It’s kind of hilarious that Trump claims to be worried about the possibility that disinformation campaigns might be funded by these sources, while consistently ignoring the disinformation campaign that has been investigated and proven by his own intelligence forces and his own party’s committees setup to investigate it.
US to ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days
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Re: US to ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days
#62This is sad, we in the US are losing the little high ground we had and no longer lead by example to bring the world closer together by encouraging free markets and free people. I'm against this protectionist nationalism, it only leads to future conflict.
I don’t think the US has ever lead by example. Europe has though.
Re: US to ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days
#63Some people here are wondering about the implications of this. What this means IMO is that all Chinese investments in SV need to be liquidated at fire sale prices in the next 45 days. Regardless of how people here feel about China this is a huge escalation. The US is inflicting huge losses on Chinese companies for no clear violation of US laws on their part. The pandoras box is now open. Do countries get to do this t…
Looks like Trump had been promoted to the external M&A consultant for SV tech companies.
Re: US to ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost every CCP-owned channel on Facebook has bought fake subscribers, it's so visible they don't even try to hide it. As an example, CGTN French has 20M subscribers, more than any local French newspapers despite being virtually unknown in the country. If you go by subscribers count, it would be the most popular news platform of the country...
Link?
https://www.facebook.com/CGTNFrancais
You can compare that with the top newspapers of the country:
https://www.facebook.com/lemonde.fr https://www.facebook.com/lefigaro
Re: US to ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days
#65Can someone explain the motivation?
The stated motivation is to reduce misinformation from China in lead up to election.
Pretty wild that Facebook which was 100% proven to have been used for Russian misinformation in the last, and this election, somehow dodged a bullet on this...
My (totally personal opinion guess) is that this is just another way to poke the bear as part of the tit-for-tat with China and maybe a minor contributing factor that someone has got in his ear and blamed TikTok for his low campaign event turnout after there was a TikTok meme to RSVP to his events to make them sound like they were going to be huge, then embarrass him with low numbers.
Cynical perspective is that one of his friends with a stake in Facebook got in his ear about China using TikTok to make fun of him or something, and now Instagram Reels is right there to pick up the slack. Nothing would surprise me with this govt anymore. I mean the news is all talking about TikTok now instead of COVID-19... troop bounties... so on...
Re: US to ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days
#66Can someone explain the motivation?
It's one of those American policies that has a triple motivation: it provides an opportunity for the GOP to look "tough" on foreigners, it provides the opportunity to protect the US tech sector's market position by outlawing a potential competitor, and it satisfies nationalist ("national security") factions in Washington that want to roll-back Chinese economic development.
Foreign policy initiatives that satisfy the needs of three or more power blocs in Washington DC tend to have extremely bad outcomes; the last major policy that had a triple motivation was the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
(final paragraph edited for clarity)
Re: US to ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days
#67Is there any precedent for a president to do such a thing? I am completely astonished and dumbstruck that everyone is ok with this.
The government frequently bans foreign products that have national security implications.
Re: US to ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days
#68Some people here are wondering about the implications of this. What this means IMO is that all Chinese investments in SV need to be liquidated at fire sale prices in the next 45 days. Regardless of how people here feel about China this is a huge escalation. The US is inflicting huge losses on Chinese companies for no clear violation of US laws on their part. The pandoras box is now open. Do countries get to do this t…
What are your views on IP theft by some companies there. Should that be considered first strike by China.
Has Bytedance been implicated in IP theft?
Re: US to ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days
#69The ongoing anti China circus through executive orders is arbitrary and draconian to say the least... and while I've been mostly ignoring it so far, a lot of Americans live in China and have money on Wechat. Are they now violating this week's "law"?
The actual executive order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-or...
It's quite short and just adds a lot of FUD
Re: US to ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChat in 45 days
#70An important note that nobody seems to be reporting on: this is only possible because Apple and Google have control over which apps are permitted on your device. The US government has no legal authority to ban publishing (including apps) in the US. They do, however, have the ability to regulate trade between the operators of the App Store (Apple) and the Play Store (Google), and app publishers, which is what they're…
And this is why as a European I think that we should take a long and hard look at our dependency of US technology. Its becoming more and more clear that US is not a stable actor. I think it would be prudent for us to force alternatives to apple and google app stores (and other software) that are housed and owned in Europe. I have no confidence that US intelligence is not accessing our data and setting up profiles on…
This is the likely result of what Trump is doing. Every major country/bloc will now look to create their own commercial internet/social network, etc. And the US will have no basis to complain because it paved the way (the Chinese did it first, but China doesn’t have the clout to lead other countries. The US does)
Setting aside how much of a step back this is from the global utopian internet I suspect the vast majority of posters on HN believed in even a few years ago, the economic impact is gonna be the greatest on the US, which is the biggest beneficiary of a global internet.
If every bloc builds its own siloed internet, its their companies that will benefit at the expense of American companies which currently dominate the entire planet.