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.
I had heard that the existing TikTok app will shut down in the U.S, with the investment consortium launching a new TikTok US app and re-training the algorithm on U.S. users only. If this is true, it might have the same effect: speedbumps where users have to download a new app and lose all their personalization often lead to massive drops in userbase, as they figure that if they have to start from scratch anyway, they might as well start from scratch doing something else.
Fill in the blank with whatever you find personally disagreeable: TikTok, alcohol, sports gambling, hallucinogens, video games, cigars, sugary foods, etc.
Yeah, it's just benign ads and people having fun. What's all the fuss about?
/s
Is it really a mystery that there's concern about corporate media consolidation and collusion with governments to self-serve their interests over individuals?
I mean, this is beyond naive if you dismiss what's happening and will continue.
what do you think people will do, get off tiktok and go outside to hike? if anything they will just switch to instagram reels there's no good scenario here.
IMO the ideal is incredibly strong data privacy laws such that it does not matter if consumer products are owned by a rich guy in Mountain View or Abu Dhabi.
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 Threads, they saw an opening and are doubling down hard.
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.
You won't believe this next part. We actually did make vaccines for several diseases that were as close to 100% safe as real world possible, and people were voluntarily rejecting it.
Tiktok primarily causes harm and plenty of people voluntarily reject it. What's your point? We shouldn't do good things because sometimes people don't want them?
Even dictators in other countries don't make it so obvious because they're worried their populations would revolt, which says a lot about the American voter today.
None of Tiktok's executives were present, and China has not confirmed the sale. So, I don't think clown's EO means anything. He's living in his own la la land :-)
Before people jump to conclusions, if you look at the details there seems to be a plan for a major profit sharing and licensing agreement with Bytedance. The numbers floated around are that 50% of the profit would go to Bytedance plus.
This would significantly impact its valuation to outside investors.
IIRC previous talk for TikTok US valuations / buyout was ~40B. But Tiktok was at ~20% Bytedance / PRC ownership before and after. US ownership to boost from 60-80%. So not really sure who this is boning more.
It's all a grift. The cynic in me says that if you looked close enough, you'd find some large deposits into Trump coin or World Liberty Finacial shortly before this announcement.
It is so outrageous to value Tiktok USA at $14 billion.
Forget Meta's market cap, does anyone think Zuckerberg wouldn't have paid 20 billion for Tiktok USA ?
Just so corrupt and to even call it a sweetheart deal is outrageous.
I thought it should just be banned in the US. The idea we are basically strong arming a whole nation and stealing a company at a bullshit valuation is completely insane.
The problem with operating this way is it's very easy for the same gun to be used against you when political winds inevitably change. In Bangalore famously, one administration's politicians had bought up all farmland and then announced the new airport location in that area. When they lost the election, the next administration moved the airport after the project had already started to a different inferior location dozens of kilometers away where it stands today mainly to impose losses on their political opponents. This is also why connectivity to the airport is poor to this day.
"Sell to our preferred investors for pennies on the dollar or lose access to the most lucrative market in the world". It's not like TikTok had a choice.
If Larry Ellison overtly censors TikTok, teenagers will leave.
Do I understand that the strategy here is soft power so that teenagers get approved content via the algorithm in the hope that they don't notice? That is a pretty big gamble.
So they are dumping part of that risk on the gulf monarchies like with Twitter. I bet China is already working on a TikTok replacement.
Tiktok is good for what, spying and propagandizing? I can see how all the rulers would want to buy in on that. Probably got some serious large scale magic analysis stuff going on.
It's heartwarming to see the ruling classes coming together for their mutual benefit like this.
How and who is making the decisions about ownership? I'd think they'd have gone for open bidding, or even an IPO. I don't even see why negotiations with the Chinese was needed. There's a law, affirmed by the Supreme Court. The private markets could have handled this just fine. The Biden admin abrogated responsibility here by punting this.
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.
"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 Trump and Witkoff families."
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.
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 they have been trying to sell the plane for a while. It seems even they have trouble affording it's upkeep. Turns out there isn't a huge market for luxury private jumbo jets. From their perspective it's a white elephant. Trump is aware of that.
I heard another explanation that this is a way of putting lateral pressure on boeing. Trump is frustrated with the progress of the new air force one. His current one is aging. It makes sense as it's a typical tactic of his.
I'm not coming to defend it, just to explain some of the rationale behind the decision.
(edit to reply to several comments. First of all air force one is well maintained but it's old already. Parts and repairs become more difficult and the amount of miles left on the airframe can't be too high. Replacement is necessary. As to building a new plane out of spares being faster... Just ask boeing how that's going for them. They even had the fuselages ready and waiting for quite some time. Boeing executives know they will face some actual consequences for murdering the POTUS, which is probably why it's taking so long. It's difficult to build a plane properly when you've gotten rid of everyone who knows how and you've sold half of your factories, some to even more bad faith actors then yourself.)
“Not great optics” is a very generous way to describe it. Maybe they should detail the faults of the current Air Force 1 and explain how it’s failing to enable the president to serve the nation. “Aging” is awfully vague and they service the hell out of those jets, completely rebuilding mechanical parts on an extremely aggressive schedule compared to airlines
> using it as Air Force One seems to be impractical
well... yeah. you'd have to strip it back to bare metal components and start again, wouldn't you? trust in every bit of electronics on the plane would be zero. be faster to build a new 747 out of spare parts.
> Even accepting it in the first place is also odd
illegal.
That's the word you're looking for. The Constitution is absolutely clear on this: POTUS is not allowed to accept foreign gifts without authorization of Congress. To this day, Trump has neither sought nor received Congressional authorization.
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person
holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent
of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any
kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.[5]
And the reason they put that there is the obvious one: this is as corrupt as corrupt gets.
It's extremely clear. As is the cowardice and moral rot of the people in the majority in Congress and the Supreme Court who are supposed to be responsible for upholding the clear meaning of the Constitution.
The gift was to the American people accepted on our behalf by the felon. It is public property that just needs to be declared inoperable when he is out of office so he can't use it illegally.
Is it really a typical tactic of Trump or his administration. They don't come across as 4D chess player, more like make one move and they just tip over the table and say they won the game of checkers.
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 trust the West more then china and even if the gulf might be shrinking, it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.
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.
China has not made my wife's healthcare illegal, my friends' healthcare illegal, spent my tax dollars on genocide, profited from anti-vaccine propaganda, or sponsored weekly mass shootings in my country. The people running this deal and running American social media platforms have done all of those things. I have way more trust in a platform run by China than one run by Zuckerberg or Musk or Ellison.
So why do they want Americans to use TikTok? It's not like they can't live without it, and anyway, they still have Youtube and Instagram short videos, etc. It's also not to show other countries that US is better and not banning foreign apps (like China does for example), since showing a good example won't change what other countries do. Is it because they know it's a more addictive service that they then control and can influence people's minds? Is it for their friends to make money off this split?
