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I wonder how much ByteDance got from the incoming administration to pull that stunt. Super shady. "We voluntarily shut down our service in your country (er, I
by amatecha 2y ago
I wonder how much ByteDance got from the incoming administration to pull that stunt. Super shady. "We voluntarily shut down our service in your country (er, I mean, we HAD TO, for real!) but don't worry, a true hero is soon arriving to save the day!"
- elfbargpt 2y agoThere are much bigger factors at play than a few billion dollars
- amatecha 2y agoWord, I imagine there are all kinds of shenanigans at play, I'm just not spending that much effort thinking about it. We'll never know the complete story on any of this stuff. Maybe in tens of years, if ever.
- gitaarik 2y agoYou mean more money? Because in the end it's always about money. Well about power really, but money is the main means to get that.
- johnnyanmac 2y agoDefinitely power... bought by billionaires. A few government officials outright said they want to be able to control the narrative.
- bryanrasmussen 2y agoprobably not for the guy who gets the few billion dollars.
- elfbargpt 2y agoHaha fair. But I don't think any company should be strong-armed by another nation into selling. Meta would never be allowed to sell their "Chinese arm" to a domestic Chinese entity...part of the reason there isn't one
- wavefunction 2y agoThe Chinese don't really use facebook in the first place do they though? And facebook's utility to China is the same as TikTok's, just less direct: manipulating Americans and other non-Chinese users of Facebook. It seems like people want to be manipulated though.
- mantas 2y agoSome people just hate their own government so much, they think any other government would be better. Including the known bad guys of the era. Usually this does not work out that well. Point in case - Central Europe after WWII. Chinese astroturfing is a thing too, but in many cases it is legit naive people.
- UltraSane 2y ago"Some people just hate their own government so much, they think any other government would be better. Including the known bad guys of the era." Yep. I call it "Chomskyism"
- wavefunction 2y agoi don't understand your point if there is one
- bryananderson 2y agoWhat about the principle of reciprocity? China doesn’t allow US social media companies to operate there—why should the US unilaterally allow Chinese social media companies to operate here with no reciprocity? Continuing to play cooperate over and over when the other player keeps playing defect is not smart.
- pydry 2y agoDoes China have a first amendment restricting the abrdigment of all press and ? Was there are special carve out in the American first amendment for issues of reciprocity or for foreign media? No. My biggest fear isnt China or Russia (like Im told it should be) but becoming like China and Russia. It's happening faster every day. When the first and the fourth amendments are shredded then Putin and Xi Jinping get to say, with increasing truthfulness, "America is no better than us".
- cyanydeez 2y agoYes, but really, not much more than what a cult leader will demand for access.
- japanification 2y agoThis message about Trump saving TikTok is just wishful thinking from TikTok. 1.) It's pointless, TikTok is officially banned in US. Even if trump decides to find a US buyer for it, it will go under strict ownership investigation. So there's no way Chinese government has any influence anymore. 2.) This means that any future Chinese apps that get popular will get banned, and no need to go through any court challenges since there's precedent and law 3.) A lot of people already left TikTok and will not come back - why would they when they know the app could be gone at any minute? The traffic from the original TikTok will just keep getting split and syphoned, until the magnificent seven claims most of it
- _heimdall 2y agoThat was my first thought as well, but do you have any reason to say it's wishful thinking rather than the result of a conversation with Trump's team?
- zdw 2y agoI read the message as more as being an ego stroke to someone that everyone else is ego stroking right now - seeing as Trump has a lot of influence over people further down in his party's org chart, there might be enough reason. Trying to argue about legality is unlikely to hold much sway given how other legal issues ended.
- ajmurmann 2y agoI think 3 is a weak point. I've left multiple social media platforms several times and got sucked back in days or months later. That was when I was actively trying to not use them. Edit: I think all it needs is a link from a friend to some TikTok content and they are back in.
- pjc50 2y agoOther way round: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/jeff-yass-billionaire-donor-investments-tiktoks-parent-company-rcna142531 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/jeff-yass-billionaire... Yass has paid in tens of millions of dollars, he's going to call that in to get an unban. I really don't know which way to bet on this though. The Trump presidency is going to be consistently unpredictable.
- amatecha 2y agoYeah I was thinking that too! Plus the "look how we made you look like the hero" aspect. Shady stuff all around.
- criddell 2y ago> the “look how we made you look like the hero” aspect They know exactly what they are doing. That message is going to be effective and the person it’s targeted at doesn’t understand that it can be spun any way the CCP wants to spin it. How does he not see how risky letting a foreign government run something like TikTok in the US?
- addandsubtract 2y agoDecisions will be consistently made in favor of the highest bidder.
- likeabatterycar 2y agoCam you detail exactly what conspiracy you are alleging without evidence? This is the corporate version of "he quit before they could fire him".
- redeux 2y agoThere's plenty of evidence, it's just circumstantial - but that doesn't make it any less obvious that there is something going on between TikTok and DT.
- mikae1 2y agoThey probably got promises saying that they could continue to operate if they agreed to this Trump marketing campaign. That's enough?
- Applejinx 2y agoIn which case, the question is: what were other Republicans told that they didn't sign off on this plan? It seems quite a bit like a coordinated arrangement between China and ONE guy who was running for office. Since he was running as a Republican, why are they not also signing off on all this? Why is the completely Trump-friendly Supreme Court not signing off on all this?
- rbanffy 2y agoI’m sure they expect the issue to be resolved by paying the incoming president.
- joenot443 2y agoThat's a lot of confidence, you must know something I don't. I'm but a bystander Canadian without much of a dog in this race, but it's a pretty serious allegation to suggest that tomorrow's World's Most Powerful Man is on the ByteDance/TikTok payroll. Are you able to expand a bit?
- namaria 2y agoYou wanna play coy about the guy who shot beans commercials in the oval office?
- joenot443 2y agoI think on HN it's easier to just be clear about what we're positing; I'm not really sure what you mean by playing coy. Do you think Trump's being paid by ByteDance to lift the ban?
- choult 2y agoTrump has displayed a disturbing pattern of changing his opinions and actions after meeting with monied or powerful people who have vested interest in said change. Often this is accompanied by a public message of flattery or a donation to his "political" coffers.
- joenot443 2y agoTotally agree on that, public flattery's a very common tribute in international politics. So I'll ask again, are we of the opinion that Trump is being paid by actors, foreign or domestic, to enact change here?
- Havoc 2y agoThey have literally nothing to lose so stunt is relative.
- baobabKoodaa 2y agoThere's still some cost to shutting down now like this.
- icedrift 2y agoExactly. It's in their best interest to offer the incumbent a free political win
- dylan604 2y agoWhat? The incumbent is on his way out, and it is the incoming guy that has the opportunity for the win by bringing it back afternoon tomorrow (Jan 20th). This is eerily similar to the Carter/Regan hostages situation
- teknologist 2y agoProbably nothing. That was their last hope...
- valdiorn 2y agoI mean, if I was bytedance I would do that free of charge to make the outgoing administration look like muppets :)
- IAmGraydon 2y agoBytedance didn’t get anything. They likely posted this message without Trump’s knowledge to create social pressure on him by setting up an expectation. It’s a manipulation technique, which is exactly why this app needs to go away.
- japanification 2y agoExactly, Bytedance/Chinese government wants Trump to look bad, if TikTok stays dark. Nevermind that Trump was the one that tried to ban TikTok in the first place. And never mind that everyone from house to senate to Biden to Supreme Court voted to ban TikTok. And never mind that the majority of users on TikTok are far left woke democrats.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tzs 2y agoThe Supreme Court did not vote to ban TikTok. They voted that Congress had the power to do so.
- kryogen1c 2y ago> ByteDance got from the incoming administration Why do you assume conspiracy instead of unilateral political maneuvering?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- grajaganDev 2y agoUnilateral political maneuvering is not a thing.
- jagged-chisel 2y agoBut you repeat yourself
- mustyoshi 2y agoWhat do you mean voluntarily? The SC upheld the law.
- drawkward 2y agoThey didnt have to shut down the app.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2y agoThe law does not disallow Americans from accessing this service. It only disallows Apple and Google from distributing the app on their stores. This shutdown of the service is a publicity stunt.
- crazygringo 2y agoAnd it's ironic because this is a perfect example of what the law is intended to prevent -- a Chinese-owned company boosting Trump in front of a hundred million Americans. If that's not foreign influence, I don't know what is.