Oracle Checking TikTok Algorithms; Facebook Will Ditch New Political Ads Week Prior to Election; Apple Watch & MacBook Production in Vietnam; Goodbye to Dodge Muscle Cars

Oracle has put TikTok’s algorithms and content moderation models under its microscope in an attempt to make sure Chinese officials aren’t meddling with them. TikTok is in the process of moving all of the data it has on US users to Oracle cloud storage based in the country. According to engadget.com, Oracle’s audit is said to have started last week, after TikTok started routing all new traffic from US users through the former’s systems. TikTok has committed to being more transparent and it’s trying to convince regulators and lawmakers that US user data is secure. 

Meta has loosely outlined how it plans to brace its platforms for the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, starting with political ads. Techcrunch.com reports that it will be disabling new “political, electoral and social issue ads” on all its platforms during the week prior to voting on November 8. Ads that ran before the blackout period will be allowed to continue running, but the company will disable most edits for them during that time, including any changes to who they target.

Macrumors.com says that Apple is in the process of relocating Apple Watch and Mac production to the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam as part of a broader push to diversify its supply chain. Apple supplier Luxshare has begun trial production of Apple Watch and MacBook models in Vietnam. Vietnam is already the home for production of several Apple productions, including certain iPad and AirPods models. Apple is also mulling potentially moving HomePod production to the country. The move is due to issues in China including pandemic related disruptions of production.

Dodge will be discontinuing its Charger and Challenger models — beloved and iconic muscle cars in the 1960s and 1970s — which were revived by Dodge in the early 2000s. Now, the Silver Age of Mopar muscle cars is coming to a close. According to thehill.com, the move by Dodge comes as major automakers are moving away from traditional gas-powered cars to electric vehicles. Production of the muscle cars will end at the Brampton Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada, in December of 2023. To give the models a proper send off, Dodge is releasing seven special “heritage-influenced” models for next year. The seventh and “final” 2023 Dodge model will be revealed at the 2022 SEMA Show in Las Vegas in November.