ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in US if legal options fail, sources say

Oh no! Anyway...

It’s going to be to their advantage to claim that they’re shutting down, even if they actually want that $50B buyout. If they say they’re going to sell, they’re going to lose what little leverage they have left. The public that wants TikTok will get TikTok, and the public is going to stop pestering politicians about it.

Makes sense from a business point of view. Why sell to create a new competitor with the same technology and an impregnable market base in the USA?

Better to force US competition to start from scratch.

Do it.

TikTok's daily active users in the U.S. is also just about 5% of ByteDance's DAUs worldwide, said one of the sources.

So much drama in the US over this but it's apparently merely a money-losing afterthought for its owner.

EU next please

If ByteDance is a normal company they will seek profits and sell for as much as they can.

But if TikTok is a Chinese psyop, they'll just use any of the many legal tricks we allow to change the "owner" while China still retains control. Companies do this all the time, look at shell companies and such. It's super easy for China to mask the true owner if they decide to.

This is why we should make broadly applicable regulations instead of picking on one specific company.

I dislike TikTok but should you really be banning platforms you don't like?

Sanction them if they misbehave, yes. Prevent most of the population from communicating using it? Absolutely not.

Americans have weird priorities when it comes to freedom. The mental gymnastics I've been seeing trying to justify a ban of a platform to a massive population of people is nuts.

No, it isn't "actually upholding" freedom of speech to ban TikTok.

So be it. The vaccuum it will leave will get filled by another platform.

This is obviously a negotiation tactic.

If ByteDance doesn't want to sell their stupid algorithm, they could simply rip it out of TikTok, replace it with a random number generator or any other off-the-shelf recommendation engine, and proceed with the sale.

Find their lowest paid summer intern from the university computer science department, tell him to write some sort of recommendation algorithm and he has two weeks to do it, then whatever he comes up with make it live and that's all the new owner gets.

The amount of people happy about their government deciding to ban websites and apps is terrifying. They dont give a fuck about your privacy they’re just mad they dont control the algorithm. Now they can have people move to instagram reels where its easier to serve the propaganda the oligarchs prefer

Good. Please proceed as quickly as possible.

Don't threaten us with a good time!

This seems to be a pattern. Govts flex over tech companies, techs blackout a country instead of complying, repeat.

That's fine, but I think they are lying.

And in case you don't understand, foreign corporations running FARA-unregistered influence operations isn't considered a facet of "free speech" in the USA.

Good, that'll decrease the amount of stupidity in the platform for the international audiences to enjoy

I'm curious, is there an actual plan to ban TikTok? How do they think they can accomplish that? And just how easy will it be to circumvent the ban?

Extremely hostile business takeover by the government.

'Notha one Bytes the Dance

They'd rather shut it down cause they dont want to sell it and let an American company see how they use and abuse it to gather information and manipulate behaviors.

Looks like it worked a treat. Do WeChat next!

Tombstone-Well.Bye.gif

Great news for Loops!

Bytedance announces to software developers: “Start your engines!”

Reuters.com is blocking vpn now apparently

Permanently Deleted

Bye Felicia