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

#311

Post by rubber_duck » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 1:46 AM UTC

cheez wrote: post #282

rubber_duck wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Github is actively merging features of Azure DevOps and they plan to merge the two eventually, also business model changes, integration with VS Code, Azure, etc. Github is actively within Microsoft ecosystem and all for the better of both sides from my experience. Xamarin was crap before the Microsoft acquisition, it was improving at great pace afterwards and it's pretty integrated into .NET standard story (but still…

The fact that you can still talk about them as separate is what I mean. It isn't some MS brand Xamarin. It's still Xamarin. Github is still Github. Of course Microsoft played a part in the progress. Try to be more generous with your nitpicking.

What ? Xamarin is defacto Microsoft Xamarin, it's even integrated in to their domain and Xamarin Studio got rebranded to Visual Studio Mac.

Github is a separate issue, they can't rebrand without huge value loss.

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

#312

Post by knolax » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 1:46 AM UTC

It's amazing the nochalance this forum has as they witness our own GFW being built around us. In all likelihood TikTok will get neutered, American teenagers will figure how to use VPNs to access Douyin just like their Chinese peers already do for Youtube, and some of you HNers will be the ones working on the anti-VPN systems used to stop them. You will tell yourself that you're doing good and that you're protecting the country from foreign influence, but the next generation of Hackers will hate you nonetheless.

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

#313

Post by mullingitover » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 1:49 AM UTC

altaria wrote: post #267

mullingitover wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, the US doesn't only support totalitarians. However, it does support them. The US support for democracy isn't based on principles is my point, it's based on convenience, and the US will merrily crush a democracy and install a dictator if it's in US interests.

[flagged]

> Ah, this is your mistake. The US support for democracy is absolutely based on principles. It is the exceptions that you're focusing on and trying to use to create some essentialist caricature of the US.

I honestly don't have to try to make the US into some caricature. The US isn't good or evil, it's a self-interested nation like any other nation and it practices realpolitik like any other nation. I'm simply not putting it on a pedestal and pretending that the actions of the country are anything other than pure self-interest.

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

#314

Post by torbital » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 1:49 AM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #302

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…

>It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company it might help for some people Personally, i'm a little bit concerned that microsoft just received a $10bn DOD contract, and now the US government is essentially forcing a sale of TikTok to Microsoft. I'm not convinced that the company running the hot new social network (as well as all our source code) owing a bunch of favours to the US govermnent…

A company occasionally working together with the US government is very different than China's state-run companies.

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

#315

Post by kanox » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 1:51 AM 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…

> 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.

Restricting foreign media based on "propaganda" fears is not a behavior that free societies engage in.

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

#316

Post by ralph84 » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 1:51 AM UTC

cheez wrote: post #217

dtech wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Github seems to have gotten some fire in their ass in the last 1-2 years. Hard to say whether that is because of Microsoft or competition of Gitlab, or both.

Having the resources of Microsoft and a vision you want to execute on might be why they allowed themselves to get bought.

All of the founders except one were already gone, and the remaining one left immediately after the acquisition closed. It wasn't about executing a vision, it was about cashing out.

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

#317

Post by knolax » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 1:55 AM UTC

torbital wrote: post #314

notatoad wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company it might help for some people Personally, i'm a little bit concerned that microsoft just received a $10bn DOD contract, and now the US government is essentially forcing a sale of TikTok to Microsoft. I'm not convinced that the company running the hot new social network (as well as all our source code) owing a bunch of favours to the US govermnent…

A company occasionally working together with the US government is very different than China's state-run companies.

Which ByteDance is not.

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

#318

Post by khuey » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 1:57 AM UTC

mullingitover wrote: post #203

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEO and cofounder has gone on record ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/05/tiktok-... , linking to a parent source https://chinamediaproject.org/2018/04/11/tech-shame-in-the-n... ) pledging that he'd run the company in accordance with socialist values and the principles of Xi Jinping Thought. The degree of financial relationship is unknown and probably unknowable, but it seems clear that ByteDanc…

Even if TikTok was openly promoting socialism - so what? The constitution doesn't split hairs about free speech. We're free to use speech to promote the political philosophy of our choosing in this country. The antidote to 'bad' speech, as per the constitution, is more speech, not to outlaw the speech you don't like.

The government of China doesn't have a First Amendment right to free speech in the United States.

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

#319

Post by mullingitover » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:03 AM UTC

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #271

mullingitover wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if TikTok was openly promoting socialism - so what? The constitution doesn't split hairs about free speech. We're free to use speech to promote the political philosophy of our choosing in this country. The antidote to 'bad' speech, as per the constitution, is more speech, not to outlaw the speech you don't like.

There's nothing wrong with speech we don't like, unless (as in this case) it's made at the direction of a foreign government. There's long-standing precedent for preventing that kind of thing.

> There's nothing wrong with speech we don't like, unless (as in this case) it's made at the direction of a foreign government.

I mean, we don't ban China Daily. Also, and I'm going to have to check with someone who uses TikTok, but I don't think the Chinese government is giving orders to TikTok users about what to songs they're supposed to dance to on any given day.

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

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Post by justicezyx » Sat, Aug 01, 2020, 2:07 AM UTC

crystaln wrote: post #298

fqye wrote: post #258

If the US forced ByteDance to sell Tiktok, the US would lose its last bit of moral high ground in China, the spirit of free market and rule by law. If you are worried about data leakage to China, you set rules and law and enforce them. That is what China is doing. They asked Apple and other cloud service provider to store data in China. The US could setup clear rules and regulations about where to put data of US user…

You obviously don't have much experience with China. China is an authoritarian state and all companies are subject to secret control by the state, essentially branches of the military. There is no legal recourse or protection from such intervention. The government can mandate spy code be inserted and any data they want. You're well intended here, but ignorant of how China operates. There is literally no way to enforc…

> China is an authoritarian state and all companies are subject to secret control by the state, essentially branches of the military.

Jumping from authoritarian state, to "all companies are subject to secrete control by the state", that is already a quantum leap. If you believe what Soviet Union's state controlled economy collapsed, because it's impossible for state to control that much of details of the economy, then you must be having a great faith in Mr. Xijinping being a literal Super human, who can control "all companies".

Then to "branches of the military"?! Now you are saying that Mr. Xi Jingping is just a puppet of the military?! And Chinese military is so brilliant that they not even developed a powerful military force second only to US & Russian, and meanwhile, they actually runs "all companies"?!

I just cannot see any logic in this short statement...