If TikTok gets purchased, all its US employees are going to get a pay cut.
TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
51–60 of 242 posts
Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trump is down 10+ points in the polls. That’s what this is about and TikTok only needs to run out the clock to the 2nd week of November at which point this whole thing will go away for them.
I think you need to update your knowledge of the polls, as much as you may dislike Trump, he isn't down by 10+ points any more. Regardless, the media has convinced people that only the Republicans and Trump want to see something done about TikTok, but, in fact, there are plenty of Democrats who are also wary of TikTok. Maybe they don't want an outright ban, but they want something done. But since that doesn't garner…
Rapidly becoming an issue? The US has been ignoring China’s burgeoning power for 50 years and allowed US CEOs to get gazillion dollar payouts by shipping American manufacturing jobs to China. That doesn’t change the fact that 1) an isolated spasm against TikTok accomplishes nothing if not part of a broad and permanent portfolio of initiatives, 2) whether Trump wins or loses this election he doesn’t give a shit about anything but his own political and financial fortune, and is too dumb, too lazy, and too corrupt to actually lead this soft power war. If you think Donald Trump is up at night worrying about China exfiltrating the data of US teenagers data... I can’t help you but please wear a mask.
Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
They operate under the rules of a powerful political jurisdiction which is not particularly friendly to the US. Here's a simplified version of how the government thinks about it: If Facebook has data on a government employee, it's not a big deal, because Facebook stores that data in the US, and is friendly to the US, and if they do anything bad, they ultimately answer to the laws and regulations of the US government.…
Why hasn't this been a problem for Zoom? If somebody has data about government employees or even recordings of meetings then it is Zoom, not TikTok.
Zoom is a US company
Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
#54Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
#55I'm confused on why he's leaving. Is the political scope of the role too much for him and/or is this not the role he intended to occupy?
Maybe it’s just not good to be the head of Volkswagen in 1944.
Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
#56I'm confused on why he's leaving. Is the political scope of the role too much for him and/or is this not the role he intended to occupy?
The most likely reason is that they are very close to a deal (to sell the US operations) and the buyer wants him out.
? It seems very unlikely to me that the buyer would want to create instability at the top... aren't execs typically incentivized to stick around for a while, to help transition post-acquisition? It seems more like he felt this wasn't what he signed up for.
Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
#57To me this reads as tiktok definitely being acquired. And as they negotiate with either Microsoft or Oracle it is becoming clear to Mayer that he will have more oversight and a greater focus on profitability over growth which isn't what he signed up for.
Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
#58If I were TikTok I would move my international operations to a European country that was friendly to me and then wait until the anti-China sentiment in the US settled and then try again.
Rather that than force-selling the US part at a bargain price.
Europe would love a social media giant that could match those of the US. And just behaved better than the US ones when it came to taxes and data privacy ...
Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why hasn't this been a problem for Zoom? If somebody has data about government employees or even recordings of meetings then it is Zoom, not TikTok.
The joke is, kids/K-Pop fans communicated on TikTok to "prank" Trump by buying tickets to his rally and not showing up, making him look bad, and 10 days later Trump started roaring about the app. Of course Fox News, etc, claim "this Chinese app is subverting democracy", etc, but IMHO they were just using it to communicate...
I would hope the majority of people who are aware of international affairs do not think so lowly of the American people, so dimly of American government, and so shallowly of international politics, that they'd believe our president would (or be allowed to, for that matter) coordinate a government-wide subversion campaign with far-reaching consequences over a prank
Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's your annual rate for being caught in the middle of a geopolitical superpower dispute?
I am highjacking your comment to express my confusion about this dispute. Not that it exists, but on what grounds it exists. Has TikTok done something that is materially different and worse from what, for example, Facebook has? Or is it only that they do similar things, but they originate from China?
a) China is a de-facto dictatorship, with no independent press or judiciary, who is right now committing mass genocide with the Uyghur muslims and has a long history of kidnapping both citizens and non-citizens abroad e.g. in Hong Kong and Australia.
b) TikTok has been collecting a LOT of data including your personal details, contacts, location, WiFi networks etc. It's not just stupid videos it was everything they could get which on Android at least is a lot.
c) Given the history with previous Chinese owned companies and with overseas companies operating in China there have been requirements that data is made accessible to the government.
China right now monitors users behaviour online and kidnaps them for "re-education". We should not be giving them the tools to keep doing that.