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TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

cnbc.com

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Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#121

Post by coliveira »

manigandham wrote: post #100
dragonwriter wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's literally a law in China which states you have to provide "crucial information for review" to the government if asked. You(the firm operating in China) cant deny that. Period. Despite having a Chinese parent, isn't it the case that TikTok itself does not operate in China?

That doesn't stop the parent company from being beholden to CCP's demands.

Facebook is also behold to the US government demands, as we have seen in the hearings during the last few days.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#122

Post by garmaine »

koonsolo wrote: post #64

As a European I find this whole story very confusing. A president that can just force a specific company on very short notice to shut down operation, is very concerning. What is even more concerning is that a lot of people here tend to agree because of the China thing. If it is that important, why is there no law that enforces this?

There are many laws, and precedent that allows that.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#123

Post by jld89 »

What I still don't understand is why European governments haven't made tit for tat measures against China in corporate law.

Why do we allow free market access to chinese companies when they don't? Are we crazy? Why not give the keys to our factories/companies while we are at it?

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#124

Post by unityByFreedom »

erklik wrote: post #116
rorykoehler wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I support it because of "the China thing". Not because I think China is inherently bad (I am capable of separating China from the CCP) but as long as the CCP enforces heir draconian laws that don't permit foreign companies free access to the Chinese market I think this should be reciprocated. Any other response is reckless.

I mean if that's the case, why not simply make laws to limit foreign companies access to the US market. As far as I know, the US hasn't actually passed any laws, right?

Being discretionary can also be reciprocated

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#125

Post by erklik »

michannne wrote: post #59
netsharc wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I mean this is the same President who falsified a weather map using a sharpie because it violated what he had said earlier in mistake (I am guessing it was a mistake).

He was allowed to coordinate a government-wide campaign that was impacting a large amount of people, and violated various integrity codes of NOAA and resulted in citizens being provided with false information, as well as eroded the trust of people in an integral agency.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#126

Post by EE84M3i »

I'm confused about why this is big news.

The executive order bans (to-be-defined) transactions with ByteDance and subsidiaries with the carve-out of "notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the date of this order."

Wasn't it going to be required by law for Kevin Mayer (as an American) to leave TikTok or become a lame-duck CEO? If he didn't leave, he couldn't accept, for example, new stock grants.

Working for TikTok and holding an American passport is a colossally dumb idea.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#127

Post by est31 »

mclightning wrote: post #98
koonsolo wrote: post #64

As a European I find this whole story very confusing. A president that can just force a specific company on very short notice to shut down operation, is very concerning. What is even more concerning is that a lot of people here tend to agree because of the China thing. If it is that important, why is there no law that enforces this?

I hate this "As a European" generalizations as if Europe has an entirely homogeneous spread of governance. Take this for a second; Bulgaria and Denmark is both Europe, or Hungary and Sweden.

Europeans have one thing in common though: they aren't americans, disregarding the minority of stationed soldiers, diplomats, expats, immigrants, etc.

"As an European" is a good way to state that you are indeed not an american. The general assumption on places like hn is that you are one. It's visible in the topic choices. As an example, the team viewer IPO, even though it's been a multibillion IPO, didn't get into hn while tons of SV tech startups do.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#128

Post by russli1993 »

kube-system wrote: post #32
mongol wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.…

Bytedance is incorporated in the Cayman Island, its not a Chinese company. It has a subsidiary in Hong Kong that operates the Chinese business. Its this portion of the business that has to adhere to Chinese laws. The rest of the company, including the US subsidiary is not under the jurisdiction of Chinese laws, and the US subsidiary fully owns TikTok. The data storage and content moderation are all handled by US employees. If the parent company or Chinese government is forcing US employees to censor based on Chinese government demands or steal US data, I am pretty sure US employees would have said something by now. Instead, they seem to proud of the security work they have done. I have seen a lot of anti-China videos on TikTok.

The US subsidiary of Bytedance that operates TikTok is subjected to US jurisdiction and US laws. US government has equal amount of control over it compared to Facebook. TikTok was sued and fined before for breaking under age related laws.

Bytedance's CEO is Zhang yiming, is a Chinese national. And its board has one Chinese national and three non-Chinese nationals. It's owned by a number of international investors, these investors likely have a say in the company as well. These people would not have built a company with Chinese government DNA. Zhang yiming himself has criticized the government in the past. Although he has toed with Chinese government lines in China because he has to. But he personally admires the US and its political culture. The management is also saying they are moving HQ to other countries. I think given the management's mindset, they really want to deal as little with the Chinese government as possible. Working on behalf of the government, nah, its not their mindset. To be honest, it might be even smart for the US government to lure Bytedance management, get them to declare they support liberalism and American values and use Bytedance to spread American values to China. Instead, US gov's action to force a sale is basically extortion and coercion. And having government take a huge chuck of the transaction is stealing personal property. It goes against all that US stands for, rule of law, justice, protection of private property. There are a lot of people in China loves the US and American values like the above, in turn they emigrate to the US and hate Chinese government. That image has definitely being broken a bit by all of this.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#129

Post by michannne »

ponker wrote: post #118
michannne wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vitriol aside, I suggest you adopt a more objective view of politics, instead of allowing your personal emotions to guide your view of governmental affairs. For one, TikTok is not the target, it is just the first domino of many, intended to lay the groundwork of how the government will deal with similar cases in the future. Secondly, you should at least make an attempt to not project your personal bias onto others -…

Sure sure, 5D chess, and the verbal nonsense oozing out of him on camera and on Twitter has no relevance to his 250-step master plan. Yep yep yep I’m waiting with bated breath, what I think is most important is making sure he figures out just what pizza parlor it is.

We could always go with the assumption the president is a bumbling idiot who can't tie his shoes properly. I'm sure that characterization will help understand the deeper picture here. /s

You fail to see the point. I don't care either way how you wish to view the president, but your projections serve no purpose in understanding the reason why these events are taking place and what their ramifications are. As I stated in another comment, you seem to have a very shallow view of politics that doesn't extend past media hyperbole.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#130

Post by netsharc »

michannne wrote: post #96
martin_a wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're still talking about Donald "grab them by the pussy" Trump here, aren't we? ANYTHING is possible in the USA since that guy got president.

You do realize Barack Obama fucked his wife right? Multiple times as they have 2 children. They probably talk dirty to each other when they're alone, like almost every other couple that exists. Should I now think less of Obama on the off chance he secretly spanks his wife in bed? My point is you have to be very far removed from society to believe that no one has ever talked in a vulgar fashion, especially in a countr…

From your 2 replies I'm presuming you are a Trump defender, at least you're denying parts of reality and twisting facts so they conform to your image of the world (that he's a good, at least decent president, and that you're not an idiot for supporting him).

Sorry, the issue isn't the private conversation, the issue is that the contents of that conversation was him saying he can get away sexually assaulting women because of he's a "star". If Barack Obama was recorded saying something like that while talking to friends, would you defend him?

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