Hi, welcome to your Weekend.
There are a lot of moments I love in Margaux’s latest cover story—an intimate portrait of TikTok chief operating officer V Pappas. Among them is a small detail about the signage found outside TikTok’s Los Angeles office. As visitors approach the building, they’re told to go left if they want to access the company’s corporate headquarters, or turn right to enter “TikTok U.S. Data Security.”
Hmm...business or security, security or business?
For her part, Margaux chose to dig into both, while also examining Pappas’ direct impacts on the platform and their fascinating personal journey. (Pappas, the child of a Greek immigrant to Australia, uses the pronouns they and them and identifies as a woman and nonbinary.) Their fierce defense of the Chinese-owned app has become thornier by the day, as new reporting from Forbes published yesterday described security breaches at one of TikTok’s U.S.-based data centers.
To run any social media company is to be locked in a constant battle against amorality. Leaders must decide what issues to correct—be it a one-off data violation or widespread harms to young users—and what problems they can afford to punt on. That’s why Pappas is so important to understand.
They are among the few Americans who can effectuate change from inside the world’s most influential app. If desired, they can even push back against a culture of silence. Pappas, for instance, tells Margaux “If you go onto the app, you can search Tiananmen Square. You can search the Uyghurs.” These are words that an executive terrified of Beijing would never utter. At the same time, Pappas is the only top TikTok executive who has explicitly accused U.S. lawmakers of “xenophobia” in their questioning of the service.
It’s impossible to come away from Margaux’s piece with a black or white verdict on V Pappas. They, and the company they lead, are a study in grays.
Now onto this week’s stories...
the big read
The Fighter: V Pappas and the Battle for TikTok’s Future
A pioneer of the creator economy has risen to the topmost ranks of the world’s favorite short-video app. But all is not peaceful at the summit. Margaux goes behind the scenes with Pappas, TikTok’s chief operating officer and the person defining the platform’s uncertain future.
social studies
Wall Street Wants to Dance With TikTok—but Not When Anyone’s Watching
The TikTok accounts for JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and US Bank all display the same message: “No content. This user has not published any videos.” Michael explores why big banks aggressively chase deals with ByteDance, while conspicuously avoiding its flagship app.
market research
Smart Travel Tech for the Work-From-Anywhere Crowd
As conference season ramps up and summer vacations approach, Annie asked some high-flying tech workers, investors and founders to tell us what gadgets and gizmos they use to optimize their travel routines. Because if you aren’t popping AirTags into all of your suitcases, what are you even doing?
Scene and heard
TikTok, Generative AI and Startup Death: Takeaways From the Creator Economy Summit
Highlights from The Information’s annual creatorpalooza.
IN MEMORIAM
His Death Turned Bob Lee Into a Symbol—His Friends Are Trying to Take Him Back
The world was shocked by the lurid details of Lee’s murder, but his loved ones would rather remember his life. Scott Alan Lucas spoke with friends of the late CashApp founder.
Reading: The Arnault auditions
Whenever the eventual “Succession” reboot gets pitched, the producers need look no further for inspiration than the game of gilded thrones unfolding around LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault. The world’s richest person has bequeathed prime positions within his corporate empire to his five children from two marriages. According to The Wall Street Journal’s Nick Kostov and Stacy Meichtry, Arnault reared his brood between board meetings, led them in math drills and still hosts them for weekly 90-minute lunches at a private dining room within LVMH headquarters. Moreover, the billionaire has newly set up an ownership structure that rotates a chairmanship among the offspring and forbids them from selling their stakes without unanimous board approval. One businessman who has known Arnault for decades likened the children’s situation to Jean-Paul Satre’s “No Exit,” “where the main characters are locked in a room together for eternity as punishment.” Come to think of it, “Succession” did something similar back in Season 2. —Abe
Listening: A contentious Drake dupe
In February, Weekend contributor Jessica Lucas warned of a coming crusade against AI-generated music. She described the ways people had started using tools like DiffSVC to mimic their favorite pop stars, enlisting those AI-generated voices to create original music or new covers. For listeners, the result was the musical equivalent of fan fiction: You could make Ariana Grande belt out a cover of “Bring Me to Life,” or listen to Kanye West singing “Hey There Delilah.” But for the music industry, it presented an existential threat. The issue came to a head this week when a new song, “Heart on My Sleeve, ”went viral on TikTok. The track—which appeared to be a collaboration between Drake and The Weekend, but was in reality AI-generated—had been streamed millions of times before Universal Music Group, which represents both artists, filed a copyright complaint to have it removed. (Other Drake dupes remain.) Now the industry will turn to the courts to clarify whether current copyright laws cover this kind of creation. Universal has urged people to choose sides: you’re either on “the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.” —Arielle
Watching: An AI that’s weird AF
You’ve probably seen “Her,” the Spike Jonze film about a man besotted with an AI companion. And you hopefully caught “Ex Machina,” Alex Garland’s tale of AI sexbots that turn on their creator. But you sure as heaven haven’t seen anything like “Mrs. Davis,” the new, nun-centered series on Peacock from Damon Lindelof (“Watchmen,” “The Leftovers,” “Lost”) and Tara Hernandez (“Big Bang Theory”). It is as free-spirited, unhinged and unpredictable as anything ChatGPT or Sydney has uncorked these last few months. The first scene in the pilot takes place in a 14th century Paris convent. The next time-travels to a desert island where a marooned man named Schrödinger is using cat poop (get it?) to blow up an incendiary device that will grab the attention of rescuers. The third scene introduces us to an all-powerful algorithm called Mrs. Davis that has ear-wormed into the hearts and minds of billions. And then, believe it or not, things get even crazier. Will you grok everything going on in “Mrs. Davis”? Definitely not. But will you find joy in the befuddlement? Our AI earbuds tell us you will. —Jon
Makes You Think
What is the metaverse. (No, seriously, someone tell us.)
Until next Weekend, thanks for reading.
—Jon
Weekend Editor, The Information
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