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US TikTok investors in limbo as deal set to be delayed again
- vdupras 11mo agoWhoa, it should be bigger news. I too was under the impression that it was a done deal, with Larry Ellison coming in to mop the floor. It would be so funny if ByteDance and China continued to successfully mock the US in this silly posturing.
- renegade-otter 11mo agoRussia and China have been pretty successful at making these fools look like what they are - gullible suckers.
- MangoToupe 11mo ago[flagged]
- dangus 11mo agoI think the truth is TikTok/ByteDance have all the leverage. A ban of the app is political suicide for whatever administration implements it.
- michaelt 11mo agoIf there's one thing I've taken away from Trump's successes, it's that there's no such thing as "political suicide". A massive tax hike on imported goods, making loads of things more expensive? Political suicide! Constant flip-flopping and backtracking on deals? Political suicide! Doing mocking impersonations of disabled people? Political suicide! Accepting donations from neo-nazi groups? Political suicide! Cheating on your pregnant wife with a porn star? Political suicide! Repeatedly visiting a billionaire pedophile's private island? Political suicide! Except it turns out actually none of that is political suicide.
- bdangubic 11mo agothis is exactly right. he could ban all social media and 1/2 the country would be “yes, visionary looking out for us and our children” :)
- phatfish 11mo ago1/2 the country would be right. Do you not think if social media was disappeared society would be in a better place?
- renegade-otter 11mo agoI am not the op, but I do. He would not be banning it for social reasons - he would be banning it as a racketeering operation, and the 1/2 would support it because of that.
- dangus 10mo agoI think this is a lot different than a lot of wedge issues that tend to affect people mostly in theory. Wedge issues are often chosen by the political elite because there isn’t a risk of the dog catching the car effect becoming a major political liability. E.g., overturning roe v wade made a bunch of republican evangelical republican voters grey happy while restricting the lives of a relatively small amount of people. And I know this statement sounds crazy but hear me out and do the math: You have to be a woman (~50% probability), get an abortion (~25% of women in their lifetime) and reside in a state that restricts abortion (about 20% of the population). Multiply those together and you end up with a 2.5% probability that overturning roe v wade has a tangible impact on your life. You can apply this same concept to a lot of today’s hot button topics. In contrast, 1/3 of all adults use TikTok. About 60% of people under 30 use it. Like I said in my other comments, this is comparable to a government shutting down the NFL. It would be a major optics disaster to implement a TikTok ban.
- bdangubic 10mo agobigger optics disaster than being a rapist of young girls?!
- dashundchen 11mo agoMy theory is the Trump Mafia doesn't care if people think they are idiots. This admin is so transparently corrupt, and they're making out like bandits. Trump and his family have made billions of dollars on the crypto rug pull. Everyone knew it was a shitcoin from the start. Trump has pardoned violent criminals and felony fraudsters for business deals and "donations". His family's net worth has estimated to have risen billions this year alone. Elon Musk essentially bought his way into the control of the government and tried to buy off votes. Kristi Noem funneled at least one sole source contract worth $220 million dollars to a firm closely tied to her and her previous political campaigns. Ron DeSantis spent $250 million dollars of no-bid contracts for essentially a tent interment camp, many of questionable value and to politically tied companies They don't care if you don't like them and I don't think they care if they accomplish what they ran on. They have done a bang up job enriching themselves and their donor class, however.
- netsharc 11mo agoIt should worry us that they're not worried about what happens when they're no longer in power and the naked corruption gets looked at. They're not worried because their plan is to stay in power... Losing voter confidence in droves? Not a problem if you're confident about establishing the next 1000 year reich.
- dzonga 11mo agobingo. said something similar before - you don't go on white house renovations if you plan on leaving. & these folks are not the type to plan on leaving. in 2021 they already showed their colors. now i'm sure they've mastered the game of staying.
- donebefore 11mo ago[dead]
- vdupras 11mo agoHey, it did become bigger news. Good. It's the first time I see this on HN. An old 2 days thread being "bumped" by changing the timestamp?
- amanaplanacanal 11mo agoAre they claiming that the US president lied? Say it ain't so!
- 1659447091 11mo agoThey are reporting that the US investors set to make the purchase are still waiting on China to finalize a deal. The thing about Trump saying it was a done deal*, like most other things he says, was true in the sense that the deal to find the US investors to buy the app is done. And having the "blessing" or any other uttering of China's President Xi Jinping is not the same as having the official action of China finalizing the sale. It did allow him to sign an executive order allowing tiktok to continue operating while the deal is being finalized -- and additional executive order 90 day extensions in the mean time. With the sale going to the usual suspects, Larry Ellison, Abu Dhabi MGX, it makes this look more like Trump is being played at his own game. Or, like the other comment says about ByteDance and China mocking the US in this silly posturing. Maybe they get it done on Monday, or give it another 90 days. *See paltering.[0][1]. It's the reason you get people saying he lied and others saying he's unfairly being called a liar. A more accurate way to describe what he says is: manipulation. Even news outlets are capable of being manipulated (and some may encourage it), which in turn causes all of them to be called "partisan hacks" and the populace loses trust -- but in the wrong things/people. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paltering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paltering [1] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20171114-the-disturbing-art-of-lying-by-telling-the-truth https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20171114-the-disturbing-a...
- mandeepj 11mo agoPresident Xi and Putin aren’t just seasoned politicians, they are experienced and know the rules of the game very well. Trump is not just naive, but he’s utterly stupid as well. Not sure why voters can’t see through his BS.
- BaconVonPork 11mo agoSocial conservatism is disgust. They don't want to see through simple explanations that let them feel less disgust for themselves.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- songodongo 11mo ago[flagged]
- cboyardee 11mo ago[dead]
- nine_zeros 11mo ago[dead]
- kemotep 11mo agoYou think we are going to get to a whole year of Byte Dance operating illegally in the United States?
- pjc50 11mo agoI don't see why not, I'd expect four years of illegal operation.
- hopelite 11mo agoI haven’t really followed things in great detail, but something that has stood out to be is the apparent linchpin that was pulled in this whole affair. Like it or not, TikTok is an American company with American employees and even running on American infrastructure and oversight that was established years ago now; not somehow the cabal in our government has simply eschewed rule of law and their own ideals, to basically strong-arm this deal because there was too much free speech, a fundamental right of Americans, which the government is legally prohibited from violating and doing so is as much of a capitol offense as it can get, violating not only the law of the Constitution, but also the rights enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. I don’t see how a competent legal team could not shred this whole effort at disowning TikTok and at the very least make it extremely expensive politically and even to the core foundation of legitimacy of the current government in what is for some reason still called the USA in spite of gross patterns of consistent material violations of all the terms.
- stefan_ 11mo agoI don't get it, did you miss that this went all the way to the Supreme Court already? It's not "anti free speech", it's "anti Chinese platform".
- matthewdgreen 11mo agoWhat's changed in 2025 is that the Trump administration has illegally postponed the ban passed by Congress four times, despite the fact that the law does not allow the President to extend the ban. And, naturally, the fact that this is to facilitate purchase by a coalition of political allies.
- MPSFounder 11mo ago[flagged]
- tehjoker 11mo agoIt is true and documented that the reason TikTok was challenged and censored was because it was exposing too many people to Israeli crimes in the genocide in Gaza. This was stated by high level officials. Of course, it also provides grist for accusing China of interfering in American politics, but of course, doing so would be a voice of morality, and you can't have that. https://forward.com/culture/688840/tiktok-ban-gaza-palestine-israel-antisemitism/ https://forward.com/culture/688840/tiktok-ban-gaza-palestine... Edit: As a Jew, I also want to note that there is at least one dead comment mixing this with actual antisemitism, which has been apparently increasingly promoted by the right-wing media. My presumption is this is an attempt to create an actual anti-semitism crisis Israel can point to in order to shut down criticism from the left.
- propagandist 11mo agoYou're being downvoted but Greenblatt has stated it plainly. Also the reason behind the 60 minutes fiasco and the CBS acquisition which had Bari Weiss installed there.
- reaperducer 11mo agoYou're being downvoted but Greenblatt has stated it plainly. Maybe he's being downvoted for taking the discussion off-topic.
- an0malous 11mo agoHow is the reason for the TikTok sale off topic for a post about the TikTok sale?
- Seattle3503 11mo agoBoth can be true, no? TikTok can be a tool that China uses to aid its geopolitical goals. TikTok has lots of criticism of Israel. Both can be true.
- tehjoker 11mo ago
- amelius 11mo agoHonestly. The last people I'm going to feel sorry for is TikTok investors.
- bdangubic 11mo agowhy is that? do you stand any other moral ground for investing? apple? google? amazon?
- MangoToupe 11mo agoTrue. They're all absolute leeches.
- madeofpalk 11mo agoFuck em all.
- SilverElfin 11mo agoGiven that Trump and Hegseth seem to now be friendly with China and talking about a “G2” (as opposed to G7), I feel the TikTok ban that should have happened months ago is just going to not happen, as long as (my speculation) someone in the Trump family is able to profit off business dealings with China. It makes no sense not to enact the ban that Congress passed.
- jmyeet 11mo agoAs a reminder of the timeline: - November 2023: audio leaked of Apartheid Defense League CEO Jonathon Greenblatt saying they had a Tiktok problem [1] because Tiktok didn't sufficiently censor live broadcast of the genocide, unlike, say, Meta [2] - 5 March 2024: the bill to ban Tiktok was introduced to the Senate [3]; - 7 March 2024: the bill passes the Senate; - 13 March 2024: the bill passes the House; - 24 April 2024: Biden signs the bill into law. So yes the Tiktok "ban" was about a foreign government, just not the one usually stated. Larry Ellison is the world's second richest man. His son, David Ellison, now heads Paramount Skydance and are key players in the Tiktok acquisition. David Ellison acquired CBS News and put Bari Weiss in charge of it. Why was CBS News for sale? Because 60 Minutes said one slightly negative thing about Israel's involvement in Gaza so Shari Redstone sold it to Paramount [4]. What I find both funny and depressing is that the US government is doing exactly what they accuse China of doing. It's not even a partisan issue. On foreign policy, America is uniparty, just like China. For anyone who follows legislative affairs, this rocketed through. [1]: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/inside-adl-anti-defamation-league-greenblatt-zionism-trump-gaza.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/inside-adl-anti-defa... [2]: https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/12/21/metas-broken-promises/systemic-censorship-palestine-content-instagram-and https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/12/21/metas-broken-promises/... [3]: https://nolabels.org/the-latest/tiktok-ban-timeline-how-trump-keeps-pushing-the-deadline/ https://nolabels.org/the-latest/tiktok-ban-timeline-how-trum... [4]: https://www.cjr.org/feature/cbs-news-redstone-ellison-60-minutes-trump-israel-gaza-tipping-point.php https://www.cjr.org/feature/cbs-news-redstone-ellison-60-min...
- irishcoffee 11mo ago> On foreign policy, America is uniparty, just like China. Oh, do tell of the countries that aren’t uniparties when talking about national security. Oh, none of them? So just making a bullshit false equivalence?
- seizethecheese 11mo agoI’m confused. Why are you alleging a link between the first few bullet points? I'm not saying there's no link, but it certainly doesn't seem obvious without some substantiation.
- ecommerceguy 11mo ago[flagged]
- hughlomas 11mo agoPeople seem to forget that China is a fully authoritarian state. The fact is that China is an adversary and blocks virtually every western social network, including YouTube, Instagram, and Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_mainland_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_ma... The CCP has absolute authority over internal companies to bend them to their will, and regularly disappears political dissidents including tech leaders like Jack Ma. TikTok has over 150 million users in the United States, skewing young. We have seen the massive misinformation campaigns from other adversaries like Russia, with the goal of sowing dissent and malcontent. All it takes is leaning on the algorithmic levers. Today the controversy may be over the issue you are passionate about, tomorrow it will a different issue, the only thing that matters is that TikTok is an open door to unduly influence public opinion in America. The immense scale of data collection, from personal information to location tracking data, is also a clear concern. Anyone that thinks it is reasonable for a geopolitical rival to control this company, especially a country known to reach its hand deep into company policy, is incredibly naive and self-sabotaging. TikTok must be banned or fully controlled by a US based company.
- saaaaaam 11mo agoIt’s funny because as a European when you wrote “Anyone that thinks it is reasonable for a geopolitical rival to control this company, especially a country known to reach its hand deep into company policy, is incredibly naive and self-sabotaging.” I thought “yeah, when you put it like that it would be AWFUL for the Trump administration to own it. And then I read the next line and realised you meant China.
- Seattle3503 11mo agoIts a valid concern. I wish a viable European bidder had stepped forward. It would be nice if at least on major social network was EU based.
- pixelatedindex 11mo ago> the only thing that matters is that TikTok is an open door to unduly influence public opinion in America. The immense scale of data collection, from personal information to location tracking data, is also a clear concern. I understand where you’re coming from - “they ban us so we’ll ban you” is a valid sentiment. But this grandstanding is like slapping a bandaid on a leaky tub and calling it “Job done”. I’m almost being transported to the 1940s with this McCarthy-lite take. Everything that TikTok is doing is being done by Meta, Snap, Instagram, etc. If it’s not done through TikTok it’ll be done somewhere else. But sure, instead of passing real privacy laws let’s just also be authoritarian - I’m sure that’ll solve the problem.
- Buttons840 11mo agoThis whole situations is such a sad clown show. There was a legitimate debate to be had about the dangers of TikTok and the importance of free speech. Do we ban TikTok and squash free speech, or is free speech of supreme importance, even if it means allowing a dangerous foreign app--these were the questions of a few years ago. So what happened? Let's recap: Congress passed a law banning TikTok. Free speech was trampled. The Supreme Court upheld the ban. Free speech was trampled again. Then, the law just doesn't get enforced. The dangers of TikTok remain. Everyone loses and the entire political process around this has been a joke. We've learned that Congress can just ban apps by name, effectively, and yet the great danger that made us cross this line in the first place remains in use under the control of China.
- StackRanker3000 11mo agoFree speech by foreign governments (or controlled by foreign governments) has never been protected by the US constitution, right? I do agree that Trump, in both his administrations, has made it starkly clear that its checks and balances are quite impotent against a person or party that doesn’t care to follow the rules, so long as they have enough supporters that also don’t care, or are misled
- Buttons840 11mo agoI mean free speech the ideal, not free speech the law. Obviously the law can be contrary to free speech the ideal, in this case.
- effnorwood 11mo agowell come on people, tik tok
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 11mo agoShut it down already. You have permission from the rest of government this time Mr Trump so Just Do It, make your dreams come true.
- mevlut 10mo agodunno what will happen when ai generated videos from invideo.ai, vivideo.ai conquer tiktok feeds, like those valuations will stay there or get halved... let's see together