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Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

theguardian.com

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Re: Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

#91

Post by fib11235 »

bix6 wrote: post #87
bgwalter wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UAE was engaged in crypto dealings instead: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/trump-uae-chi... "Earlier this year, World Liberty, the crypto firm run by the Trumps and Witkoffs, announced an agreement with an investment firm backed by the ruling family of the U.A.E. The Emirati firm would conduct a $2 billion transaction using World Liberty’s digital coins, a deal that would provide a windfall to the Tru…

What does the UAE get out of this? Is it just a massive financial loss in exchange for US market access?

One of NYT's recent podcasts (The Daily) covered this, basically the Biden administration was reluctant to give the UAE access to Nvidia chips because of their close dealings with China. 2 weeks after this crypto investment, the white house agrees to give the UAE access to the chips.

Here's an article if you're interested: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/trump-uae-chi...

Re: Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

#92

Post by jfengel »

FridayoLeary wrote: post #21
consp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You replace china with a directorate with a (possibly different) propaganda goal. Don't know if that will be any better, safer or less evil.

Exactly my point. Hypothetically, even if the level of propoganda stays the same, at least it will be promoting western interests that may be harmful to us or may not. With Chinese propoganda you can be fairly certain their interests are in strengthening their own position and weakening ours. Anyway the western propoganda machine to the extent it exists is far more fragmented and weaker then the Chinese. In short i t…

I'm not sure I trust the American propaganda machine more than the Chinese one, not any more. Social media has become increasingly hostile, and there are hints that it's becoming violent. Some of these are foreign adversaries, but many of them are home-grown. They might exacerbate it but we seem to be doing it to ourselves just fine.

Not that the Chinese would be better. But I'm not sure if they'd actually make it worse.

Re: Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

#93

Post by tdeck »

bgwalter wrote: post #41
shihab wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was government of qatar, this is Abu Dhabi (UAE). They had a diplomatic crisis, with full-scale blockade not so long ago.

UAE was engaged in crypto dealings instead: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/trump-uae-chi... "Earlier this year, World Liberty, the crypto firm run by the Trumps and Witkoffs, announced an agreement with an investment firm backed by the ruling family of the U.A.E. The Emirati firm would conduct a $2 billion transaction using World Liberty’s digital coins, a deal that would provide a windfall to the Tru…

I wish there were some clause in the US constitution that broadly and expressly prohibited this kind of thing.

Re: Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

#94

Post by throwacct »

paxys wrote: post #74

The biggest benefactor here is Meta. There's no way TikTok will remain a dominant social platform in the US amidst all the political meddling and so many high profile investors with competing interests. This is likely also why Meta announced that they are overhauling Instagram to make Reels and recommendations the default experience - https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/instagram-overhaul-app-num... . Just as with Thre…

Well, TikTok is and will still be the dominant force in that area, and I don't think Instagram will win this time. For photos? Instagram is still the king of the hill. For video consumption? TikTok is the king.

Re: Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

#95

Post by tdeck »

razster wrote: post #27
loopdoend wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a tool to control people they don't want to shut it down.

I only use TT for my 3D modeling, Blender3D tricks and motion graphics. I have all political options disabled and have blocked all news. So far not a single political ideology has popped up on my fyp. Ads are also 0. Enjoying it so far. Fine tuned for my needs.

I only use YouTube in a mobile browser with uBlock Origin turned on, so I never see any ads. Highly recommended by the way. Clearly YouTube is a terrible business model and has zero revenue potential.

Re: Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

#96

Post by tdeck »

belter wrote: post #88
bamboozled wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could be spending all this effort on curing diseases...how stupid we can be.

Larry Ellison is the richest person on Earth, and that tells you everything you need to know about the world, and Peter Thiel AntiChrist concerns...

Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison.

Re: Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

#97

Post by xnx »

karaterobot wrote: post #36

The ideal scenario isn't the government forcing a sale of TikTok for political reasons. The ideal is that people stop using TikTok because they realize it's not good for them, but I guess I don't see that happening. Instead we'll just continue scrolling while wondering why we're so unhappy and angry all the time.

> The ideal is that people stop using ______

Fill in the blank with whatever you find personally disagreeable: TikTok, alcohol, sports gambling, hallucinogens, video games, cigars, sugary foods, etc.

Re: Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

#98

Post by atmavatar »

tdeck wrote: post #96
belter wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Larry Ellison is the richest person on Earth, and that tells you everything you need to know about the world, and Peter Thiel AntiChrist concerns...

Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison.

Correction: richest lawnmower

Re: Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

#99

Post by ceejayoz »

bix6 wrote: post #87
bgwalter wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UAE was engaged in crypto dealings instead: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/us/politics/trump-uae-chi... "Earlier this year, World Liberty, the crypto firm run by the Trumps and Witkoffs, announced an agreement with an investment firm backed by the ruling family of the U.A.E. The Emirati firm would conduct a $2 billion transaction using World Liberty’s digital coins, a deal that would provide a windfall to the Tru…

What does the UAE get out of this? Is it just a massive financial loss in exchange for US market access?

> What does the UAE get out of this?

What does the UAE gain by funneling $2B to Trump, who is notoriously a) transactional and b) one of the most powerful people on the planet?

Re: Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US

#100

Post by [deleted] »

FridayoLeary wrote: post #34
Calavar wrote: post #15

The Gulf States are seeing absolutely excellent ROI for the 1b they pooled together for a 747.

OT but i think the 747 story deserves a bit more nuance. First of all to be clear i'm dismayed by the idea. It's not great optics that Trump wants to keep the plane (library force one?) . Even accepting it in the first place is also odd. Add to that, using it as Air Force One seems to be impractical. BUT, there is precedent for this move. They gifted an even more expensive plane to Erdogan. From what i understand the…

[deleted]
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