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this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
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TikTok is worth approximately nothing to the CPC either way. It’s not like the Chinese state is hurting for money. They have a surplus of US dollars that they’re busy unloading, and they have fiat monetary sovereignty of their own currency. The app is banned in China, so nobody there is going to miss it. Who is invested in ByteDance that might care? American private equity: ByteDance’s US investors weigh options as bill to ban TikTok advances
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fiat monetary sovereignty of their own currency
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I think j was talking about spying
(From today on, I aim to not say the fifthglyph for all days to promote !avoid5@sh.itjust.works)
The national security angle is a farce because ByteDance was already forced to move their service to the US on an American-owned hosting provider, and they have already put people with a history of aligning with “American interests” into executive positions, like CEO Shou Zi Chew and vice president Michael Beckerman, and American oligarchs are invested in it. I think the US “intelligence community” already has everything it needs to monitor and control TikTok.
I never understood what it would help to have the data on a US server. It's not that difficult to access it there from China. I access my server in Germany via SSH from Korea.
Because American hosting providers like Oracle are constituent parts of the military-intelligence-industrial complex, as are American ISPs.
What can ByteDance access that China couldn't just buy from Alphabet or Meta or some other tech company?
Just one small example: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/22/tiktok-bytedance-workers-fired-data-access-journalists
Uh huh, and do you think Alphabet and Meta don't do that? Do you think if China offered to buy that data they wouldn't be able to get it? Grow up.
My point is that we should be taking internet privacy seriously, not just going after foreign companies.
It's not okay when the spies are American. Until I see serious action taken against the worst offenders I'll know this is all theater.
I feel like the US would ban selling vital data to big enemies, and getting info from ByteDance is free.
The US doesn't ban selling data, though. China can buy whatever it wants just as easily as harvesting it from ByteDance.
And I'd hardly call running an entire social media enterprise "free". If it's a torjan horse, it's an entirely unnecessary one.
Internet coverage of that topic is surprisingly limited for what seems to be an easily-thought-of national security risk...
ByteDance's capitalist entrepreneurs run the enterprise for them, and they can extort data out, yes, for free.
Running a company isn't free lol
Again, China does not run the company, they just own the leash on the private entrepreneurs who do. That's one of Deng's benefits for implementing capitalism. (mildlyinteresting: the word capitalism isn't capitalized)
China has a massive stake in the company. It's a huge investment for them. Hardly "free"
It's a one-time fee that also earns money back compared to the continuous payments to buy from other sources.
Assuming China doesn't have to spend literally any other money, even though countries are constantly investing in infrastructure and security and material to assist the business.
But also, literally not free. My point stands.
You won't just stop the maintenance if TikTok didn't exist. It's not like all China cares about is data.
Your question was "why would China get data from TikTok when they can just buy it from Meta". If China didn't get the data from ByteDance, ByteDance still incurs the maintenance fee. So no, that is not the expense of getting the data.
After a ton of alternating search queries, apparently both of these avenues are being used, and Biden announced working on such a ban in late February.
It's good the bare minimum is being implemented.... though it's weird how two months have passed without updates.
I must point out that this only concerns data being sold to Russia or China, ie, it's just security theater. I would like to see some restrictions on data being sold to anyone, including so-called US allies. Israel, in particular, collects data on American Palestinians who contact family back in Palestine and uses this to feed its AI that generates kill lists.
"but job loss!1!"
China can't buy data from US companies. That's illegal. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Not yet. There was an executive order to ban selling data to "enemies" that would include China but it hasn't been implemented.
Also I'm highly skeptical it'll work. China can just work through proxies and not buy directly.
You're missing my point that it's not money the CCP is after but influence and power abroad. They already have absolute power at home.
From the article you linked:
Whelp if corporate American media says that then it must be true 😆
Cite a better reasoning than what the article uses to arrive at that conclusion then.
I think the article speaks for itself. It says ByteDance definitely is a Chinese company and then goes on to explain the ways in which it isn’t, including majority ownership. If the US government has the power to kill the company, one might argue that it’s more an American one than Chinese.
The definition of a golden share is effective control. Tell me how that and the following is going "on to explain the ways in which it isn't".
The US government has the power to kill Huawei if they wanted to; it's their territory and they can do whatever the heck they want, of course. That doesn't mean Huawei is US-owned.
That’s not nothing, but still not the be-all and end-all that you seem to want to make it.
Is this a joke? The US government just tried and failed. Huawei reclaims top spot in China’s smartphone sales ranking, its first time back since company was added to US blacklist
I'm saying that they have the ability to ban any freaking thing in their territory. That Huawei is doing well outside of the US is irrelevant. If Huawei's US division was forced down by the US, that is killing it, and they're still not American.
Explain further how it isn't a Chinese company despite its origin and its base of operations. Even if it isn't, all that's relevant is that China can influence TikTok into giving them their data for free today.
Perhaps they could, but there’s no evidence that they as yet have. And of what use is your TikTok data to the Chinese state, anyway? Money is no object to them, and they can buy your data from other US companies as well. Anyone can.
The US government doesn’t care about protecting your data. They care about accessing it themselves and controlling narratives on social media in order to shape public opinion.
They’re after the fediverse now as well. Atlantic Council: Collective Security In a Federated World (PDF)
Trust and safety my ass. This is about manufacturing consent. They’re failing to control young American’s impression of and reaction to the Gaza genocide that’s being done in their name, so they’re pulling out all the stops now. Not the Onion but the NYT last week: Government Surveillance Keeps Us Safe: A surveillance law referred to as Section 702 is needed to protect us from foreign threats.
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For most people, "could" is enough to worry about. Just look at the people flocking whenever their app is bought by an advertising company.
(As for the NYT opinion, I'll forward this comment: "Waxman worked under Bush as a senior national security advisor. So the administration that believes in torture is advising us that government surveillance is fine and keeps you safe? Not sure I trust the source." My personal opinion is actually ambivalent towards surveillance, privacy, and safety.)
Your ghost is silly.