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Bytedance is incorporated in the Cayman Island, its not a Chinese company. It has a subsidiary in Hong Kong that operates the Chinese business. Its this portion

by russli1993 6y ago

Bytedance is incorporated in the Cayman Island, its not a Chinese company. It has a subsidiary in Hong Kong that operates the Chinese business. Its this portion of the business that has to adhere to Chinese laws. The rest of the company, including the US subsidiary is not under the jurisdiction of Chinese laws, and the US subsidiary fully owns TikTok. The data storage and content moderation are all handled by US employees. If the parent company or Chinese government is forcing US employees to censor based on Chinese government demands or steal US data, I am pretty sure US employees would have said something by now. Instead, they seem to proud of the security work they have done. I have seen a lot of anti-China videos on TikTok. The US subsidiary of Bytedance that operates TikTok is subjected to US jurisdiction and US laws. US government has equal amount of control over it compared to Facebook. TikTok was sued and fined before for breaking under age related laws. Bytedance's CEO is Zhang yiming, is a Chinese national. And its board has one Chinese national and three non-Chinese nationals. It's owned by a number of international investors, these investors likely have a say in the company as well. These people would not have built a company with Chinese government DNA. Zhang yiming himself has criticized the government in the past. Although he has toed with Chinese government lines in China because he has to. But he personally admires the US and its political culture. The management is also saying they are moving HQ to other countries. I think given the management's mindset, they really want to deal as little with the Chinese government as possible. Working on behalf of the government, nah, its not their mindset. To be honest, it might be even smart for the US government to lure Bytedance management, get them to declare they support liberalism and American values and use Bytedance to spread American values to China. Instead, US gov's action to force a sale is basically extortion and coercion. And having government take a huge chuck of the transaction is stealing personal property. It goes against all that US stands for, rule of law, justice, protection of private property. There are a lot of people in China loves the US and American values like the above, in turn they emigrate to the US and hate Chinese government. That image has definitely being broken a bit by all of this.

coliveira 6y ago
There is no point in showing facts, people here are operating under Trump's misinformation spell. They think china is in every corner trying to steal their data (of course Facebook has already done this first, but who cares).
- kube-system 6y ago
  You misunderstand the concern. The US government is concerned about national security interests, not personal privacy interests. You may also note [0] that Facebook (and Twitter, and YouTube) has been the subject of similar concerns by the US government. [0]: https://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-targets-social-media-companies-for-circulating-chinese-propaganda/ https://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-targets-so... > They think china is in every corner trying to steal their data Because they factually are. But as some people misunderstand, they're not interested in your grandma's recipes or your mom's credit card number -- they're amassing data that is a gold mine for targeted military intelligence operations. https://www.wired.com/story/china-equifax-anthem-marriott-opm-hacks-data/ https://www.wired.com/story/china-equifax-anthem-marriott-op...
kube-system 6y ago
> Bytedance is incorporated in the Cayman Island, its not a Chinese company. It has a subsidiary in Hong Kong that operates the Chinese business. The location of incorporation bears no relevance on the control on the people and property within the physical jurisdiction of a country. Bytedance's physical headquarters is in Beijing. > Bytedance's CEO is Zhang yiming, is a Chinese national. And its board has one Chinese national and three non-Chinese nationals. It's owned by a number of international investors, these investors likely have a say in the company as well. These people would not have built a company with Chinese government DNA. Zhang yiming himself has criticized the government in the past. Although he has toed with Chinese government lines in China because he has to. But he personally admires the US and its political culture. The management is also saying they are moving HQ to other countries. I think given the management's mindset, they really want to deal as little with the Chinese government as possible Then it should be clear how much power the CCP has over them, when he says things like this: > in April 2018 the government compelled ByteDance to shut down its popular “Neihan Duanzi” (“inside jokes”) app for good due to its “vulgar” content. In response, Zhang issued a letter of self-criticism where he said, “Our product took the wrong path, and content appeared that was incommensurate with socialist core values.” He also promised that the firm would in the future “Further deepen cooperation with authoritative [official party] media, elevating distribution of authoritative media content, ensuring that authoritative [official party] media voices are broadcast to strength.” [0] [0]: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/16/bytedance-cant-outrun-beijings-shadow/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/16/bytedance-cant-outrun-b... Bear in mind here, I am simply listing reasons why the US government would be marginally concerned about ByteDance in comparison to domestic social media, not defending the mechanisms by which this current administration is handling things.
vacuum04 6y ago
You are so naive. Just like how naive Hongkongnese was 23 years ago. "One country, two system" was bait. Huawei and tiktok were also baits. Now they seems harmless. But will be not when they show their true color.

coliveira 6y ago

There is no point in showing facts, people here are operating under Trump's misinformation spell. They think china is in every corner trying to steal their data (of course Facebook has already done this first, but who cares).

kube-system 6y ago
You misunderstand the concern. The US government is concerned about national security interests, not personal privacy interests. You may also note [0] that Facebook (and Twitter, and YouTube) has been the subject of similar concerns by the US government. [0]: https://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-targets-social-media-companies-for-circulating-chinese-propaganda/ https://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-targets-so... > They think china is in every corner trying to steal their data Because they factually are. But as some people misunderstand, they're not interested in your grandma's recipes or your mom's credit card number -- they're amassing data that is a gold mine for targeted military intelligence operations. https://www.wired.com/story/china-equifax-anthem-marriott-opm-hacks-data/ https://www.wired.com/story/china-equifax-anthem-marriott-op...

kube-system 6y ago

> Bytedance is incorporated in the Cayman Island, its not a Chinese company. It has a subsidiary in Hong Kong that operates the Chinese business. The location of incorporation bears no relevance on the control on the people and property within the physical jurisdiction of a country. Bytedance's physical headquarters is in Beijing. > Bytedance's CEO is Zhang yiming, is a Chinese national. And its board has one Chinese national and three non-Chinese nationals. It's owned by a number of international investors, these investors likely have a say in the company as well. These people would not have built a company with Chinese government DNA. Zhang yiming himself has criticized the government in the past. Although he has toed with Chinese government lines in China because he has to. But he personally admires the US and its political culture. The management is also saying they are moving HQ to other countries. I think given the management's mindset, they really want to deal as little with the Chinese government as possible Then it should be clear how much power the CCP has over them, when he says things like this: > in April 2018 the government compelled ByteDance to shut down its popular “Neihan Duanzi” (“inside jokes”) app for good due to its “vulgar” content. In response, Zhang issued a letter of self-criticism where he said, “Our product took the wrong path, and content appeared that was incommensurate with socialist core values.” He also promised that the firm would in the future “Further deepen cooperation with authoritative [official party] media, elevating distribution of authoritative media content, ensuring that authoritative [official party] media voices are broadcast to strength.” [0] [0]: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/16/bytedance-cant-outrun-beijings-shadow/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/16/bytedance-cant-outrun-b... Bear in mind here, I am simply listing reasons why the US government would be marginally concerned about ByteDance in comparison to domestic social media, not defending the mechanisms by which this current administration is handling things.

vacuum04 6y ago

You are so naive. Just like how naive Hongkongnese was 23 years ago. "One country, two system" was bait. Huawei and tiktok were also baits. Now they seems harmless. But will be not when they show their true color.