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TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

reuters.com

41–50 of 723 posts

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#41

At what point do the big tech companies see the real threat of Trump and begin actively campaigning against him? Feels like they have immense power if they decided to act politically.

I mean, if this goes through essentially what will have happened is the president used the power of the state to get a foreign company to sell control of a valuable product to Microsoft at what will almost certainly be a firesale price. If I were Microsoft, I wouldn't be complaining!

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#43

At what point do the big tech companies see the real threat of Trump and begin actively campaigning against him? Feels like they have immense power if they decided to act politically.

I don't know why this is getting downvoted; companies in other sectors (e.g. oil) get involved in US politics regularly. But there's little precedent for media companies to take action in US politics overtly. (IANAL, but I suspect there are legal impediments as well). Taking a political stand, or providing support for one side, might force big tech companies to resolve the ambiguity as to whether they're media compan…

> But there's little precedent for media companies to take action in US politics overtly

Sorry, but are we in the same country?

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#44
post #25

So how will this work? Will there be 2 apps? Tiktok US and Tiktok for the rest of the world?

The split would likely be Douyin (TikTok China) vs. TikTok for the rest of the world. The business is already structured that way- ByteDance operates Douyin directly but TikTok operates through a subsidiary.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But unlike China, America fashions itself as a bastion of capitalism. Borrowing Chinese practices seems a little antithetical to everything I see America as

America has been acting neutral for last decades, especially last 15 years where China has asymmetrically taken advantage of American companies. China is getting a taste of their own medicine and I am fine with that.

This is essentially admitting that the free market lost and doesn't work anymore. Because the free market has clearly decided that it likes TikTok, even enough to share its data with the company.

I don't think people realize how significant this might be.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#47
So tiktok, aka the CCP, are actively trying to sway the US election. I recall the past 3 years were spent hearing people lament about foreign interference in our democratic system. But now the ACLU says it’s ok? Which is it? Pick a side.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#48
post #12
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what a lot companies who do business in China have to go through. For example, Activision-Blizzard are pretty much fully separated from The9, which is the only authorized distributor for World of Warcraft in China. Edit: Apologies, the source I was looking at was outdated and NetEase is the current distributor for WoW in China.

The9 stopped distributing wow in China in 2009.

You’re totally right, edited my post with this info. Thanks!

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#49

At what point do the big tech companies see the real threat of Trump and begin actively campaigning against him? Feels like they have immense power if they decided to act politically.

They already are. There were revelations just this week that Google has removed conservative media from search results in what would appear to be a direct effort to interfere in the 2020 election.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#50

At what point do the big tech companies see the real threat of Trump and begin actively campaigning against him? Feels like they have immense power if they decided to act politically.

One can assume they already are. By virtue of having a disproportionate representation of one political party within their ranks (which they do), you can argue that a lot of their decision making (however benign/simple/small) will fall in line with that parties platform, or end up promoting that party in some way.

Right now from my point of view, it absolutely looks like the big social-media companies like Youtube/Twitter/Reddit/etc are actively purging large conservative opinions/voices in anticipation for the US election coming up. It's downright Orwellian that we allow them to have such a huge impact on political elections under the guise of "community standards". Those same community-standards that are touted for protecting the vulnerable are acting as camouflage for political meddling.

As for Tik-tok, I'd ban it just for the degenerate social impact it's having on a large section of our youth population. Ditto for gang-glorifying, misogynistic rap music.

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