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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

#681
post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

>> Are we going to be putting [US] government-appointed directors on all [US] social media companies? > And you used to not have to say this, but a culturally dominant app being leveraged by an authoritarian state goes in the not good colunm. Agreed.

Great so let’s ban it then and avoid that problem? If you’re upset about the US government having a board seat on the US-specific app then you are even more mad that the CCP does while you munch on Tide pods and get outraged about whatever the algorithm tells you.

Or you can just get rid of this crap and stop lying to yourself about the value and they can rule over an empty kingdom.

Otherwise yes indeed the US will get a board seat and the Trump admin will make content demands and you will take it like a coward because you’re too addicted to give it up.

(Just a note I don’t mean you specifically - I don’t know if you’re addicted to social media or not)

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

#682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any do you act ignorant?

[flagged]

You can go stuff your "dogwhistle" nonsense and you not comprehending things is not my problem. Why would it be the jews, you nitwit? How do you get the jews out of this? Seems you have the growing up to do, you neurotic narcissist. You are correct, there is no "secret cabal", it is quite overt actually. It is a cabal that is overt, out in the open and it not only spans both of these stupid "left" and "right", "liberal" and "conservative", red team, blue team, deliberate divisions.

It is precisely why both parties have worked to keep the Epstein files suppressed, the DC madam contact book hidden, worked to invade countries and murder millions. Why are you so paranoid about it being "the jews" immediately when a cabal is identified?

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

#683

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did the concept of "a free country" arise, and what did it mean? It seems to have been in use in the 1600s. Here it is in a tract written, apparently, around 1689 in England: https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-tract-su... The freedoms in that instance are freedom of religion, and democracy. (Democracy, the franchise, was limited to about 10% of men, under rules that varied locally from "you have…

My meaning is more like, St. Nicholas and his flying sleigh and reindeer have existed since at least the 1800s, Father Christmas as well, Sinterklaas even earlier most likely, but Coca-Cola invented Santa Claus as the world knows him in 1930s, and the USA did the same for the modern concept of "free country" or "democracy." A couple decades of radio, television, and film dominance was the method.

Running with that metaphor, Sinterklaas (freedom and democracy) actually exists, and even when people invoke the Coca-Cola version they're still aspiring to something with a grain of truth to it. It doesn't merely simplify to "us and them" but also contains some actual meaning relating to actual forms of freedom, when people take the trouble to add the depth back in instead of lazily designating outsiders.

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

#684
post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any do you act ignorant?

Why do you assume everyone knows? List stuff out for all to see and learn.

Because it's obvious, it's the cabal of ruling class people that are effectively reestablishing a system comparable to the aristocracy that was ended with the US constitution and they have been working on destroying and undermining because it gave power to the people. Unfortunately, it is something that the multitude really have no ability to understand, which is precisely why the founders of the USA tried very hard not to extend power to the uninformed and incompetent multitude, just like how all of us prevent everyone from accessing our source-code for obvious reasons.

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

#685

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the supreme court will get right on that

As soon as the appointee is appointed by a Democratic politician, at least.

That won't help. The count is currently 6 Republicans to 3 Democrats. The party isn't an absolute predictor of how they'll vote, but it's pretty close.

It would take a minimum of two Republicans to retire, and be replaced by Democrats, to change the partisan balance. The oldest justice is Clarence Thomas, but the next two are both Democrats. Everybody else is under 70 and will not retire for a minimum of a decade.

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

#686
post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are we going to be putting government-appointed directors on all social media companies? That wouldn't be a bad thing. How good has unchecked Zuckerberg been for us, really? > Or just the one that used-to-be-Chinese? Or the one where there's some level to force on them, like here. If Zuckerberg starts needing government cash to keep Facebook going, I'd expect a similar deal.

>That wouldn't be a bad thing The government should be the government, and corporations should be corporations. Nothing good will come of having them bleed together. Like church and state, you keep them separate for the good of both.

> The government should be the government, and corporations should be corporations. Nothing good will come of having them bleed together.

> Like church and state, you keep them separate for the good of both.

I'm not convinced of that anymore. The problem is the government is so weak and slow: the corporations can implement some bad decision before the government has a chance to notice and regulate.

There needs to be more stakeholders with power at the corporate decision-making table than just the shareholders and their representatives. You need workers there, you needs someone to speak for the interests of the country as a whole, etc.

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

#687

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think its pretty obvious how and why, every other platform copied the key parts of Tik tok, youtube has shorts, and others have their own rendition. What they all miss is that this IS Tik Tok its not some additional part of Tik Tok. It's a simple UI that gives you endless content you like, they tag all the content in a meaningful way behind the scenes, and then the recommendation engine works to feed you more of wh…

Pinterest but for short videos.

Turns out short attention bursts is enough for the younger generations, they get condensed news. The big downside I see is they get used to the cut version of things, I am a huge fan of longer videos with raw uncut context, I tire of people telling me what someone said, just give me the video thanks, I can think for myself.

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

#688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Is the US data accessible to non-US entities? The point right now, as I understood it, is to cut off PRC access to the data completely. Before: we’re spying on you, but here’s a copy! After: we’ve moved the spy machine to Ashburn VA, here are the keys.

The point was to control the algo to prevent stuff like Palestine showing up.

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

#689
post #641

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a lot of anti-American comments like this one, mostly on American websites like Hacker News and Youtube. I'd say the anti-American comments outnumber the pro-American ones something like 10 to 1. The US may not be preaching about freedom and rights. But it seems to be practicing it, at least in the narrow sense that anti-American content isn't being censored or suppressed.

> But it seems to be practicing it This deal cuts the US off from worldwide content. Just like China does. The US TikTok will literally be a bubble that the US gov controls. So it's not even pretending to practice 'freedom' here.

The acceptance of China on the world stage shows that this isn't a problem for most.

You can't criticize the US for taking an authoritarian turn while simultaneously doing more and more business with a totalitarian state.

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

#690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You can go stuff your "dogwhistle" nonsense and you not comprehending things is not my problem. Why would it be the jews, you nitwit? How do you get the jews out of this? Seems you have the growing up to do, you neurotic narcissist. You are correct, there is no "secret cabal", it is quite overt actually. It is a cabal that is overt, out in the open and it not only spans both of these stupid "left" and "right", "liber…

> Why are you so paranoid about it being "the jews" immediately when a cabal is identified?

Because that's usually what's implied when people speak of a cabal ruling the world and refuse to elaborate when asked about it. You can't blame me for thinking you a nazi when you use the same language and tactics as they do. Now I know you're not, and I'm sorry for being mistaken but maybe be more explicit about what you mean and refrain from using conspiracy-speak in the future?

Why do you even call that a cabal? Yes, class warfare is a thing and the material conditions are shifting in favor of the owner class, no the left and the right are not the same on this issue, and yes the liberals are completely bought and ineffective on these subjects.

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