U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#381

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 9:56 PM UTC

cjbgkagh wrote: post #359

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the source. > isn't a problem for Israel now but I believe it's existential for them in the future "A slight majority of Americans (53%) now express[ing] a somewhat or very unfavorable opinion of Israel" is new, but given "the share of U.S. adults who voice very unfavorable views of Israel" is only "19% in 2025" (up from "10% in 2022"), it's not fair to call the threat existential. If that latter rises…

It's a bit weird to say Israel could replace the US as a security partner without giving an example of who that would be. Russia? China? The EU? And what money are they to buy the materials with, their own? American? Who would continue to bribe their neighbors they're not at war with and restrain those they are at war with. What if Iran really does get nukes, what if a 3rd country gives them one. Currently the Americ…

> weird to say Israel could replace the US as a security partner without giving an example of who that would be. Russia? China?

China, Russia and India come to mind. (The latter two need Israeli weapons expertise and are transactional about their geopolitics. The last is in the growing throes of anti-Muslim ethnonationalism. The first and third import energy.)

> what money are they to buy the materials with, their own?

Yes. Amercan aid to Israel is less than 1% of its GDP [1][2]. We buy influence with that money, but it's not existential.

> What if Iran really does get nukes, what if a 3rd country gives them one

...Israel already has nukes and superior delivery mechanisms to Iran. Also, if Iran gets nukes, I put Israel becoming a regional hegemon protecting the Gulf from a nuclear Iran on the board.

> Americans are trying to figure out how much sovereignty they really have and are discovering that it's indeed effectively none

This is dumb. America's Israel policy until about 2025 has been broadly popular with the electorate. (Israel could have become unpopular earlier, but nobody particularly likes folks occupying universities and blocking bridges.)

[1] https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Israel

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#382

Post by basisword » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 9:58 PM UTC

cjbgkagh wrote: post #293

reaperducer wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's just going to fade into obscurity then huh We won't be so lucky.

What's to stop ByteDance from waiting a while and making a new TikTok app under a different name? The network effect moats do not seem insurmountable. I'm sure once the US starts meddling with the algorithm people will start looking for alternatives.

>> What's to stop ByteDance from waiting a while and making a new TikTok app under a different name?

I'm sure this deal is more complex than "ByteDance is not allowed to run an app called TikTok within the US". Politicians are morons so I could be wrong but I would hope it's much more liberal than that.

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#383

Post by basisword » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 9:59 PM UTC

Tarsul wrote: post #13

so US users will be cut off from the rest of the world? Wow. Thats crazy.

This is just the first step (and a big one given TikTok's reach) to a US great firewall.

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#384

Post by kranke155 » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 9:59 PM UTC

pyrophane wrote: post #339

One thing I’m looking for in all of this is how trump will get a piece of this deal.

Larry Ellison and A16Z will invest in Truth Social, buy Trump Coin, help his family, (or something) just asynchronously enough that it can’t be directly connected to the TikTok deal.

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#385

Post by nadermx » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 10:00 PM UTC

If anyone want's to save stuff off tiktok just incase this doesn't go through, just remove the "OK" from the URL, ending up at https://tikt.com https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44283876

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#386

Post by basisword » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 10:01 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #37

Tarsul wrote: post #13

so US users will be cut off from the rest of the world? Wow. Thats crazy.

Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of global users ended up using the US app instead of TikTok.

Nope. I get a lot localised content. The local food reviewers etc. won't miss out on US views. The people creating content in local languages won't notice a difference either. 15 years ago I think things would have went differently but now I think people will want the non-US version. And I wouldn't be surprised if US users grab themselves a VPN and a pirated APK and use it too.

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#387

Post by bionsystem » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 10:02 PM UTC

hopelite wrote: post #346

elzbardico wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The delightful world of democracy and free enterprise!

You are free to choose among the things the options the cabal provides you. What are you complaining about?

Free to chose which pedophile you prefer.

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#388

Post by kelnos » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 10:02 PM UTC

jfengel wrote: post #291

gpt5 wrote: post #205

Key details: 1. New, US-specific TikTok App, separate from the main TikTok app in content and users. 2. 80% owned by a U.S. investor consortium led by Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz, 20% by Bytedance. 3. Board will include one U.S. government–appointed director. 4. All U.S. user data would sit on Oracle infrastructure in the US. 5. Algorithm will be initially licensed, but has to be reengineered to comp…

Board will include one U.S. government–appointed director. Why? The nominal reason for all this is that we didn't want a Chinese company controlling an important social media outlet. I don't love that reasoning, but fine, whatever. So they're forcibly selling it to an American company. Which should solve the problem, right? Are we going to be putting government-appointed directors on all social media companies? Or ju…

Because Trump wants a proxy so he can continue to influence the direction TikTok takes. He wants easier access to data so he can go after his political opponents, as well as get things censored he doesn't like. Of course, this would all be possible without someone on the board, but it can't hurt, and likely will help.

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#389

Post by LeafItAlone » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 10:02 PM UTC

CharlieIsAHero wrote: post #363

ElijahLynn wrote: post #350

Is this a coup by conservative government to gain control of this social network to promote it's ideologies? first Twitter, now Tiktok, both controlled by conservative interests?

[flagged]

I’m not sure what you are saying… Are you suggesting that US Conservative viewpoints are aligned with those of China’s government?

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#390

Post by imiric » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 10:04 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #308

gpt5 wrote: post #205

Key details: 1. New, US-specific TikTok App, separate from the main TikTok app in content and users. 2. 80% owned by a U.S. investor consortium led by Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz, 20% by Bytedance. 3. Board will include one U.S. government–appointed director. 4. All U.S. user data would sit on Oracle infrastructure in the US. 5. Algorithm will be initially licensed, but has to be reengineered to comp…

That’s very interesting, I wonder if the toxicity of the American culture wars can be contained this way. Also, I see creators, trying to create US based TikTok accounts because they believe that this way their content will be shown to Americans, which are better monetized. If that’s the case, I wonder if international creator will move to the American TikTok for the better payout. It the international creators stay…

> I wonder if the toxicity of the American culture wars can be contained this way.

Huh? Are you not aware of US social media companies?

Everything that's happening on TikTok is also happening on X, Facebook, Friendster, or whatever the kids are using these days. The only difference is that the TikTok algorithm promotes Chinese propaganda and ideology, and enriches the Chinese government and ByteDance. The US can't have that, hence this deal.

This won't affect the American downward spiral a single iota. That would require strong regulation of social media companies and adtech in general, and there would be a nationwide revolt if that were even proposed. This is far from being considered anyway, now that Big Tech is deeply entrenched in the government.