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White House in talks to have Oracle, US investors take over TikTok, NPR reports

40 points by cdme 2y ago

amanaplanacanal 2y ago
A few weeks ago China would rather shut it down than relinquish control. I wonder what they are being offered now to change their minds?
- suraci 2y ago
  > China would rather shut it down than relinquish control That's what I meant when I said 'Americans see Chinese as NPCs' Chinese gov only forbidden ByteDance to export(sell) its algorithm, and pressure it due to nationalism You guys say this like ByteDance is a department of CPC, it's not work like this And, sincerely, Americans do need to think about what changed that made TikTok no longer a 'national security threat' now 12h ealier, it's a national security threat with votes by Democrats and Republicans, 12h later, it's just fine. what changed?
  - archerx 2y ago
    They added a lot of censorship because there was too much wrong think happening there.
- recursivecaveat 2y ago
  I don't know how much can be inferred from that VS brinkmanship. The louder and longer you protest that you are happy to pack up and leave, the higher the price to get you to stay.
- maxglute 2y ago
  >ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle A reasonable JV arrangement (like what PRC offers US platforms) - Trump wants TikTok US to be 50% US owned. 50% US owned =/= 0% PRC owned, which was what Biden and other PRC hawks previously wanted - to basically denationalize a PRC company from PRC. Which frankly was retarded tier hubris that only US lawmakers makers high on American exceptionalism can make, and delulu Americans think is reasonable. That was never going to fly geopolitically because PRC would never let US normalize that kind of leverage - it's not about relinquishing control. PRC perfectly happy for US to censor the shit out of US TikTok because it only validates their internet model. Trump as bad as business man as he is just made a not utterly stupid deal. US gets 50% with golden shares to turn TikTok into domestic US propaganda machine like other US platforms (same deal PRC offers to western platforms), PRC/Douyin gets whatever they currnetly have - it's still going to be fundamentally a PRC run company with local US office doing the filtering (censorship) and day to day in US market, despite eventual US propaganda that TikTok got "sold" to US - it's just under US version of PRC JV arrangement.
  - SR2Z 2y ago
    > That was never going to fly geopolitically because PRC would never let US normalize that kind of leverage Yes and the US knew that. The goal was to ban TikTok.
9283409232 2y ago
Sounds like a nightmare when you consider this story on the frontpage https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42825097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42825097
- scojjac 2y ago
  Exactly my thoughts. Ellison and Oracle are surveillance-friendly (after all, it's kind of in the name). Oracle has a history of of privacy violations. This deal, coupled with the new AI data center in Abilene and their past, is ominous.
  - sim7c00 2y ago
    i don't know if its just a historical perspective stuck in my mind, but if iread Oracle i just think about vulnerabilities and handling them really poorly.
cozzyd 2y ago
Has Oracle ever had a consumer-facing product?
- paulpauper 2y ago
  No, but it was a suitable candidate: Under the deal being negotiated by the White House, TikTok's China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok's Web infrastructure, one of the sources told Reuters
- xeonmc 2y ago
  Do lawnmowers count?
MortyWaves 2y ago
I legitimately can't think of worse companies for this than Oracle or IBM. Words absolutely fail me.
- hulitu 2y ago
  Facebook ? (see Cambridge Analytica) /s
suraci 2y ago
Is it still necessary? From what I know, the Ministry of Truth has already made its way to TikTok. Users cannot post content like 'Free Palestine' anymore TikTok is behaving much more properly now.
- kelseyfrog 2y ago
  The consent will be manufactured.
spacechild1 2y ago
Yeah, let's give Larry Ellison control over TikTok. What could possibly go wrong?
RadiozRadioz 2y ago
Personally I find the concept of Oracle TikTok hilarious. I would love for them to make it all corporate and Oracle-chic. Imagining light-theme TikTok, Arial font, loading spinners, clunky page refresh when you load the next video, big ol' "contact sales" button permanently in the corner, inconsistent theme between pages, and oh my the frequently-updating terms of service. Just thinking about it makes me chuckle.
have-a-break 2y ago
Given my experience with TikTok, it matches the concept of "Oracle". Would make more sense to have the American Zoos take over ownership of TikTok.

40 points by cdme 2y ago

A few weeks ago China would rather shut it down than relinquish control. I wonder what they are being offered now to change their minds?

suraci 2y ago
> China would rather shut it down than relinquish control That's what I meant when I said 'Americans see Chinese as NPCs' Chinese gov only forbidden ByteDance to export(sell) its algorithm, and pressure it due to nationalism You guys say this like ByteDance is a department of CPC, it's not work like this And, sincerely, Americans do need to think about what changed that made TikTok no longer a 'national security threat' now 12h ealier, it's a national security threat with votes by Democrats and Republicans, 12h later, it's just fine. what changed?
- archerx 2y ago
  They added a lot of censorship because there was too much wrong think happening there.
recursivecaveat 2y ago
I don't know how much can be inferred from that VS brinkmanship. The louder and longer you protest that you are happy to pack up and leave, the higher the price to get you to stay.
maxglute 2y ago
>ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle A reasonable JV arrangement (like what PRC offers US platforms) - Trump wants TikTok US to be 50% US owned. 50% US owned =/= 0% PRC owned, which was what Biden and other PRC hawks previously wanted - to basically denationalize a PRC company from PRC. Which frankly was retarded tier hubris that only US lawmakers makers high on American exceptionalism can make, and delulu Americans think is reasonable. That was never going to fly geopolitically because PRC would never let US normalize that kind of leverage - it's not about relinquishing control. PRC perfectly happy for US to censor the shit out of US TikTok because it only validates their internet model. Trump as bad as business man as he is just made a not utterly stupid deal. US gets 50% with golden shares to turn TikTok into domestic US propaganda machine like other US platforms (same deal PRC offers to western platforms), PRC/Douyin gets whatever they currnetly have - it's still going to be fundamentally a PRC run company with local US office doing the filtering (censorship) and day to day in US market, despite eventual US propaganda that TikTok got "sold" to US - it's just under US version of PRC JV arrangement.
- SR2Z 2y ago
  > That was never going to fly geopolitically because PRC would never let US normalize that kind of leverage Yes and the US knew that. The goal was to ban TikTok.

9283409232 2y ago

Sounds like a nightmare when you consider this story on the frontpage https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42825097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42825097

scojjac 2y ago
Exactly my thoughts. Ellison and Oracle are surveillance-friendly (after all, it's kind of in the name). Oracle has a history of of privacy violations. This deal, coupled with the new AI data center in Abilene and their past, is ominous.
- sim7c00 2y ago
  i don't know if its just a historical perspective stuck in my mind, but if iread Oracle i just think about vulnerabilities and handling them really poorly.

cozzyd 2y ago

Has Oracle ever had a consumer-facing product?

paulpauper 2y ago
No, but it was a suitable candidate: Under the deal being negotiated by the White House, TikTok's China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok's Web infrastructure, one of the sources told Reuters
xeonmc 2y ago
Do lawnmowers count?

MortyWaves 2y ago

I legitimately can't think of worse companies for this than Oracle or IBM. Words absolutely fail me.

hulitu 2y ago
Facebook ? (see Cambridge Analytica) /s

suraci 2y ago

Is it still necessary? From what I know, the Ministry of Truth has already made its way to TikTok. Users cannot post content like 'Free Palestine' anymore TikTok is behaving much more properly now.

kelseyfrog 2y ago
The consent will be manufactured.

spacechild1 2y ago

Yeah, let's give Larry Ellison control over TikTok. What could possibly go wrong?

RadiozRadioz 2y ago

Personally I find the concept of Oracle TikTok hilarious. I would love for them to make it all corporate and Oracle-chic. Imagining light-theme TikTok, Arial font, loading spinners, clunky page refresh when you load the next video, big ol' "contact sales" button permanently in the corner, inconsistent theme between pages, and oh my the frequently-updating terms of service. Just thinking about it makes me chuckle.

have-a-break 2y ago

Given my experience with TikTok, it matches the concept of "Oracle". Would make more sense to have the American Zoos take over ownership of TikTok.