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Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

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Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#171

Post by brfox »

returningfory2 wrote: post #38

The work "ban" is in scare quotes for a reason. The law doesn't ban TikTok. Rather, it bans TikTok from having Chinese owners. If the law stands, the end result will likely be that TikTok will be sold to US owners, rather than TikTok going away. It's surprising to me that this this pretty significant distinction has been glossed over both in media reporting and in general comments here on HN. To be clear, I'm not sup…

I've seen articles saying that it would be hard to find any large enough investors to buy it who also don't cause a monopoly. Can ByteDance spin off TikTok to a separate company which would have an IPO and go public and in the process no longer have Chinese owners?

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#172

Post by terr-dav »

willio58 wrote: post #7

I can almost hear the Meta execs cackling in their bathtubs of cash. Seriously though, this decision just feels unsubstantiated and rushed. There are so many claims of manipulation and our data being used by China via TikTok but I can't help but feel a company like Instagram does the exact same thing but it's not a Chinese company so we are just... okay with that?

> so we are just... okay with that?

We don't write and pass the laws, and what we're "okay with" doesn't really matter to the decision-makers. Hopefully though, the passage of this bill will catalyze a more widespread discussion about the hypocrisy of the US Government. They can at least be clear about the motivation: "Only _our_ state surveillance apparatus should have such direct access to this psychic imprint of the American people."

What I'm curious about is whether the new ownership will be sufficiently savvy to sniff out any automated data sharing.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#173

Post by metalcrow »

superkuh wrote: post #39

>app stores in the US would have to drop the app, and Internet hosting services would be prohibited from providing services that enable distribution of TikTok in the US So just install it like a normal application instead of using an "app store". But does this mean if I host the .apk or whatever on my personal website I would be breaking the law?

Anyone who is legally knowledgeable know how this works? The text says "It shall be unlawful for an entity to distribute..a foreign adversary controlled application by carrying out..internet hosting services to enable the distribution", and it specifices that this includes source code. But https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States specified that the publication of source code was protected by the first amendment, so the government would need a compelling reason to prevent that publication. Is there a conflict here? Is preventing the publication of an apk likely to withstand court scrutiny?

EDIT: My best guess currently is that the government is claiming there is a compelling state interest, that of national security, and that is why they should be allowed to ban the publication of this app and it's code. And even if it were to go to the court the courts don't like telling the government was is and isn't national security related, so they would probably just ok this.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#174

Post by Barrin92 »

afavour wrote: post #121
spiderfarmer wrote: post #63

If I were Bytedance I would cut off the US. I certainly would not sell to a competitor. And I’d probably do a licensing deal for the content with a new entity without US based shareholders.

Then you’d be wasting a huge amount of money for no good reason. If TikTok gets banned Meta will probably vacuum up the audience with Instagram Reels. It would be posturing with no real purpose.

From Bytedance's point of view that's correct but the Chinese gov. would almost certainly interpret giving in to this as an incentive for Washington to ask "which sell off are we going to go for next". You'd effectively send the signal that this is a winning strategy to simply acquire Chinese firms by force. Beijing would almost certainly prevent that sale.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#178

Post by patrickmay »

cagenut wrote: post #48
segasaturn wrote: post #5

99% Invisible recently introduced me to the political concept of Noticeably Improving People's Lives (abbreviated as NIPL), which refers to how politicians get votes by making visible, positive improvements to people's lives. Not only is this bill bad policy (does nothing to protect people from foreign surveillance and violates free speech), its shit politics. All it's going to do is make the 150m Americans who use T…

the single most explanatory fact about america's political behavior, generally over the last 20 years and most acutely today, is this graph: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fszq_PSWIAUwaWw?format=jpg&name=... the average age of a congress person (house and senate) has gone up by one year, per year, for roughly 20 years. that tells you that the "normal" organic churn of the past simply stopped dead in its tracks. we have…

This is one of many reasons why we need congressional term limits. Three terms in the House, two in the Senate, then go live under the laws you made.

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#179

Post by efitz »

I see the feedback here is overwhelmingly negative.

My biggest problem is that it’s too narrowly targeted.

I have worked for several US businesses with global footprints and working with China (and some other countries) required whole or part ownership of the business by entities within that nation. So we partnered with businesses in China to set up and operate our infra, and had to manage everything through contracts.

Further, Chinese government officials would show up unannounced and plug shit into our networks, and required access to our encryption keys and accounts databases and employee & customer lists etc. We had to build independent systems just for China to prevent sharing information about non-China based customers and employees. Where we couldn’t do that, we had to build filtered replication “diodes” to prevent data leakage.

China and other countries do far worse to us than just requiring local ownership of businesses; and if they feel that is in their national interest, why can’t we return the favor when we feel it’s in our interest?

Re: Biden signs TikTok bill into law, starting clock for ByteDance to divest

#180

Post by ipaddr »

afavour wrote: post #95
waihtis wrote: post #85

Good. Tiktok is a threat to humanity’s survival, or at least an extremely potent gateway drug to it.

If that’s the argument then you need to regulate social media as a whole. Instead this is specifically geopolitical intrigue rather than any care about the mental health of the American people. Microsoft/Meta/A conglomerate of record labels(?) will buy TikTok and it’ll continue to exist just as it does today.

What would be interesting is a cap on followers. Would change the platform into being more social and less influencers driven.
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