We’ve had some very memorable news stories throughout 2024 in the tech world. These are stories that will both shape how we use technology and handle our lives in general. Let’s revisit these stories and examine how they have already changed tech and all of our lives.
Potential TikTok Ban in the U.S.
U.S. President Joe Biden issued an ultimatum to ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. He ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok’s assets before January 19, 2025. This date happens to be just before President-Elect Donald Trump retakes the office.
It’s unclear how Trump would handle the situation once he takes office. He initially set things in motion against TikTok during his first presidential term because of concerns that the Chinese company could use the platform to spy on the U.S. While campaigning this past year, he indicated that he no longer felt the same.
TikTok seemed resigned to its fate, despite negotiating with the U.S. a few years before. TikTok users are suing the U.S., too, believing that the ban takes away from their right to free speech.
Unfortunately for TikTok, as well as their users, an appeals court has upheld the potential ban in the U.S. The First Amendment was mentioned, with the appeals court saying its decision was to “protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
The case has now moved to the U.S. Supreme Court. It will allow TikTok and the U.S. to present their sides, as it considers whether the ban should be carried out. The court will hear arguments on January 10, just 9 days before the deadline for the sale. If the decision holds up, and Biden bans TikTok on January 19, Trump could turn around and undo that once he takes office one day later.
Bluesky Picks Up Momentum
While TikTok is facing its death knell, another social media app, Bluesky, is celebrating a great year. This was helped out by numerous changes X (formerly Twitter) has carried out since Elon Musk purchased it and took over operations.
One of these changes is X’s decision to let users you have blocked see your posts. A user posted that Musk’s social media platform would be removing the existing block button so that public accounts would be visible to users they had blocked. Musk believes the block button “makes no sense.”
A few months after this, Trump won the election. In his previous term in office, he was known to use Twitter to his advantage. New owner Musk is also a supporter of his, and to pay him back, Trump is giving Musk a position on his leadership team. All of this caused Bluesky to gain 700,000 new users in the week following the election. The Bluesky COO confirmed that most of those new users were from the United States.
Google Facing Order to Break Up Its Monopoly
Like ByteDance and TikTok, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, lost a court case against the U.S. government. As part of the demands in the antitrust suit, the U.S. Department of Justice insisted that Google must break up its monopoly in the tech world.
The DOJ believes that Google uses Chrome, Google Play, and Android to push Google Search, creating its monopoly, as it keeps users within the world of Google. Google was also called out for its business agreements with Apple. This agreement includes Google Search being the default search engine in iPhones. Google pays Apple a lot of money for this.
While Google is fighting this, claiming that it would allow its competitors to take control of the information of its users, a hearing has been scheduled for April 2025. DOJ attorneys have asked the judge in the matter to demand that Google sell Chrome and stop paying Apple to keep Google Search as the default search engine.
CrowdStrike Paralyzes Business World
Just as Google monopolizes much of the Internet, Microsoft runs much of the business world. When Microsoft goes down, it paralyzes business. While it was fine to operate without Microsoft 40 years ago, the business world now depends on the software giant.
An update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused many computers used in business across the world to get a Blue Screen of Death error message. It started in Australia, then took hold of the U.S. and the U.K. as well. This especially hit the travel business hard. Within a matter of hours, at least 3,000 flights had been cancelled. Hotels were severely slowed, not able to look up reservations or even issue electronic room keys.
TV networks, banks, and health services were brought down as well. Both FedEx and UPS were affected, and both said there could be delays in package deliveries. The UK health secretary, posted to X to say U.K. hospitals were affected, too.
The CrowdStrike update was quickly rectified, though it continued to affect businesses for days – even weeks. It was so impactful that it easily qualifies as one of the biggest tech news stories in 2024. Stay tuned to Make Tech Easier throughout 2025, as we bring you even more big tech news stories.
Image credit: Canva. Screenshot by Laura Tucker.
