Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#541

Post by zaro » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 10:29 AM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #164

moreorless wrote: post #145

Not a single person seem to think that it is odd that we can simply order a foreign company to sell their business to an American company.

Well, probably because that's not what is happening. The US has the right to ban companies from the country (as do other countries). What the US is saying is that the parent company (Bytedance) bust divest Tik Tok or they'll lose access to the US market. Microsoft is interested in it, but it could be a different company buying it. This is different than "you must sell this company to this other company" because the U…

> In the case of China, Bytedance can absolutely refuse to sell Tik Tok, it'll just get banned from operating in the United States.

How is that not extortion ?

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#542

Post by xster » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 4:06 PM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #451

xster wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Iran This is the first sentence By 2012, Iran had roughly 400 power plant units https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran The Shah approved plans to construct up to 23 nuclear power stations by 2000.[24] In March 1974, the Shah envisioned a time when the world's oil supply would run out, and declared, "Petroleum is a noble material, much too valuable…

I don’t see how your evidence disagrees with your comment’s parent.

To be fair, I'm lost too at what I'm supposed to respond to :D

Can't tell if the GGP is disagreeing because it's suggesting that the US can only impose "nuclear ambitions" sanctions on finished commercially operational nuclear power plants rather than nuclear development in general.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#543

Post by moreorless » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

zaro wrote: post #541

ericmay wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, probably because that's not what is happening. The US has the right to ban companies from the country (as do other countries). What the US is saying is that the parent company (Bytedance) bust divest Tik Tok or they'll lose access to the US market. Microsoft is interested in it, but it could be a different company buying it. This is different than "you must sell this company to this other company" because the U…

> In the case of China, Bytedance can absolutely refuse to sell Tik Tok, it'll just get banned from operating in the United States. How is that not extortion ?

It is. Plain and simple.

edit: spelling

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#544

Post by camillomiller » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 8:48 PM UTC

slipheen wrote: post #64

I think it's a clever play. It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company, and give them a better foothold in Social Networking than Linked-in provides. I'd have a few concerns about if MS can keep it growing- For one, I worry that Microsoft may mismanage it, similar to how they treated Skype. We saw Yahoo buy many reasonable smaller social networks (Flickr, Delicious, Tumblr) and was never a…

A clever play? Do Americans know a world outside of the US market exist? What hell of a message is this? A publicly traded company buying the domestic operations of a foreign company, just because the government deems it a National security risk, with no proof whatsoever? The same government who has spied citizen and high officials of ALLIED countries for years? Is all this completely lost on all of corporate America? This is pure international trade insanity. We’re discussing Microsoft buying TikTok as if it were just another valid course of action, while it’s the most Soviet-Russia style thing that has ever happened in International tech trade in decades. You want another one? Taiwan’s TSMC and all the shenanigans going on about their Arizona fab plant. Pure. insanity.

If you don’t get it, pause for a moment, and think what would happen if China would suggest that Huawei should buy a successful Western service operating in China to avoid a national security risk.

Pompeo is right when he says that this is like another Cold War, but with just one big difference: it’s America that’s playing the role of Russia now.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#545

Post by throwaway1545 » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 12:33 AM UTC

camillomiller wrote: post #544

slipheen wrote: post #64

I think it's a clever play. It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company, and give them a better foothold in Social Networking than Linked-in provides. I'd have a few concerns about if MS can keep it growing- For one, I worry that Microsoft may mismanage it, similar to how they treated Skype. We saw Yahoo buy many reasonable smaller social networks (Flickr, Delicious, Tumblr) and was never a…

A clever play? Do Americans know a world outside of the US market exist? What hell of a message is this? A publicly traded company buying the domestic operations of a foreign company, just because the government deems it a National security risk, with no proof whatsoever? The same government who has spied citizen and high officials of ALLIED countries for years? Is all this completely lost on all of corporate America…

I thought it was crazy at first too, but they aren't forcing them to sell it. They have the option to sell it or have it banned. Look how many American apps are banned in China.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#546

Post by dang » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 4:50 AM UTC

perryizgr8 wrote: post #403

graton wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The person you are replying to is Chinese and lives in China. Or at least their post history says so.

Then their comment becomes even more suspect.

HN has many users of Chinese descent living in the West. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves for treating them like this. I'm certainly ashamed.

(Edit: I didn't mean that they should be treated better because they live in the West. Obviously they should be treated better regardless of where they live. I mentioned HN's Chinese users who live in the West because they're an important part of China-related threads, which is not widely understood. Routinely they get accused of being communist shills, etc., when what they're actually doing is trying to bridge the gap between two worlds—an unenviable position as the gap grows. No one is required to agree with their views, but they absolutely should not be abused for this, and the HN users who do abuse them are behaving shamefully.)

However hard we try, it seems impossible to get a large segment of the community to behave any better, and the slurs are getting worse as the geopolitical trend (and associated things like media coverage) continues.

No, I'm not a secret communist supporter or any of the other silly things people come up with about this. Nor do I agree with the GP commenter; I've barely skimmed their posts. I simply want HN users to follow the site guidelines, give each other the benefit of the doubt, and not form xenophobic mobs.

People have literally been hounded off this site by comments like these. Is that the kind of community you all want to be part of? I can't believe it is. It's the default collective outcome, though—not that any of you want that outcome, but it's the group ugliness that posts like this add up to.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html