Machine Learning Engineer Intern - Tiktok-Business Risk Integrated Control-Finance Safety, 2026 Summer, PhD

Moscow court fines TikTok, Google $116,987 each. The Tagansky District Court has previously fined Google on numerous occasions for administrative offenses MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. Moscow's Tagansky District Court fined Google and social media platform TikTok 10 mln rubles ($116,987) each for repeated failure to comply with Russian law, the Moscow City Court's press service told TASS. "By rulings of the Tagansky District Court of Moscow dated October 7, 2026, Google LLC and TikTok Pte. Ltd. were found guilty of administrative offenses under Part 3 of Article 13.49 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses (repeated failure by foreign entities on the Internet to fulfill obligations stipulated by Russian law). The court imposed an administrative fine of 10,000,000 rubles on each company," the press service said. On October 7, Moscow's Tagansky District Court again ruled to fine Google 3.8 mln rubles ($44,455) for refusing to remove prohibited information. The Tagansky District Court has previously fined Google on numerous occasions for administrative offenses. The administrative cases were prompted by YouTube videos promoting non-traditional sexual relations and discrediting the Russian military. As previously reported, Google's debt to Russia for administrative offenses amounted to 2 undecillion rubles (a number with 36 zeros), and continues to increase daily due to overdue payments. The company can return to the Russian market only if it complies with the court ruling.

TikTok opens its ad network to US-targeted campaigns. The October 5 announcements also add campaign-management connectors on AI platforms, while shopping and lead-generation tools remain in eligibility-based testing. TikTok has opened TikTok Ad Network to campaigns targeting the US, letting advertisers place existing campaigns in other companies' apps through TikTok Ads Manager. The company announced the launch at Advertising Week New York on October 5, 2026, Music Business Worldwide reported.[1] The network was previously called Pangle. TikTok says the US is its 48th market and that advertisers can use their existing campaigns without setting up new ones. The network is generally available for US-targeted campaigns, unlike the shopping and lead-generation tools announced alongside it, which are being tested with eligible participants.[1] What TikTok's reach and performance figures measure. TikTok's headline reach figures describe the network worldwide, not its US audience. Its estimate of an additional audience beyond TikTok comes from US-only internal measurement.[1] TikTok's reported ad-network reach | Measure | Scope | TikTok's figure | | Apps reached | Worldwide | Nearly 400,000[1] | | Daily active users | Worldwide | More than 1 billion[1] | | Additional audience not on TikTok | US-only internal measurement | 95 million[1] | TikTok says half of the network's users are not on TikTok. The company also claims advertising gains from automatic placement, which includes the network, compared with campaigns using a single placement. Those claims come from an April 2024 internal test across Pangle's markets, not a test of the new US launch.[1] TikTok's claims from its April 2024 internal test | Advertising measure | Claimed improvement over single placement | | Cost per acquisition: the cost of gaining a customer or a targeted action | 65%[1] | | Return on ad spend: revenue relative to advertising spending | 63%[1] | Available connectors, limited shopping and lead-generation tests. TikTok also said its TikTok for Business Model Context Protocol, or MCP, is available as a connector on several AI platforms. MCP provides a way for AI agents - software that carries out tasks - to connect to advertising tools. Developers can use it to build agents that plan, launch and manage campaigns.[1] TikTok introduced MCP at its TikTok World product summit in May. The newly announced connectors include Claude, Kimi, Manus, Perplexity, Replit, Snowflake and Tencent WorkBuddy.[1] The commerce tests start with Buy Direct and Shopping Assistant. TikTok describes Buy Direct as an in-app checkout that lets people buy from brands without leaving TikTok, including with one click from its For You feed. Shopping Assistant is a conversational AI agent designed to answer questions about product details, shipping, sizing and availability in one chat.[1] TikTok also introduced Agentic Leads, an AI agent intended to help advertisers find potential customers through TikTok direct messages and lead forms on advertisers' own websites. TikTok says it is building the commerce tools with partners including Salesforce, Shopify, Shoplazza and Stripe.[1] Access to the commerce and lead-generation tools is through eligibility-based testing, rather than general release. Buy Direct also requires integration with the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard for commerce using software agents. These integrations are requirements for using the checkout, not evidence of improved advertising performance.[1]

Foundation sues as TikTok restricts access to Kano, Kebbi, others. News October 6, 2026 6:26 pm The Foundation for Digital Justice has sued TikTok Inc. at the Federal High Court in Abuja, alleging that the social media platform is responsible for the widely reported restricted access that millions of users in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto states continue to experience. The organisation, in the suit filed at Federal High Court, Abuja, by its lead counsel, Festus Ogun, on October 5, 2026 and made available to PUNCH Online on Tuesday, said the alleged restrictions amounted to violations of Nigerians' constitutional rights to freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination. The suit, brought under the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules, 2009, seeks an order directing TikTok to restore access to users in the affected states and stop imposing what the organisation described as arbitrary restrictions on them. In an affidavit filed in support of the action and seen by PUNCH Online on Tuesday, a legal officer with the Foundation for Digital Justice, Abidat Idowu, said TikTok users in the four states began experiencing difficulties accessing the platform around September 11. She stated that by September 14, the platform had become "completely restricted and inaccessible to millions of Nigerian Users in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto States." According to the affidavit, the disruption affected users on standard mobile data connections, with feeds freezing while scrolling, videos failing to load and uploads repeatedly stalling. "These users cannot load videos, refresh their feeds and upload content on TikTok," Idowu stated. She further alleged that the restriction had deprived affected users of access to information and the ability to participate in online discourse. "Millions of Nigerian Users in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto States are left out of access to information, they cannot disseminate information, they cannot receive information and cannot express their opinions on the Respondent's TikTok's platform owing to the restriction and/or disruption," the affidavit stated. See more Punch stories on Google. The organisation said some affected users had been able to regain normal access by using virtual private networks, or VPNs, which can make an internet connection appear to originate from another location. It also alleged that users in other parts of Nigeria continued to have unrestricted access to TikTok. "Disturbingly, except in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto States, users in all other parts of Nigeria continue to enjoy unrestricted and unfettered access and usage of Respondent's TikTok App," Idowu stated. The Foundation argued that TikTok had not explained why users in the four states were allegedly subjected to a different level of access. "The Respondent has also not provided any explanation for the obvious exclusion, discrimination and restriction of access against all TikTok users in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto States," the affidavit said. Discover more Shop African Art The organisation is asking the court to determine whether TikTok's alleged restriction violates Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution, which protects freedom of expression, and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. It is also asking the court to determine whether the alleged differential treatment of users in the four states violates Section 42 of the Constitution and Article 2 of the African Charter, which provide protections against discrimination. The Foundation argued that access to TikTok had become significant beyond entertainment, citing its use for communication, journalism, business, civic participation and political and social discourse. "The Respondent's platform is very critical for communication, journalism, civic participation, business, political and social discourse in Nigeria and the restriction of millions of TikTok users in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto States has unduly excluded them," it said. It also argued that activities such as posting, liking, reposting and replying to content constituted forms of expression that were affected by the alleged restriction. The affidavit stated, "restricted accounts like those of millions of TikTok users in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto States are prevented from making post, viewing any post made on TikTok, replying to post, reposting or liking them." It added that "Replying, posting, reposting and liking are all 'expressive conduct' that the Respondent's restriction inhibits." The organisation further claimed that the alleged restriction had effectively excluded residents of the affected states from what it described as a public forum. "By restricting millions of TikTok users in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto States, the Respondent has excluded citizens of Nigeria resident in the states from a public forum," the affidavit stated. The Foundation is seeking five principal orders from the court. It wants the court to declare the alleged restriction "wrongful, unconstitutional, arbitrary" and a violation of the right to freedom of expression. It is also asking for a declaration that restricting users in the four states while allowing users elsewhere in Nigeria continued access amounted to a violation of the right to freedom from discrimination. The organisation further wants an order directing TikTok to immediately remove the alleged restriction and a perpetual injunction preventing the company from imposing similar restrictions on users in the affected states or elsewhere in Nigeria without lawful justification. In addition, it is asking TikTok to publish a public apology in three newspapers with nationwide circulation within seven days of judgment for what it described as the violation of the applicant's fundamental rights. The Foundation said the action was necessary to protect digital rights and the rule of law. "This lawsuit is imperative for the enforcement of fundamental rights to freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination and preservation of the rule of law," the affidavit stated. It added, "Unless the reliefs sought herein are granted by this Honourable Court, the Respondent will continue to violate the fundamental rights of millions of TikTok users in Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi and Sokoto States, with reckless abandon."