If Microsoft doesn't buy TT, it's going to be banned by Trump. Great deal for Microsoft.
TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock
61–70 of 151 posts
Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock
#62It 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)
Honestly hard to tell if this is satire. TikTok is way more compelling than Vine was, even at its peak. The idea that Microsoft not buying a dying Vine from Twitter is indicative of its poor leadership is hard to wrap my head around.
Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock
#63Earlier 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 thought this strong arm acquisition was happening because of national security. Are we walking that back to "personal privacy"? When does the US seize Facebook to protect our data and social graphs?
Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Giving random private companies Stasi like surveillance by default is in my opinion a national security risk for many reasons. It feels strange that I even have to point out that its ripe for corruption:
- people in the know can shape the narrative
- shady domestic or foreign powers can get access
- a future potential non-democratic dictatorship has a turn-key surveillance and propaganda tool already up and running
I think that's bad.
Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock
#65Earlier 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.
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Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock
#66> who saw value in an American company getting access to sophisticated TikTok algorithms Caused me to spit-take.
Why?
Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 thought this strong arm acquisition was happening because of national security. Are we walking that back to "personal privacy"? When does the US seize Facebook to protect our data and social graphs?
Fair point.
The US has already "seized" Facebook because it operates under US oversight.
I'm not sure I express myself clearly enough. The US (apparently, de facto) is OK with companies violating all sorts of personal privacy, as long as the US gov has the final say in how the data is used. If a foreign power is doing the same to US citizens, or even non-US citizens, the US is not as OK with it, because it would cede that advantage to some other country.
Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock
#68If this is a national security risk, having Microsoft purchase it is a terrible idea. Will Microsoft install this app next to Xbox Live and Candy Crush on your start menus? Is it going to end up in your startup-apps, launching every time you load your PC, added back to your startup-apps after every update regardless of how many times you remove it from the list?
I imagine Microsoft would also be tasked with tying up the security risks before publishing it anywhere near the Windows start menu
In fact, that is the whole point of the purchase. Microsoft would replace the entire US operations team with US employees, and vet all the code. There would be zero reasons left to ban Tiktok on the grounds of national security.
For some reason, I'm not seeing many people talking about this at all. Everybody is still talking about justifications about why Tiktok should be banned. I therefore suspect that the issue is more emotional than rational in nature.
Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock
#69Where 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?
Because the Chinese cyber threat is incredibly real. The United States should be playing hard ball. The US TikTok systems are compromised by Chinese spammers already.
> Because the Chinese cyber threat is incredibly real.
Comment like this lumps tiktok, a privately owned company with the Chinese government with no evidence. It's never about national security but really about US politicians seeing a social network with real reach in the US that for the first time does NOT need to pay to lobby in the US, nor to be responsive to congressional inquiry (as they have been able to do recently with US tech platforms, accusing platforms of suppressing conservative/liberal views, again without evidence).
If you know anything about bytedance's founder you would know that he's been an outspoken globalist, criticizing the government's approach to free flow of information on multiple accounts. Uninformed comments like this is truly tragic for many globalist people in China who grew up hoping for a global stage with open, fair competition and who often do not agree with the government's perspective.
Re: TikTok and Microsoft’s Clock
#70Beside all the political issues, what is Microsoft actually supposedly buying here? The data centre, data and access to it? Because it does not seem to me that they are buying any of the developers, am I right? At least there is no talk about that. How well can you run a platform by buying its software without any of the people that run it, at least from my developer point of view that seems a very strange idea. Basically, they will have to understand and rewrite the entire thing within a few months with whatever own developers they can provide. Without any major hickups, or users will leave the platform in seconds, its not like there are no competitors or the underlying technology is complicated. Its just that everyone is used to the platforms but if that changes ...
Anyways, an insteresting case study for platform theory ...