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U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

reuters.com

361–370 of 401 posts

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Bytedance wants access to the US market with that app, If Bytedance wants access to the US market with that app, it will simply relocate servers outside of USA. That's it.

Weird that this is being downvoted. What is the US government going to do, create a China-style great firewall? Even the (right-) wingnuts would be sharpening their pitchforks.

They will slowly craft some national security or human rights narrative over a 2 to 3 period after which the public, both left and right, will be begging for a firewall.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#362
post #75

Musical.ly was started by entrepreneurs in Shanghai. Although it may have had US and Japanese investors, I don't think it was an American company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical.ly >"It’s the first company to be headquartered in China, designed in China, but popular in the US," said Greylock investor Josh Elman. "Finally we’re seeing talented people who live in that ecosystem in that world and actually transce…

I've heard this myth that musical.ly was founded in China before, but it's hard to believe if you look at some basic facts. One cofounder worked full time at SAP in SF bay area for several years before and after musical.ly was founded. The other says on his LinkedIn that he was working in Santa Monica for several years on either side of the founding. They lived, worked, and founded the company in CA.

Though I think the onus is on you to demonstrate that it's a myth when you're directly contradicting the first line of the first main paragraph of their wikipage (which is referenced)

"Musical.ly Inc. was founded by longtime friends Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang in Shanghai, China."

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a corporatist system of government, corporate censorship is state censorship. When there's no meaningful space between corporate power and government power, it doesn't make much difference whether the guy silencing your dissent is Mark Zuckerberg or William Barr. America most definitely has such a system. And when independent candidates run for office and can't get their message out for being shadow banned, and th…

I reject the idea that ownership of one of the most popular websites in the world is comparable in power to the threat of force that underpins the legal authority of the most powerful military in the world. I think that assertion is extreme and that you need to present some strong evidence to explain why popular websites are comparable in power to the justice department.

Watch the BBC documentary Century of Self, about Edward Bernays, the founder of propaganda in the US, who learned about psychology from his uncle Sigmund Freud, and happened to be the instigator of modern marketing.

The study and control of group behavior is real. The network of educated and privileged elite is real. The power of the media run by these elite perhaps surpasses that of the justice department. The media can start wars.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was going to reply to the parent with the joke and then didn't bother. Since you mentioned it though... An American tells a Russian that the United States is so free he can stand in front of the White House and yell, “To hell with Ronald Reagan.” The Russian replies, “That’s nothing. I can stand in front of the Kremlin and yell, ‘To hell with Ronald Reagan,’ too.”

Reagan telling a variant : https://youtu.be/mN3z3eSVG7A?t=111

Mister, we could use a man like Ronald Reagan again.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have an example? The only things I can think of are illegal (like child porn) which everyone should be able to agree should be banned.

Europe is much more relaxed about nudity (exposed breasts in prime time TV are fine) but much more restrictive about violence and gore. Instead US companies enforce US standards on us. Even child porn isn't an easy subject. Everyone can agree that liking 12 year olds sexually is pedophilia and images about that are child porn. But when we are taking about 16 year olds it's muddier since we are taking about child porn…

Interesting, my previous comment about not being able to criticize muhamed in Europe was downvoted and flagged without any responses. Guess people here hate the truth: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/calling-muhammad-paedo...

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#366
post #19

I highly recommend folks listen to recent episodes of Ben Thompson’s exponent podcast where he discusses TikTok and its influence in the USA. He makes the point that US consumers become subject to Chinese censorship policies when using the platform while China outright bans or heavily restricts American companies from operating (eg google search, Facebook).

Yet we got Lil Nas X out of it.

Their censorship algorithm must be broken.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#367
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"TikTok also says China does not have jurisdiction over content of the app, which does not operate in China and is not influenced by any foreign government." If it's a Chinese company, why is TikTok saying that China has zero jurisdiction over the app? Besides that, the US can require that Bytedance peel off TikTok / Musical.ly. If Bytedance wants access to the US market with that app, it will have to play by US rule…

> If it's a Chinese company, why is TikTok saying that China has zero jurisdiction over the app? ByteDance is trying very hard to run TikTok and Douyin (抖音, the Chinese version) as separate companies that happen to share the same code but not data. For one, this is because they're well aware that Western governments are suspicious of foreign companies having access to their citizens' data. Secondly, having Chinese an…

forgive my ignorance, what happened with grindr?

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#368
post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://hackernewstitles.netlify.com/

That's a cool site! But some of those are edits made by submitters, not moderators.

Just found it through the search, it was submitted a few months back.

> But some of those are edits made by submitters, [...]

Honestly never realized that's a thing, thanks for the tip!

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#369
post #140
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same is said for non-US consumers, who consume US-made media (Which is consumed world-wide, and has in many places, displaced local media.)

While the US doesn't hard censor media like China, I'd agree there is something of a soft censorship/ignoring of many topics. And, if you think about US based hard restraints, there are certainly onerous restrictions with rules attached to financial services imposed by the US into foreign nations.

Soft censorship is more effective than hard censorship as censors. For people who think soft censorship is better, I'd becareful what you wish for.

Re: U.S. opens a national security review of TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is much more relaxed about nudity (exposed breasts in prime time TV are fine) but much more restrictive about violence and gore. Instead US companies enforce US standards on us. Even child porn isn't an easy subject. Everyone can agree that liking 12 year olds sexually is pedophilia and images about that are child porn. But when we are taking about 16 year olds it's muddier since we are taking about child porn…

Interesting, my previous comment about not being able to criticize muhamed in Europe was downvoted and flagged without any responses. Guess people here hate the truth: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/calling-muhammad-paedo...

More context: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/its-not-fr...

I'd rather see nudity censored than criticism of religion, to be honest, so thank the Lord it's not Europe using soft censorship.

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