TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the U.S., four sources said.
The US government and US corporate media are trying to convince us that foreign powers are undermining our democracy by putting foreign ideas in our heads through social media. But in reality 1) there is no democracy and 2) our government and corporate media have been putting ideas in our heads our entire lives. What they’re really worried about is losing control of the public discourse.
I think there’s a zero chance China would allow the sale. Imagine the precedent giving into such mob tactics would set. US could just go after any successful Chinese company doing business in US and demand that it’s sold off to American oligarchs.
Exactly, this asset is worth nothing to the CPP if sold.
If it was a fully private company which is supposed to make money, they would sell it and move on to invest their money somewhere else.
Regulating the market is important and is not done enough in the US, last time was decades ago with AT&T and Standard Oil. Today they should have broken up Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. To prevent monopolies but they don’t.
But yeah, politically it’s much easier to go after a Chinese company.
[Singaporean CEO Shou] Chew added that 60% of ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors such as the Carlyle Group, General Atlantic and Susquehanna International Group, while 20% of the firm is owned by Zhang and 20% owned by employees around the world. Three of the company’s five board members are Americans, he said.
The first would be to block any financial institution in the US, or that deals with the US, from sending any payments to or from ByteDance’s accounts.
They could also freeze any assets currently held by US financial institutions.
Second, if they can get Apple, Microsoft, and Google on board to help do their bidding, they could pull the ByteDance app from the Apple and Google Play app stores.
That includes removing it from any apps where it’s already installed. Globally.
They could also request that TikTok is removed from Google and Bing search results.
On top of this, they could do what you suggested, and ask ISPs and mobile carriers to block domains and IP addresses used by ByteDance.
And the US could apply diplomatic pressure on other countries to implement similar financial and ISP-level blocks and bans.
So, potentially, it’s also blocked in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and elsewhere.
ByteDance has 270 days (+90 days at president discretion) to divest of TikTok and sell to an entity not affiliated with an “adversary country” (China, Iran, Russia, N. Korea).
If they don’t sell, hosting providers of TikTok application (servers, storage, app store, etc) will be fined up to $500 times the number of users in the US if they continue to host the application
ISPs are explicitly excluded from the bill, and not considered data brokers, which is what the restrictions apply to.
So basically, the law will not require ISPs to block access to TikTok domains and IP addresses. Google search results are also explicitly excluded from the term data broker, and exempt from the restrictions. The only requirement is for app stores to stop hosting the application, so existing installations of the app (after January 2025 assuming ByteDance doesn’t sell) will presumably persist and can be used, even if TikTok is banned.
They have the app stores ban it from being downloaded if you are in the USA. This is already done, and app stores aren’t affected by on device VPNs, so it wouldn’t be that easy to get around.
For example, you can’t download this app since (I’m guessing) you live in the USA, similar enough. It’s geolocked. Same will happen with Tiktok.
I don’t actually have any qualms with that. Power to the people!
In reality though there a planned executive order to forcing Know Your Customer rules on all US web hosts and Internet architecture, so if you’re planning on hosting a fediverse server in the US, the US government will need to know your identity.
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This is purely about subversive influence on the vulnerable and easily influenced people who use the platform, not about money.
What will they influence American youths to do? Not support genocide?
“subversive influence” 😂
Laugh all you like. I’m not some McCarthy-era anti-commie witch Hunter.
I do however recognise the determination of both China and Russia (neither communist) to undermine whatever foundations are left of US democracy.
The US was never meant to be a democracy and has never been one. It was born of a bourgeois revolution, and the Founding Fathers formed a bourgeois democracy, which was never meant to represent us, and never has. Princeton University Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy
The US government and US corporate media are trying to convince us that foreign powers are undermining our democracy by putting foreign ideas in our heads through social media. But in reality 1) there is no democracy and 2) our government and corporate media have been putting ideas in our heads our entire lives. What they’re really worried about is losing control of the public discourse.
As I’ve said elsewhere in this post, the BlueAnon conspiracy theories of Russian/Chinese bots significantly influencing our elections don’t hold water. Chris Hedges: Why Russiagate Won’t Go Away
Interesting. I’ll have a look at those, thanks.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Noam Chomsky - The 5 Filters of the Mass Media Machine
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Please, PLEASE, let this be the case.
I think there’s a zero chance China would allow the sale. Imagine the precedent giving into such mob tactics would set. US could just go after any successful Chinese company doing business in US and demand that it’s sold off to American oligarchs.
Exactly, this asset is worth nothing to the CPP if sold.
If it was a fully private company which is supposed to make money, they would sell it and move on to invest their money somewhere else.
Regulating the market is important and is not done enough in the US, last time was decades ago with AT&T and Standard Oil. Today they should have broken up Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. To prevent monopolies but they don’t.
But yeah, politically it’s much easier to go after a Chinese company.
TikTok is worth approximately nothing to the CPC either way. It’s not like the Chinese state is hurting for money. They have a surplus of US dollars that they’re busy unloading, and they have fiat monetary sovereignty of their own currency. The app is banned in China, so nobody there is going to miss it. Who is invested in ByteDance that might care? American private equity: ByteDance’s US investors weigh options as bill to ban TikTok advances
You’re missing my point that it’s not money the CCP is after but influence and power abroad. They already have absolute power at home.
Your ghost is silly.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
fiat monetary sovereignty of their own currency
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
China is not keeping tiktok for money.
That’s what I’m saying.
They are not giving up the algorithm, simple as that.
I’m still confused on how they enforce this
I’d assume they’ll tell ISPs to block TikTok’s domains/IPs. It won’t stop determined people but it’s realistically the best they can do.
@LostXOR @yogthos @NoIWontPickAName @technology There’s a few other steps they could potentially take.
The first would be to block any financial institution in the US, or that deals with the US, from sending any payments to or from ByteDance’s accounts.
They could also freeze any assets currently held by US financial institutions.
Second, if they can get Apple, Microsoft, and Google on board to help do their bidding, they could pull the ByteDance app from the Apple and Google Play app stores.
That includes removing it from any apps where it’s already installed. Globally.
They could also request that TikTok is removed from Google and Bing search results.
On top of this, they could do what you suggested, and ask ISPs and mobile carriers to block domains and IP addresses used by ByteDance.
And the US could apply diplomatic pressure on other countries to implement similar financial and ISP-level blocks and bans.
So, potentially, it’s also blocked in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and elsewhere.
No need to guess, it’s all outlined in the bill:
So basically, the law will not require ISPs to block access to TikTok domains and IP addresses. Google search results are also explicitly excluded from the term data broker, and exempt from the restrictions. The only requirement is for app stores to stop hosting the application, so existing installations of the app (after January 2025 assuming ByteDance doesn’t sell) will presumably persist and can be used, even if TikTok is banned.
Making any major social media service mildly inconvenient will kill it.
They have the app stores ban it from being downloaded if you are in the USA. This is already done, and app stores aren’t affected by on device VPNs, so it wouldn’t be that easy to get around.
For example, you can’t download this app since (I’m guessing) you live in the USA, similar enough. It’s geolocked. Same will happen with Tiktok.
Somebody’s gonna make a federated TikTok, aren’t they? We’re gonna have TikTokers flooding the Fediverse. We’re so fucked.
https://loops.video/
Well there’s PeerTube and PixelFed. Perhaps a few will try it, but mostly I think they”ll go to other corporate American platforms like Instagram.
I figured most would just go to YouTube shorts
I don’t actually have any qualms with that. Power to the people!
In reality though there a planned executive order to forcing Know Your Customer rules on all US web hosts and Internet architecture, so if you’re planning on hosting a fediverse server in the US, the US government will need to know your identity.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/01/29/2024-01580/taking-additional-steps-to-address-the-national-emergency-with-respect-to-significant-malicious
land of the free btw
Video support could be a “killer app” on threads to embrace and extinguish the fediverse.
@crispyflagstones @yogthos Someone is named @dansup who also created @pixelfed, the app is called Loops, you can follow his progress here: @loops
That should happen regardless. The main issue with tiktok is not the concept, it’s the recommendation algorithm and the agenda behind it.
If that becomes the case and you don’t want to see it, block it. Easy enough.