were actively working on getting the game up as soon as possible and will update you once we have more to share.Just before the calendar turned over to January 19th, 2025, the game disappeared from the App Store for iPad and iPhone players and from Google Play for players on Android. For players on PC, the game is still listed in Steam at the moment, but many players are reporting they were signed out and cant sign back in.An in-game message now tells players:Sorry, Marvel Snap isnt available right nowA law banning Marvel Snap has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you cant use Marvel Snap for now. Rest assured, were working to restore our service in the U.S. Please stay tuned!Oddly, unlike TikTok, it doesnt appear that players were given much warning about the laws effect, and many people may not have realized it was even connected to ByteDance, including people who were still spending money on in-game items expecting to be able to keep playing it. Other ByDance apps quickly disappeared from app stores along with TikTok, including Lemon8 and CapCut. The effect on other ByteDance-linked apps is mixed; however, it may take time to remove them. The Lark app that offers a Slack-like collaboration platform was available initially but has now been removed, while other Nuverse-published games, like Earth: Revival - Deep Underground and Ragnarok X: 3rd Anniversary, are still available in the App Store as of this writing, just after midnight ET on the 19th.Update, January 19th: Noted reports that Marvel Snap PC players cant log in and added a statement from game developer Second Dinner.

Code retrieval has become essential for developers in modern software development, enabling efficient access to relevant code snippets and documentation. Unlike traditional text retrieval, which effectively handles natural language queries, code retrieval must address unique challenges, such as programming languages structural variations, dependencies, and contextual relevance. With tools like GitHub Copilot gaining popularity, advanced code retrieval systems are increasingly vital for enhancing productivity and reducing errors.Existing retrieval models often struggle to capture programming-specific nuances like syntax, control flow, and variable dependencies. These limitations hinder problem-solving in code summarization, debugging, and translation between languages. While text retrieval models have seen significant advancements, they fail to meet the specific requirements of code retrieval, highlighting the demand for specialized models that improve accuracy and efficiency across diverse programming tasks. Models like CodeBERT, CodeGPT, and UniXcoder have addressed aspects of code retrieval using pre-trained architectures. Still, they are limited in scalability and versatility due to their smaller sizes and task-specific focus. Although Voyage-Code introduced large-scale capabilities, its closed-source nature restricts broader adoption. This highlights the critical need for an open-source, scalable code retrieval system to generalize across multiple tasks.Researchers at Salesforce AI Research introduced CodeXEmbed, a family of open-source embedding models specifically designed for code and text retrieval. These models, released in three sizes, SFR-Embedding-Code-400M_R, SFR-Embedding-Code-2B_R, and 7 billion parameters, address various programming languages and retrieval tasks. CodeXEmbeds innovative training pipeline integrates 12 programming languages and transforms five distinct code retrieval categories into a unified framework. By supporting diverse tasks such as text-to-code, code-to-text, and hybrid retrievals, the model expands the boundaries of what retrieval systems can achieve, offering unprecedented flexibility and performance.CodeXEmbed employs an innovative approach that transforms code-related tasks into a unified query-and-answer framework, enabling versatility across various scenarios. Text-to-code retrieval maps natural language queries to relevant code snippets, streamlining tasks like code generation and debugging. Code-to-text retrieval generates explanations and summaries of code, enhancing documentation and knowledge sharing. Hybrid retrieval integrates text and code data, effectively addressing complex queries requiring technical and descriptive insights. The models training leverages contrastive loss to optimize query-answer alignment while reducing irrelevant data influence. Advanced techniques like low-rank adaptation and token pooling boost efficiency without sacrificing performance.In tests, it has been evaluated across various benchmarks. On the CoIR benchmark, a comprehensive code retrieval evaluation dataset covering 10 subsets and over 2 million entries, the 7-billion parameter model achieved a performance improvement of more than 20% compared to the previous state-of-the-art Voyage-Code model. Notably, the 400-million and 2-billion parameter models also outperformed Voyage-Code, demonstrating the architectures scalability across different sizes. Also, CodeXEmbed excelled in text retrieval tasks, with the 7-billion parameter model achieving an average score of 60 on the BEIR benchmark, a suite of 15 datasets covering diverse retrieval tasks such as question answering and fact-checking.The models can retrieve code and enhance end-to-end retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems. For instance, when applied to repository-level tasks like code completion and issue resolution, the 7-billion parameter model achieved notable results on benchmarks like RepoEval and SWE-Bench-Lite. RepoEval, focusing on repository-level code completion, saw top-1 accuracy improvements when the model retrieved contextually relevant snippets. In SWE-Bench-Lite, a curated dataset for GitHub issue resolution, CodeXEmbed outperformed traditional retrieval systems.Key takeaways from the research highlight the contributions and implications of CodeXEmbed in advancing code retrieval:The 7-billion parameter model achieved state-of-the-art performance, with over 20% improvement on the CoIR benchmark and competitive results on BEIR. It demonstrated versatility across code and text tasks.The 400-million and 2-billion parameter models offer practical alternatives for environments where computational resources are limited.The models address a broad spectrum of code-related applications by unifying 12 programming languages and five retrieval categories.Unlike closed systems such as Voyage-Code, CodeXEmbed promotes community-driven research and innovation.Integration with retrieval-augmented generation systems improves outcomes for tasks like code completion and issue resolution.Using contrastive loss and token pooling optimizes retrieval accuracy and model adaptability.In conclusion, Salesforces introduction of the CodeXEmbed family advances code retrieval. These models demonstrate unmatched versatility and scalability by achieving state-of-the-art performance on the CoIR benchmark and excelling in text retrieval tasks. The multilingual and multi-task unified framework, supporting 12 programming languages, positions CodeXEmbed as a pivotal tool for developers and researchers. Its open-source accessibility encourages community-driven innovation while bridging the gap between natural language and code retrieval.Check out the Paper, 400M Model, and 2B Model. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our65k+ ML SubReddit.(Promoted) Asif RazzaqAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences. Meet 'Height':The only autonomous project management tool (Sponsored)

Jan 19, 2025Ravie LakshmananSocial Media / Data PrivacyPopular video-sharing social network TikTok has officially gone dark in the United States, 2025, as a federal ban on the app comes into effect on January 19, 2025."We regret that a U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable," the company said in a pop-up message. "We're working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support. Please stay tuned."An immediate outcome of the ban means that existing users will no longer be able to access TikTok content, and new users won't be able to download the app from the official app stores for Android and iOS. Other apps from its parent company ByteDance, including CapCut, Lemon8, and Gauth, have become unavailable as well.The development comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously to uphold a law requiring that its ByteDance sell TikTok or see it be effectively blocked in the country due to national security reasons and fears that its recommendation algorithm could be vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities.The court further noted that TikTok's scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, coupled with the vast amounts of personal information that it collects about users, merits a "differential treatment" with regards to First Amendment rights."There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community," the court wrote in its decision."But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok's data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary."Following the ruling, the White House said TikTok should remain available to U.S. users either under American ownership or another entity that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing the law. The legislation was formally passed in April 2024.The law was the culmination of a yearslong debate that TikTok's Chinese ownership raises the risk that data on U.S. users could fall into the hands of Beijing or be used for pushing propaganda. TikTok has repeatedly maintained it operates independently of the government and has not received any requests about its data, while ByteDance has said it has no plans to divest the business."The Court's decision enables the Justice Department to prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine America's national security," said Attorney General Garland. "Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to millions of Americans' sensitive data."The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), in a statement, expressed disappointment at the Supreme Court's decision to upload the TikTok ban, stating there are several ways that America's foes could steal, scrape, or buy its citizens' data."The ban or forced sale of one social media app will do virtually nothing to protect Americans' data privacy only comprehensive consumer privacy legislation can achieve that goal," the EFF said."Shutting down communications platforms or forcing their reorganization based on concerns of foreign propaganda and anti-national manipulation is an eminently anti-democratic tactic, one that the US has previously condemned globally."However, there are indications the app may get a reprieve. Speaking to NBC News, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he would "most likely" give TikTok a 90-day extension from the ban after he takes office on Monday.TikTok has faced similar issues in several countries, most famously leading to an outright ban in India in June 2020. Late last year, the Canadian government ordered TikTok to dissolve its operations in the country, citing national security risks.That said, the TikTok blockade has had the unintended consequence of users migrating to other Chinese alternatives such as RedNote (aka Xiaohongshu), rather than Instagram and YouTube, likely posing a fresh challenge for lawmakers concerned about foreign influence or interference via social media."I'm concerned that Americans are flocking to a number of adversary-owned social media platforms," Virginia Senator Mark Warner said in a post on Bluesky. "We still need a comprehensive and risk-based approach to assessing and mitigating the risks of foreign-owned apps."Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

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If you expressed negative sentiment toward insurance companies on social media following the murder of UnitedHealthcares CEO last month, the government was watching. Following the shooting, the New York State Intelligence Center (NYSIC-CTC) identified a large amount of negative sentiment towards healthcare executives and health insurance companies on social media, a bulletin produced by a regional intelligence group on December 12 says. The bulletin goes on to warn of users online wanting to counter corporate greed as well as growing negative sentiment around conglomerates, the wealthy, and executive staff at private and public organizations. Setting aside the yeah-no-shit factor, the report provides rare insight into how the government threat machine stokes fear among law enforcement agencies across the country.Screenshot of intelligence bulletinRegional Bulletin111KB PDF fileDownloadDownloadThe document is one of a flurry threat reports quietly circulated to law enforcement across the country by a sprawling network of little-known intelligence organizations created in response to 9/11. Called fusion centers, groups like the New York State Intelligence Center were tasked with fighting terrorism, which alleged the killer Luigi Mangione was charged with. Today, there is at least one fusion center in all 50 states (even Wyoming, home to the Wyoming Information Analysis Team.)Marked LAW ENFORCEMENT USE ONLY, the document quoted above is, like other intelligence reports, not usually available to the public. But this record was pried loose by the open records wizardry of the transparency nonprofit Property of the People. Without them, this report would join the countless others exempt from public scrutiny. Thats a real gift to the government agencies that produce these reports, which often serve little purpose beyond inflating supposed threats into zeppelin-like proportions.Consider, for example, the reports boldfaced title Executive Hit Lists evoking some kind of John Wick-style serial hitman. But the evidence for this amounts to viral posts online that listed the names and salaries of several health insurance executives and some Wanted signs posted in Manhattan. The repeated references to online discourse (e.g., a sea of social media posts indicate that shooting suspect Luigi Mangione might be viewed as a martyr") leave the impression that the intelligence analyst does not understand the first rule of online: it isnt real life. To give a sense of just how many of these kinds of reports are pinballing around the law enforcement world, heres one produced by the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center (SNCTC) and also obtained by Property of the People. Like the New York bulletin, this one also focuses on online rhetoric expressing criticism of the public health care system and corporate executives. Sound familiar?Screenshot of SNCTC reportSnctc Report1.09MB PDF fileDownloadDownloadOne way the Nevada report distinguishes itself is with its inclusion of a screenshot of a photoshopped meme depicting Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck standing in front of a notice that reads CEO SEASON. Marked FOUO (For Official Use Only), the image is attributed to unspecified social media accounts on X. Screenshot of SNCTC reportWhen New York Governor Kathy Hochul touts more funding for social media intelligence analysts & counterterrorism intelligence analysts, as she did earlier this month, reports like these are what those taxes dollars are going towards.As absurd as these reports might seem, theyre taken seriously not just by law enforcement, but also the media outlets theyre routinely leaked to. They are also frequently provided to private industry, which are given alarmist recommendations like these:Screenshot of SNCTC reportSeveral health insurers did end up scrubbing senior leadership from their websites, perhaps following the sage counsel of these fusion centers. Apparently someone motivated enough to kill wouldnt be motivated enough to google around a bit. Law enforcement is panicking over widespread support for Mangione, but it should be no surprise, Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People, said. Of course people are angry watching loved ones needlessly suffer and die so a handful of executives can buy second yachts. Or so governors can buy a second team of fusion center analysts? In his manifesto, Mangione suggested the health insurance industry had gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it. He could just as easily have been describing the national security state.This newsletter is 100% reader-funded. Please become a paid subscriber to support our workLeave a commentShare

Marvel SnapMarvel SnapWhile the shutdown of one of the most-used social media apps in America, TikTok, is all anyone can talk about right now, an underreported aspect of the story is that this applies to all apps from its parent company, ByteDance. This includes things like the video editing app CapCut, but as gamers learned late on Sunday, it also includesMarvel Snap?Marvel Snap is a digital card game developed by Second Dinner, so how did it catch a stray here? Well, ByteDance was the publisher of Marvel Snap. There was a somewhat ugly situation back in 2023 when ByteDance divested from its gaming Nuverse subsidiary as part of a restructure of its gaming business. However, Marvel Snap has continued to operate since then, despite ByteDances exit, but it seems they are still technically be the publisher in order for this to be happening.But whatever is going on here, they took Snap offline ahead of the company ban with these other apps, despite supposedly getting out of the gaming business. When players try to log in, they are greeted with a nearly-identical message that TikTokers are being shown which reads:Sorry MARVEL SNAP isnt available right now.A law banning MARVEL SNAP has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you cant use MARVEL SNAP for now. Rest assured, were working to restore our service in the US.The messageMarvel SnapMORE FOR YOUUnlike a variant of the TikTok message, there is no mention of incoming President Donald Trump, who ByteDance believes will work out a deal with them to get TikTok back online in the US. And if that happens, then all these other apps would repopulate including Marvel Snap, presumably.Its a deeply strange situation as most players probably didnt know ByteDance had anything to do with Marvel Snap, as the face of the game is the California-based studio Second Dinner. Again, ByteDance supposedly divested from Nuverse and Snap, but its still tangled up in the web somehow.Im currently looking into other games that may be affected by this ban, based on Nuverse or other ByteDance subsidiary projects. Some of those games like Warhammer 40,000: Lost Crusade have already shut down, and Marvel Snap so far seems like the highest profile game to catch a stray from this whole situation.Essentially if TikTok comes back, Marvel Snap comes back. Its an additionally complicated situation because it was easy to spend dozens, hundreds or even thousands of dollars on Snap if you were a big enough fan, and now thats justgone? While TikTok is the biggest story here, certainly, this is a thoroughly unexpected and bizarre development in the gaming world, and well be tracking it as it continues to unfold.Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.

The world was rocked this week when visionary filmmaker David Lynch passed away at the age of 78. Many of Lynchs admirers, as well as plenty of his former collaborators, have since gone out of their way to publicly mourn his passing and pay tribute to his work. The growing list of those who have taken the time to honor Lynch now includes Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who took to Instagram to celebrate one of his all time favorite filmmakers.Sarandos specifically recalled the time when Lynch came close to making his last project with Netflix. He came into Netflix to pitch a limited series which we jumped at. It was a David Lynch production, so filled with mystery and risks but we wanted to go on this creative ride with this genius, the Netflix executive explained. First COVID, then some health uncertainties [led] to this project never being produced but we made it clear that as soon as he was able, we were all in.Recommended VideosDavid Lynch was an unapologetic genius, Sarandos concluded. His body of work is remarkable, visionary, bold and artful. I will always wonder about what he had in mind for us.ShowtimeLynch made some of the most impactful American films of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. He released his last film, Inland Empire, in 2006 and only followed it up in any major way in 2017 when he returned to direct and co-write all 18 episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return, the acclaimed continuation of his and Mark Frosts beloved, deeply influential 90s TV series. Twin Peaks third season would turn out to be Lynchs last directorial effort, but it was rumored for years that he had other films and TV shows in development.Please enable Javascript to view this contentThese rumored projects included a Netflix limited series like Sarandos describes that was originally believed to be titled Wisteria and later Unrecorded Night. Mulholland Driveand Twin Peaks: The Return cinematographer Peter Deming revealed in a 2021 interview that he didnt have any news about the project at that time, noting that it had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but said that he assumed it would come back to life at some point. One can only assume that this project is the same one referred to by Sarandos.While Lynchs fans will no doubt be disheartened to hear that the filmmaker came legitimately close to making one more limited series, they can still rejoice in the films and TV shows he did make throughout his career. Those include Twin Peaks: The Return, which is about as impressive a final artistic statement as cinephiles have ever seen from a filmmaker of Lynchs caliber.Editors Recommendations

TikTok shut down on Saturday night for its 170+ million US users.A message appears on TikTok indicating that the company is relying on Donald Trump to save the app.TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew recently thanked Trump for his "commitment to work with us."TikTok stopped working on Saturday night.And in its final message for now to its 170 million-plus US users, the app indicates who TikTok is relying on to save the platform: President Donald Trump."A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately that means you can't use TikTok for now," the message that popped up in the app on Saturday night said. "We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!"Trump, set to take office on Monday, hasn't committed to a solution to save TikTok.On Saturday, however, the president-elect told NBC News that he will "most likely" give TikTok a 90-day extension from the ban."I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it's appropriate. You know, it's appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It's a very big situation," Trump told the outlet.Spokespeople for TikTok and Trump did not respond to a request for comment.In the days leading up to the ban, TikTok hasn't been shy about pointing fingers at who has and hasn't been helpful in the company's efforts to keep the app alive in the US.On Friday, after the Biden administration said it was leaving the enforcement of the ban up to Trump, TikTok issued a statement saying "both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok's availability to over 170 million Americans."White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on Friday that President Joe Biden's position was that TikTok should remain available to US users but under American ownership.TikTok hasn't publicly expressed interest in selling the app despite interested investors.The same day, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew praised Trump and thanked the president-elect "for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States."That TikTok and its CEO are relying on Trump to save the app represents a 180-degree shift from just a few years ago, whenTrump,in 2020, also wanted to ban the platform.Trump's position on the ban changed on the campaign trail last year and the president-elect in December made a last-ditch effort to save the app by asking the Supreme Court to put a hold on the law.On Saturday, before the app shut down, the Biden administration called TikTok's statement on going dark a "stunt" and that there was "no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday."