Gm. Well, it's comforting to know our tax dollars aren't going for state representatives watching TikTok anymore.

TECH

ByeBye TikTok

Sorry Congressmen, there will be no watching TikTok between meetings.

That's because the U.S. House of Representatives has officially laid the ban-hammer on TikTok for all house-managed electronic devices.

The ban is the second governmental ban on TikTok in recent weeks, following the decision to bar the app from all executive branch government phones in the Omnibus bill. This is in addition to the seven states that banned TikTok on state government devices in 2022.

What gives?

A Crack Down

The reason for the government crack-down is the same as it usually is for this kind of stuff: "national security concerns".

The concerns boil down to this:

• TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company.

• TikTok has an insane amount of user data. If they didn't, the algorithm wouldn't be as good as it is.

• U.S. policymakers are concerned that China will pressure ByteDance into giving up its data on U.S. users.

• Which could then be used for Chinese intelligence operations.

There is no evidence of this ever happening, but it is something that those in the U.S. government are clearly worried about.

Foreshadowing?

With the app now being banned on the phones of government devices in all the branches of government, the logical next step would be a more expansive nationwide ban.

TikTok is aware of this risk and has been negotiating with the Biden administration to avoid this outcome.

However, these negotiations have been ongoing for over a year, and there is still no resolution.

With increased government pressure on TikTok, the future of the app in the U.S. is murky at best.

— Stephen Flanders (@SteveFlanders22)

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: Welcome to the billion-dollar club Avatar: The Way of Water. I still haven't seen it. Should I?

Story we're watching: Barnes & Noble, against all odds, is making a comeback. Is 2023 the year of the physical book?

Rabbit hole: Between Rest and Overdrive: Are Great Investors Lazy? (Neckar's Minds and Markets)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Twitter went offline for a bit on Wednesday after implementing what Elon calls "significant backend server architecture changes" that should make Twitter faster.

• The Turkish Central Bank is testing out a CBDC (government-controlled digital cash).

• Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) is going back to school at the ripe old age of 72 to pursue a master's in AI.

• The crypto wallets holding Alameda's assets became active again soon after SBF's bail. I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

GUESSTIMATE

Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic just put up a stat line of 60 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists. How many other people in NBA history have had a game with 60 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 assists?

FUNDRAISING FRIDAY

The holidays are the perfect time to nail down your fundamentals. Here's Brian Feroldi on how to analyze a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement.

LAYOFFS TRACKER

https://www.trueup.io/layoffs

Notable Layoffs This Week

Octopus Network: 12 people (40%)

Back Market: 93 people (13%)

PayU: 150 people (6%)

FOUNDERS CORNER

The best resources we came across this week that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.

💻 If you're like me and not a huge fan of listening to podcasts, sumly.ai is a cool new tool that delivers podcast summaries right to your inbox.

🚀 Indie Hacker Alexander Sandberg shared how he got his product to the top of Product Hunt.

🤖 For the developers reading this, try using ChatGPT as a Universal Redux Reducer.

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three startups that recently topped up their coffers. Congrats!

GUESSTIMATE ANSWER

0. Luka's the first. Luka Magic.