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TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

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Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

#51
post #28
post #4

"Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns. It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury." => So US Treasury will give MS money to buy TikTok (US market only)? And they have limited time to make this deal? So US Treasury will effectivelly own the US Tik…

At least that partially confirms my long-held suspicion that Skype's acquisition by MS was also made for "national interests", only that they (the US Administration of that time + MS itself) used to cover it up better. The same goes for FB's acquisition of WhatsApp. And people were laughing at Putin in 2012-2013 when he was saying in an interview that the Internet was CIA-controlled, not to mention the derogatory Wes…

I guess that Russia has taken control over Telegram - because it is not banned by them anymore...

Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This entire thing saddens me a great deal. It seems that you can just whip people up into a frenzy - even th HN crowd - simply by shouting "national security" and providing no proof to back it up. Has everyone really forgotten Saddam's WMDs so quickly?

Not really. We know private data is being weaponised, it’s just that we as a society have turned a blind eye to it when it’s domestic companies doing it. Right or wrong, possibly because we believe in the checks and balances here. When it comes to China, partly because of prejudice I guess, but also because of the evidence. There you get thrown into forced labour when electronic surveillance indicates you should be.…

> We know private data is being weaponised

How? What security risks does the DM inbox of a 16 year old possess?

Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

#53

It continues to be damning that the leadership of Microsoft did not buy Vine [1] from Twitter in 2017 for pennies on the dollar before Vine was shutdown. Vine was very popular, and a lot of people were very disappointed when it was shutdown back when Twitter was bleeding a lot cash. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine_(service)

TikToc is basicaly Vine2.0 and will go down just like Vine and YikYak already did. The reason behind MS wanting to acquire TT we will never know. I have a feeling the national sec. implications arent exactly what we are saying they are.

Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

#54
post #3

Where is EU in this embarrassment? Suppose Margrethe Vestager called and said TikTok, you are banned unless you let a "very european" company take over your business? And by the way. We would like a cut. And would the US still being able to say "national security" if it was fully owned by German business running on servers in some Swiss mountain?

The EU can't use national security as an excuse because it's not a nation and doesn't have a state security apparatus of its own.

Individual countries might. I'm not sure whether we've seen an EU single market law vs national security case yet.

Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

#55
post #50
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vine's top content creators were demanding to be paid, which was completely intolerable to the whole SV mindset.

So they all flocked to YouTube and got paid.

Yeah, which is of course not part of the “whole SV mindset”.

\s

Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. We know private data is being weaponised, it’s just that we as a society have turned a blind eye to it when it’s domestic companies doing it. Right or wrong, possibly because we believe in the checks and balances here. When it comes to China, partly because of prejudice I guess, but also because of the evidence. There you get thrown into forced labour when electronic surveillance indicates you should be.…

> We know private data is being weaponised How? What security risks does the DM inbox of a 16 year old possess?

What do you have to hide? Nothing? Ok then, let's give all your data and social graphs to marketing companies, who will be careful custodians.

Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We know private data is being weaponised How? What security risks does the DM inbox of a 16 year old possess?

What do you have to hide? Nothing? Ok then, let's give all your data and social graphs to marketing companies, who will be careful custodians.

I'm no fan of that either, but where does the national security risk come in?

Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

#58
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, to summarise: the president of the United States is openly advocating applying illegal real estate extortion/bribery practices to major M&A deals with geopolitical implications Well, yes, because he's spent his entire career doing that and now he's President. See the case the NY AG is building against him.

Is it any different than just having a tax on purchasing foreign companies? It's the same as a tax on purchasing foreign goods, which is already in place for goods from China in the form of tariffs.

I mean, if such a tax existed, sure (though such a tax would probably not be a great idea...). However, there is no relevant tax.

Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

#59
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Am I being naive? Possibly. Axios[0] quotes Trump as saying: “A very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States. Because we’re making it possible for this deal to happen. Right now they don’t have any rights, unless we give it to them. So if we’re going to give them the rights, it has to come into this country. It’s a little bit like the landlord/tenant”. Make…

I'm probably being stupid, but how is that not absolutely terrifying for US companies? The deal seems to be that all acquisition of foreign companies has to have a kickback to the treasury because they could always just ban the company you bought otherwise?

I mean, I suspect that most companies will take the view that this is Trump talking nonsense like usual, and that no such tax actually exists. Given Trump's history, companies are unlikely to jump to "argh, the US is the new Russia; divest immediately!" That said, you can imagine there could be problems if this sort of rhetoric continues.

Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock

#60
post #25
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zoom is of course still a national security threat.

Nothing Zoom does or does not do threatens the continued existence of the United States in any capacity. Calling nearly everything on or related to the internet a matter of "national security" is to demand that everything be overblown.

It's the new 'think of the children' argument.

People can't be convinced it's used for child pornography, because that's pretty easy to prove/disprove. So now the boogeyman is national security.

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