I don't use #TikTok. Don't even have an account. Can't stand the app. But this thing with TikTok in the US is grossing me out. It's one thing to ban the thing but quite another to force the co to sell the platform to a US company. That's like a land grab, even if money is exchanged. This is going to put a chill on business relations not just with China but with companies globally, because they'll be wondering, "will I be the next Bytedance? Will they try to grab my company too?"
@liztai I'm also grossed out by how government works: TikTok was added to a foreign aid bill just so it could get passed? In what world besides Politics does this make any kind of sense?
@benroyce and? I don't understand why people highlight this issue as a counterargument for the TikTok situation. It's their right as a sovereign nation to not allow these platforms to operate. And I am ok with America banning TikTok, but am not ok with them seizing their assets.
@liztai maybe you know something I don't. As far as I understood it would be a forced sale. And if not, it's shut down, so then assets (servers, office equipment, etc) sold off in pieces. I didn't hear anything about seizing assets.
Maybe the confusion is because tiktok is unprofitable? Tiktok has never made a profit and always operated in the red. so it's all business liabilities and the creditors would seize assets to get something for their money?
@liztai Fortunately, the chill on business relations likely won't be as bad as you're imagining!
The wording in the bill is just too specific for something like that to reasonably happen.
It only targets specific “foreign adversaries” of the United States¹, which is a super short list of countries that rarely gets updated² and a giant fuss is always made when it does. China's on that list, but not much else, so the vast majority of companies globally have nothing to worry about.
The bill also doesn't say anything about selling to a US company, just that the company must either sell to ANY COMPANY that's not controlled by a “foreign adversary”³.
And if any company doesn't want to divest, they don't need to! Their app just gets removed from app stores, and that's the furthest extent of what happens.
TikTok can still exist as a website, so long as their data isn't stored on American servers⁴. Which like, it basically isn't, that's kinda what prompted all this in the first place, so there's not much they need to worry about there.
Mastodon, PeerTube, and Pixelfed are all totally functional social networks without the need for apps, and with the insane amount of dev power working at ByteDance, they should be able to pivot just fine!
Sorry for all the wonky formatting with the superscript numbers, stock Mastodon still doesn't support markdown... :google_emoji_kitchen_blob_and_confounded_face_mashup:
@lety thanks for explaining ! Totally appreciate it. But the global South, seeing how they are dedollarizing in the face of the Russian sanctions even if they are not the "enemy" so to speak, I have a feeling they would rather have safeguards than be in Bytedance's position in the future. However, you are right, the chill may not be as bad ... Hopefully. But again really hard to predict what China etc will do in the face of this. It's still not a wise move 😬
@liztai Didn't Malaysia do the same thing? Excuse me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that, at one time, Malaysia required all businesses operating in its territory to have 51% local ownership? It's been a long time since I paid attention to the economic situation there, but that was my understanding.
@thepoliticalcat that's quite a different thing, no? You set up the co from the start this way. Anyway I am not familiar with Malaysian business law so I can't comment. But with this situation the US is literally trying to seize TikTok assets. Ban it outright, fine. But you want their stuff to? Reprehensible.
@liztai Ah, I see. This is the answer to my question. I'm not familiar with Malaysian business law, either, but I remember working on a story, gee, 50 years ago, I guess, and that one factoid sticks with me. I don't agree with the strongarming that's going on. It's morally reprehensible, at the very least. I can't opine on whether it should be banned, but if it is a security risk, as some folks claim, then, yes, banning it would be more sensible than forcing the owner to sell to an American.
@thepoliticalcat I actually dont care if TikTok is banned actually, as I really don't like what that app is doing to our brains 😆 But the political theatre going on around TikTok in the US is pretty ugh. Just very hypocritical, racist and gross (the stealing bits). U want it banned? Fine. But don't try to grab the co at the same time. Build your own damn TikTok.
@liztai Racist and gross is exactly what nearly half this country wants, apparently. I don't know if you saw the CEO of a Chinese company being harassed by Congress, but by the end, I was ready to take out my slipper and fluff a certain Senator's cheeks, all four of them. The guy was a Singaporean and explaining that to the gross racist was incredible to watch.
@thepoliticalcat yes I did!! That's the major reason why I hate this whole TikTok exercise. No one will be able to convince me that the whole thing is not rooted in racism
@liztai That poor guy is gua mya countryman, lor. Felt so bad for him tryna convince that idiot who doesn't even know that Singapore is not China! Haiya! When I used to live in S'pore, all the time getting letters from these blady eediots address ony "Singapore, China." Sial mya orang.
@liztai He's got constituents who vote for him. This is the dumbfuck who wants to do away with divorce. I'm sure you can imagine why. I pity his wife, if he has one.
@thepoliticalcat daaang.
Ya know Malaysians used to be supremely embarassed by what our politicians say on the international stage. Never thot that I will see a day where the US would be top us in that category
@liztai The US press LOVES to print all the WORST stories about other countries (as a Singaporean, I'm familiar with that). They never talk about the successes of other nations, only the disasters. If you didn't know better you would think Singaporeans were living in trees. (I had a Swiss BF whose mother was convinced we did!)
@thepoliticalcat LOL gosh in this day and age, I do hope they brush up on their geography. "America too big" and "Americans don't travel" is no longer an excuse to not know basic things like this 😆
I spoke to a friend in the US about this and she says that it is indeed true that they are not taught anything about other countries. What a strange way to live, honestly. You need to know they world beyond your borders to be competitive.
@liztai It's true that the young people are changing, and they are my hope for the future. Meeting many young Americans who speak Chinese and Japanese, not just French and Spanish. But, as mum used to say in the old days, "see, lah. Try ony and see." Mb they will change their ways and join the rest of us in the 21st century.
@liztai the annoying this is that all the problems with TikTok (besides maybe the "security risk" stuff, idk about that) are true—but they're also true for most other large social media platforms, and nothing remotely like this is being done to them 🧐
There's the argument that "well, we've got to start somewhere", but somehow I don't get the feeling other companies like Meta and Google are going to face the same scrutiny. Anyway the focus is so much on Tiktok that nobody's even bothering to argue that "well, we've got to start somewhere" lol
@badri@liztai To be fair, those companies will argue that they're far less of a security risk bc they're owned by Americans (which is not true for ALL tech companies, needless to say, and then the news ninnies will drag us down rabbit-holes about which billionaires need to be forced to sell their holdings, and we'll have another round of worthless, yet performative, legislation passed. Ppl RLY need to wise up on how to hold their Reps/Sens feet to the fire.
@badri@thepoliticalcat Some argue that it is unfair that Meta etc arent allowed in China etc. Yes, China made that decision right at the start. I find it odd that people think that it is unfair that a foreign nation is nof allowed to come to a country to do biz "without barriers." A sovereign nation should be able to decide who they want to do business with. So China said no to Meta etc. So what? If the US no longer wants to do biz with China that's fair, but theres no higher moral ground.
@liztai@badri There is absolutely no higher moral ground to stand on when it comes to Meta, which has OPENLY promoted genocide in countries around the world. The way they enable those of bad intent makes me think they're a danger to ANY sovereign nation.
@liztai I’m not an economist, but from what I read withing the last decade it’s not completely without parallels to the challenges international companies are facing when doing business in China.
And I never heard that those companies tried to campaign Chinese citizens to pressure their government into doing something.
So, from a distance, it does not seem too drastic. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/tiktok-unleashed-pressure-campaign-congress
@chris I don't see how this is the same. One country has specific ways of doing business, you either accept their terms or not. Then there's another country who welcomes you set up a co without these restrictions and who are suddenly turning around and saying sell or else.
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