Tech Bytes — Week in Review: The TikTok ban, the end of noncompetes and Sony’s EV
Apr 26, 2024

Tech Bytes — Week in Review: The TikTok ban, the end of noncompetes and Sony’s EV

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Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, joins Marketplace’s Lily Jamali to discuss this week’s biggest tech stories.

The noncompete clause is dead! American tech workers are poised to benefit from the Federal Trade Commission’s new crackdown on the agreements, which prevent a company’s ex-employees from working for its rivals for a specified time.

Also, Tesla’s profits have — pick your favorite car pun — crashed 55%. As electric vehicle sales sputter, we wonder why more players are speeding into the space.

But first, TikTok’s top executive was defiant after the passage of a massive foreign aid package that included a directive to the company: Sell to a U.S. buyer or get banned. In a TikTok posted Wednesday, CEO Shou Zi Chew said, “We aren’t going anywhere” and “The facts and the Constitution are on our side.”

Parent company ByteDance has nine months to comply, although the U.S. president could extend it to a year.

Marketplace’s Lily Jamali is joined by Paresh Dave, senior writer at Wired, for his take on this week’s tech news.

More on everything we talked about

Congress passed a bill that could ban TikTok. Now comes the hard part.” from The New York Times

TikTok will file court challenge to U.S. divest-or-ban law, CEO says” from Variety

How the TikTok ban could survive a court challenge” from Platformer

Noncompetes are dead — and tech workers are free to roam” from Wired

FTC bans contracts that keep workers from jumping to rival employers” from The Washington Post

Amazon cloud sales chief sued for going Google” from CNET

Good riddance? Critics of noncompetes say tech companies may ultimately benefit from FTC ban” from GeekWire

DOE’s Granholm drives campaign to make EV batteries a U.S. industry” from “Marketplace Tech”

EV sales are slowing. Tesla’s are slumping” from The New York Times

Sony’s Afeela needs to be more than a feeling” from The Verge

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The team

Daisy Palacios Senior Producer
Daniel Shin Producer
Jesús Alvarado Associate Producer
Rosie Hughes Assistant Producer