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

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

#491

Post by rs186 »

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…

In other words, TikTok US becomes TruthSocial Reels?

I wonder where all the liberal content will go.

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

#492

Post by bandyaboot »

dfxm12 wrote: post #457
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?

It's a page in the conservative playbook going back a long time, from consolidating newspapers to talk radio to TV stations and now a new type of media...

And now we see them getting main stream networks on a leash.

Edit: Not to mention universities. It’s crazy how quickly civil institutions are being consolidated by the right. They have gone all in and there appears to be insufficient appetite to stop them.

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

#493

Post by glenstein »

imiric wrote: post #390
mrtksn wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ha…

>This won't affect the American downward spiral a single iota.

Broadly speaking, I think you're probably right that the dynamics on tiktok already exist elsewhere in social media. But I do think a practical upshot of it could be a version of Tiktok where you can criticize the Hong Kong takeover or Xinxianj labor camps or harassment of expatriate dissidents or Taiwan indepence openly and not have it soft-deplatformed. Which could cause stronger domestic consciousness of those issues, and stronger solidarity with Europe and the rest of the Western world.

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

#494

Post by mullingitover »

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…

This seems like the microwaved corpse of the original 2020 deal. Bytedance keeps all the IP, sells Oracle the nearly worthless right to operate the US infra. They can't even call their franken-app Tiktok. The US user data already sits in the US but they'll expect everyone to forget about that so they can brag about this token win.

They'll probably get what they really want, which is an admin console for the algorithm that has a 'political slant' slider that they can slide as far to the reich as they wish.

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

#495

Post by an0malous »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #429
dotnet00 wrote: post #328

I fully expect a decent number of people in favor of this to, without a shred of irony, whine about wanting a free market whenever environmental regulations are in the news again.

What are principles?

Rhetorical devices to get a certain demographic to buy your product.

Open AI, free speech platforms, save the planet, democratize information. At the end of the day, it’s always about power.

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

#496

Post by afpx »

elzbardico wrote: post #255

[flagged]

It makes me uneasy to let a company that was literally named after a CIA program and given billions of dark money over the years selectively educate our next generation.

Plus, Ellison on surveillance tech: "Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,”

https://fortune.com/2024/09/17/oracle-larry-ellison-surveill...

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

#497

Post by wolfcola »

LadyCailin wrote: post #466
kelnos wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If TikTok removes something, would the fact that there’s a government representative on the board give standing for a first amendment claim? Normally private companies aren’t required to furnish you with first amendment rights, but if one could argue that, if not for the board representative, they might not have prevented that speech, then perhaps you would have standing.

Yeah, the supreme court will get right on that

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

#498

Post by pstuart »

throwaway346434 wrote: post #419
pstuart wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's bonus. The real thing is to make tiktok a right-wing ideology machine. I'd rather have the CPC than the GOP at the helm.

What an insane thing to say! But also... how insane is it that I agree with you based on objective reality? Can you imagine seriously saying that 20-30 years ago? 1984's doublethink/doublespeak always seemed over the top, yet we are at a point particularly recently where the anti cancel culture sentiment has lead to... proposals to curb undesirable speech, cancelling people... which in turn is undesirable because it…

The CPC is not attacking the US from within. The Party of Trump has carried out a fascist coup and they are now working to ensure they stay in power permanently.

I loath partisanship and am more than willing to point out failures by the Dems, but this is different. Trump and Co have openly stated that they don't believe in democracy.

If you are not able to see this I'm not sure what I could say to open your eyes.

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

#499

Post by mullingitover »

glenstein wrote: post #485
jfengel wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>Is there something so overwhelmingly devious about the TikTok format in particular that the government has to supervise it? Well, yes, for starters. I think there's a pretty strong consensus from people on all sides that there's no more addictive algorithm than the TikTok one. It's the beneficiary of powerful network effects, it created those effects for itself with a superior app, but nevertheless it is a distingui…

> there's no more addictive algorithm than the TikTok one.

I really have to disagree at this point. Meta has all the money in the world to throw at this, and inference isn't rocket surgery. I think Meta's algorithm caught up a couple years ago, if anything it's even more addictive. Tiktok is simply riding on first mover status, plus it's a Coke/Pepsi thing, a large segment finds Meta properties distasteful for all the obvious reasons.

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

#500

Post by SilverElfin »

sporkxrocket wrote: post #477
no_wizard wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been floating around since the end of the first Trump administration, where neither of these interests were accused of being “pro-Israel” but only entrance narrative after the current Palestine debacle: Therefore I’m only left to conclude this is an entirely unsubstantiated claim, as why wouldn’t it have already been apparent if they were working as shadow brokers of Israeli interests in all this, which the…

The people who have been very vocal about forcing US ownership of TikTok have also been very, very open about their Zionism on social media. A16z has been pushing for this hard since the start of the genocide. Zionists blame "TikTok" for their opposition. They even call the younger people who don't support Israel the "TikTok Generation". This along with the consolidation of other US media assets under Zionist control…

> This along with the consolidation of other US media assets under Zionist control

Conspiracy theory.

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