Lately: TikTok left on read in Ottawa, Rogers launches new emergency service and the Gen Z stare

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Welcome back to Lately, The Globe’s weekly tech newsletter. My name is Moira Wyton and I’m an audience editor, filling in for Lately’s Samantha Edwards and trying to stay cool and wildfire-smoke-free in Toronto this week. If you have feedback or just want to say hello to a real-life human, I’d love to hear from you by e-mail.

In this week’s issue:

🏛️ Ottawa leaves TikTok CEO on read

🌲 Rogers launches cell-to-satellite for emergencies

😶 Gen Z stare divides social media and the workplace

💗 Love Island watch parties stream the drama to sports bars

SOCIAL MEDIA

TikTok CEO asks to meet with Mélanie Joly over shutdown order

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TikTok CEO Shou Chew has asked for an urgent meeting about Ottawa’s directive to shutdown the company’s Canadian offices, but it appears Industry Minister Mélanie Joly may have left the exec on read. The platform is fighting the federal government’s November order to dissolve its Canadian business after a national-security review of its owner, Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. But Chew argued to Joly the order was made under outdated assumptions when the U.S. was poised to ban TikTok, and would cost 350 employees in Canada their jobs.

Joly’s office wouldn’t say if she would meet with Chew, who wrote to the minister in early July, but TikTok has since pulled out as a sponsor of major events, including the Juno Awards and the Toronto International Film Festival. All eyes are on Joly to see whether she pushes for Canada to take a page out of U.S. President Donald Trump’s playbook and grant an extension – or three – for ByteDance to divest from the platform. The app’s fate in the U.S. is still undecided, but internet and e-commerce law professor Michael Geist argues Ottawa’s handling of the platform has also been an ‘incoherent failure’ that leaves Canadians vulnerable to security and privacy risks, both real and perceived.

TELECOMS

Rogers launches direct-to-mobile satellite service for remote areas

No signal? No problem. Apparently visible sky and a 4G or 5G phone are all users will need to send a text for help in remote areas using Rogers’ new direct-to-mobile satellite service – even if there’s no traditional cell service. As Irene Galea reports, the feature uses Rogers wireless spectrum to connect to low-earth orbit satellites owned by Starlink, operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and will connect them to text-to-911 lines that can contact local emergency services and dispatch first responders. It’ll cover anywhere south of about the 58th parallel, including virtually all of every province in Canada but not any of the territories.

The telecom is trialling the feature until October and says it hopes to expand satellite service to data, messaging apps and voice calling, including 911. Rogers is in the midst of a massive push for the technology and while they aren’t the first to offer a satellite-assisted emergency feature, it’ll be a significant boost in a country where only 18 per cent of the landmass has traditional cell coverage.

TRENDS

Getting the Gen Z stare but not sure what it means? TikTok has some explanations

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Have you ever experienced – or given – the Gen Z stare? TikTok has erupted in an unblinking debate about the silent, wide-eyed look many users say Zoomers use instead of responding verbally, often at work. Some say it’s a sign of poor social skills in a generation that has spent many of its formative years behind screens, while others say it’s an intentional choice not to respond to silly questions or validate a customer acting out.

And it may not even be a Gen Z thing at all, as some say older people have given them the same look long before it became a trend. No matter what you believe, the stare has stirred up debates online and in the workplace with coverage in Fortune, Business Insider and The New York Times.

What else we’re reading this week:

How a Reddit rallying cry helped amateur traders win in the market (The New York Times)

Where are all the AI drugs? (Wired)

3D Printing Patterns Might Make Ghost Guns More Traceable Than We Thought (404 Media)

Adult Money

Back to the future

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Light Phone II, $299

If you’re trying to enjoy this summer offline (like me), or just worried about how dependent you’ve become on your smartphone in general (also like me), this gadget one might be for you. Telus has started offering Canadian cell plans for the barebones Light Phone II ($299) and III (pre-order at $699) this week, starting at $40/month for the most basic package. The Light Phone’s creators have described it as a rebuke of the attention economy and a Swiss Army Knife for essentials – you can call, text, and navigate or listen to music on the latest model, but can’t access the Internet or social media.

Its popularity is part of a resurgence of “dumbphones” Lately covered last year when Samantha ditched her smartphone for two weeks. The Light Phone’s basic utility reminds me of my first phone – a Motorola KRZR meant for calling home or 911 when I started Grade 7 a public bus ride away – and I could see this as an option for parents trying to keep their kids safe but not too online.

Culture radar

BIG SCREEN DRAMA

Love Island watch parties are boosting sports bars – and giving Gen Z a reason to go out.

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Cheering for a favourite player over beers with friends doesn’t have to be reserved for the big game. Viewing parties for Love Island USA and other reality television shows, especially their shocking finales, are drawing Gen Z away from their couches and into sports bars across the country. As Aajah Sauter writes, it’s a new way for younger adults to socialize and an added revenue stream for bars in the athletic slow season. “I think it’s a great way to create a community just the same way that sports bars do when they have games on,” Fi Pasion told Aajah at the Fox & Fiddle’s Love Island USA season finale watch party in Toronto on Sunday. Who said reality TV wasn’t real?