Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#111

Post by bradley195 » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

Cshelton wrote: post #106

slipheen wrote: post #64

I think it's a clever play. It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company, and give them a better foothold in Social Networking than Linked-in provides. I'd have a few concerns about if MS can keep it growing- For one, I worry that Microsoft may mismanage it, similar to how they treated Skype. We saw Yahoo buy many reasonable smaller social networks (Flickr, Delicious, Tumblr) and was never a…

Well, Skype the brand was botched, but Skype is basically what powers Microsoft Teams now. Which is widely successful due to it being bundled with Microsoft 365 (also Teams is pretty decent compared to the comp).

I believe Teams was a separate technology to begin with - not just rebranded Skype

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#112

Post by altaria » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:20 PM UTC

tempodox wrote: post #92

hakka-nyu-su wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does China really identify as "a country that views the US as its enemy (politically, economically, philosophically)" or is that just a projection of how the US feels about China?

Absolutely. China does not recognize even the idea of Human Rights, let alone their implementation. What do you think the Great Chinese Firewall is for? Shutting out all those ideas from the rest of the world that are deemed hostile to the ruling party's ideology.

America is a fundamentally revolutionary nation fighting for global democracy. We have learned not to force it on countries anymore with violence, but the struggle for global democracy remains nonetheless.

We are an existential threat to China.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#113

Post by eunos » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:21 PM UTC

jtmarmon wrote: post #60

mullingitover wrote: post #27

I never really understood the panic over TikTok. Is the fear about security, or is the fear that China might actually have successful social media product in the US?

Speaking personally, here's why TikTok concerns me: TikTok is a Chinese business, and China has shown no limit to how much it will meddle in the affairs of and even take control of Chinese businesses for the furthering of the Chinese state's agenda. Simultaneously, TikTok has captured the daily attention spans of millions of Americans, many of them especially young and impressionable. They've captured their attention…

> These two facts mean that the Chinese government now has direct access to the brains of millions of young Americans, with zero oversight. Imagine China subtly promoting videos to create outrage and civil unrest in the US, or to feed anti-US propaganda to germinate terrorist groups in the US. These might sound like far flung possibilities, but I think it's hard to say what a country that views the US as its enemy (politically, economically, philosophically) might do with that kind of power, and I don't think we can wait to find out.

Ironically this idea is one of the rationale behind the GFW. Dont want any Spring/colour revolution over there.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#114

Post by muststopmyths » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:21 PM UTC

Wait, so I'm going to have to install the TikTok For Business with Sharepoint integration in my Teams?

I guess anything makes sense to a company that paid $26 billion USD for LinkedIn.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#115

Post by colordrops » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

ferest wrote: post #97

In short, only American companies can have access to the brains of Americans. There is no law to prohibit an app of being used in US, and there is no evidence TikTok broke any existing law operating within US. All the talking point being so far is because it's a chinese company. This is literally how black people was treated. It's interesting to see how protectionism change the country brand of equal business opportu…

The analogy would only make sense if black people were a foreign economic and nuclear powerhouse that have been blocking US apps with even more prejudice.

Tit for tat restrictions are standard practice with international trade and not evidence of racism.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#116

Post by sanxiyn » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

slipheen wrote: post #102

sanxiyn wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was more against "social network" part than "youth-based" part. TikTok is a broadcast media, not a social network.

Fair enough, I suppose it depends on how broad your categories are. Personally, I absolutely consider YouTube a video-based social network. You follow people/brands, have at timeline, can contribute comments on what they post, etc. It doesn't tend to have as broad a social graph as something like FB, but almost nothing does. Twitter (for example) also has a large number of popular public accounts, similar to YouTube.

Facebook and Twitter mostly do not subsidize content creation, but YouTube and TikTok definitely do. That's why I think TikTok will have more staying power.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#117

Post by iphone_elegance » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

bradley195 wrote: post #111

Cshelton wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Skype the brand was botched, but Skype is basically what powers Microsoft Teams now. Which is widely successful due to it being bundled with Microsoft 365 (also Teams is pretty decent compared to the comp).

I believe Teams was a separate technology to begin with - not just rebranded Skype

Yes, but it's nice that Skype is out of the way

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#118

Post by mikkelewis » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:23 PM UTC

rectang wrote: post #108

It would take nothing less than a from-scratch rewrite to achieve a high degree of confidence that all backdoors have been eliminated from the TikTok codebase. I hope Microsoft is up for that.

What gives you the low degree of confidence MS engineers couldn't do a complete scan of TikTok's codebase?

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#119

Post by cheez » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:24 PM UTC

rmorey wrote: post #101

slipheen wrote: post #64

I think it's a clever play. It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company, and give them a better foothold in Social Networking than Linked-in provides. I'd have a few concerns about if MS can keep it growing- For one, I worry that Microsoft may mismanage it, similar to how they treated Skype. We saw Yahoo buy many reasonable smaller social networks (Flickr, Delicious, Tumblr) and was never a…

I agree that they botched Skype, but I think some of their more recent acquisitions - namely: Mojang, Xamarin, GitHub - have gone pretty well, IMO

I believe the trend here is they left them alone...

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#120

Post by SwSwinger » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:26 PM UTC

ferest wrote: post #97

In short, only American companies can have access to the brains of Americans. There is no law to prohibit an app of being used in US, and there is no evidence TikTok broke any existing law operating within US. All the talking point being so far is because it's a chinese company. This is literally how black people was treated. It's interesting to see how protectionism change the country brand of equal business opportu…

Protectionism arises when there is not equal business opportunity between nations and when nations have knowledge of unethical government campaigns using related corporations. I don't see how this is similar to treating black people. Maybe you meant Uighurs?