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The lawsuit was initiated by the first Trump administration at the request of the attorneys general of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana,

The lawsuit was initiated by the first Trump administration at the request of the attorneys general of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas. So presumably, it will continue.

lenerdenator 2y ago
Depends on if he's figured out an angle on how to enrich himself or his cronies off of it by now. See: TikTok ban suddenly becoming negotiable after an act of Congress.
- xp84 2y ago
  Don't forget non-monetary 'enrichment,' too. I'm pretty convinced that the reason Trump switched sides on TikTok, after being one of the first to cast (justifiable imho) suspicion on it, simply because he looked around and saw that popular opinion was against the ban, especially among the influential Gen-Z demographic. (Obviously a President caring about popular opinion is a feature and not strictly a bug, but I think it's reasonable that a President should also care whether said popular opinion is ill-informed and wrong when it comes to national security.)
  - moshun 2y ago
    Don’t forget that TikTok praised him personally to every single user and then donated $50K to his inauguration as well as hosting a huge party that cost well over $100k. ByteDance knows better than most how to deal with corrupt governments.
j2kun 2y ago
Trump is nothing if not a flip-flopper when he can get a deal out of it.
- nostromo 2y ago
  It’s literally how negotiation works.
  - myko 2y ago
    This is corruption, not negotiation
scarface_74 2y ago
So was the TikTok ban….
- __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
  We need a name for this tactic. I see it from right-leaning folk all the time. 1. Alter the rules so the thing is under threat 2. Intervene to protect it from the harm you initiated 3. Now you're encumbered by one fewer rule, and you're a known protector of the thing Executive Heist? Tyrant's Gambit? The Ol' Feudal Switcheroo? My local school district did it with school days just this year. On the books they're now "online learning days" but thanks to the largesse of the very people who took them away, we can have them still... as a gift.
  - TheOtherHobbes 2y ago
    When the Mob does it, it's a protection racket. "Nice little monopoly you have there. Oops, look at that one over there, which burned down with no survivors. Be a shame if anything like that happened to you."
  - nonameiguess 2y ago
    It's mafia logic but honestly way more ingrained into large-brained mammal culture than that. "I'll protect you but the main thing I'm protecting you from is myself" is a tactic employed by everything from actual mafias to entirely legal police and military organizations to the dominant male chimp in a troop. It's easy to see from a detached view how stupid it is, but how do we combat something so fundamental to our animal drives that it predates the existence of our own species?
    - __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
      I'm after something a bit more specific than that though. Threats feed into changes in the status quo in myriad ways and not all of them involve this kind of flip flop where you time the switching of sides such that you get to be seen as the one saving the day (nevermind that it's from yourself several years ago).
matwood 2y ago
They were not showering him with money during his first administration. It's pretty clear this will go away assuming they pay Trump enough.
unclebucknasty 2y ago
>Arkansas, Florida... All red states. >So presumably, it will continue. You might be missing the lede here. It's not about the power, but who wields it. Twitter was an enemy, until it became X. TikTok was an enemy, until it showed fealty. The idea that such a billionaire-friendly administration has an issue with Big Tech or any other monopoly is a ruse. When these entities are brought to heel and their power duly co-opted, they'll be treated with favor. In fact, these lawsuits are but one more tactic to ensure that outcome.
safety1st 2y ago
It is pretty wild (in the dumbest, lowest information way) that the entirety of Hacker News seems convinced that Trump will drop a lawsuit that Trump initiated in his first term. Matt Stoller is probably the most recognizable name in anti-trust journalism, he is certainly no Trump fan, but he is not this negative. The Trump admin just opened up its first new antitrust lawsuit yesterday. I'm sure Trump will do some stupid and selfish things, but it just looks like a lot of low information takes here.

lenerdenator 2y ago

Depends on if he's figured out an angle on how to enrich himself or his cronies off of it by now. See: TikTok ban suddenly becoming negotiable after an act of Congress.

xp84 2y ago
Don't forget non-monetary 'enrichment,' too. I'm pretty convinced that the reason Trump switched sides on TikTok, after being one of the first to cast (justifiable imho) suspicion on it, simply because he looked around and saw that popular opinion was against the ban, especially among the influential Gen-Z demographic. (Obviously a President caring about popular opinion is a feature and not strictly a bug, but I think it's reasonable that a President should also care whether said popular opinion is ill-informed and wrong when it comes to national security.)
- moshun 2y ago
  Don’t forget that TikTok praised him personally to every single user and then donated $50K to his inauguration as well as hosting a huge party that cost well over $100k. ByteDance knows better than most how to deal with corrupt governments.

j2kun 2y ago

Trump is nothing if not a flip-flopper when he can get a deal out of it.

nostromo 2y ago
It’s literally how negotiation works.
- myko 2y ago
  This is corruption, not negotiation

scarface_74 2y ago

So was the TikTok ban….

__MatrixMan__ 2y ago
We need a name for this tactic. I see it from right-leaning folk all the time. 1. Alter the rules so the thing is under threat 2. Intervene to protect it from the harm you initiated 3. Now you're encumbered by one fewer rule, and you're a known protector of the thing Executive Heist? Tyrant's Gambit? The Ol' Feudal Switcheroo? My local school district did it with school days just this year. On the books they're now "online learning days" but thanks to the largesse of the very people who took them away, we can have them still... as a gift.
- TheOtherHobbes 2y ago
  When the Mob does it, it's a protection racket. "Nice little monopoly you have there. Oops, look at that one over there, which burned down with no survivors. Be a shame if anything like that happened to you."
- nonameiguess 2y ago
  It's mafia logic but honestly way more ingrained into large-brained mammal culture than that. "I'll protect you but the main thing I'm protecting you from is myself" is a tactic employed by everything from actual mafias to entirely legal police and military organizations to the dominant male chimp in a troop. It's easy to see from a detached view how stupid it is, but how do we combat something so fundamental to our animal drives that it predates the existence of our own species?
  - __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
    I'm after something a bit more specific than that though. Threats feed into changes in the status quo in myriad ways and not all of them involve this kind of flip flop where you time the switching of sides such that you get to be seen as the one saving the day (nevermind that it's from yourself several years ago).

matwood 2y ago

They were not showering him with money during his first administration. It's pretty clear this will go away assuming they pay Trump enough.

unclebucknasty 2y ago

>Arkansas, Florida... All red states. >So presumably, it will continue. You might be missing the lede here. It's not about the power, but who wields it. Twitter was an enemy, until it became X. TikTok was an enemy, until it showed fealty. The idea that such a billionaire-friendly administration has an issue with Big Tech or any other monopoly is a ruse. When these entities are brought to heel and their power duly co-opted, they'll be treated with favor. In fact, these lawsuits are but one more tactic to ensure that outcome.

safety1st 2y ago

It is pretty wild (in the dumbest, lowest information way) that the entirety of Hacker News seems convinced that Trump will drop a lawsuit that Trump initiated in his first term. Matt Stoller is probably the most recognizable name in anti-trust journalism, he is certainly no Trump fan, but he is not this negative. The Trump admin just opened up its first new antitrust lawsuit yesterday. I'm sure Trump will do some stupid and selfish things, but it just looks like a lot of low information takes here.