TikTok will shut down soon if China won’t agree to Trump’s deal, official says
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I've taken to "deadnaming" him, Bowman, since he's so opposed to trans rights. It's like he picked his name from a movie. You know the one.
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In ye olde days the VPs job was to shake hands at state funerals and hope their president is next to die. My favorite prof said Al Gore had the perfect VP frowny face. It’s only a post 9/11 phenomenon that the VP has a portfolio. We can thank Dick Cheney and two geriatric presidents for elevating the role. One of the defenses of Dan Quayle’s novel approach to spelling was that he didn’t do anything anyway.
Fun fact: many kids & Chinese influencers on TikTok call JD “the VP of Eyeliner”
Edit for grammer
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Tiktok CEO: "Oh no! A threat from Donald! Shiver and tremble! We Need to do something, now! Call him, tell him we will behave and be nice, no Donald no, do not pull the plug."
Tiktok negotiator "Sir, are you Allright?"
CEO: "Just act that way, it will keep him happy. Meanwhile we'll see if we can find some leverage. What day is it? Friday... Tuesday is not far, let's have tacos then."
Tiktok negotiator "Sir, are you Allright?"
CEO: "Just act that way, it will keep him happy. Meanwhile we'll see if we can find some leverage. What day is it? Friday... Tuesday is not far, let's have tacos then."
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I hate to be recycling jokes, but a certain Monty Python sketch is just so relevant these days that I’m having to post a pastiche of it for the second time in two days.
"Good evening. Mr. President, may I put the first question to you? In your plan, 'Make America Great Again With Tariffs', you claimed that you would close 200 trade deals in 90 days. In fact, you've closed only three, and one more after that deadline. Are you a bit disappointed with this result?"
"No, no. I'd like to answer this question if I may in two ways. Firstly in my normal abusive style, and then in a kind of silly blame-shifting style. You see, Obama’s treason is a problem...."
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Given TikTok's prestige and influence is greater than any dollar amount China will never sell it. It's not like they need the money.
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A/B headline: "Trump, who threatened to save TikTok, threatens to shut down TikTok"
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This is taking too long. Just put a bullet in it. There will be replacements from YouTube, Faacebook, etc. within a fortnight.
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Which is why, rather than targeting a single platform due to the relative ease in demonizing TikTok, the more sensible and meaningful legislative action would have been regulation that applies to all algorithmic social media platforms that traffic in users' personal data.
Our legislators don't really do sensible or meaningful any more, though. Performative and grift-enabling is more their speed, and that will remain the case until they are held to account by voters.
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It's required because of a law signed by Biden. Not an idea of this administration.
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Yes, the forced sale or shutdown of TikTok is a law passed by Congress. It was supposed to have been shut down months ago, the law had an exact date for that but Trump has bypassed it.
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Also, I think in Chinese culture the importance of face saving is paramount. If they were to sell it would look like they caved. The leaders wont want to do that. You must negotiate quietly, or not at all.
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This man's actions must be thwarted .
Obstruct, and then vote. And vote for a fucking Democrat every time. Because despite your reservations, the outcomes of doing otherwise are dire.
Get it?
Thanks for growing up.
And every single thing in my banned description of the fat one are absolutely bounded by truth.
Obstruct, and then vote. And vote for a fucking Democrat every time. Because despite your reservations, the outcomes of doing otherwise are dire.
Get it?
Thanks for growing up.
And every single thing in my banned description of the fat one are absolutely bounded by truth.
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I generally thought the Iran strike was also fine—we don't know whether it worked, but it was worth trying. Although that wasn't a Trump original, which, yeah, of course it wasn't.
Not that I blame Iran for trying to get nuclear weapons, since it's the ultimate security guarantee for a nation, but I'd prefer that warlike authoritarian theocratic regimes not possess nukes, and I'm unapologetic about that.
I'd say that I do also generally agree that China poses the most potent threat to the U.S. (and probably the global good, more generally), and that it's imperative that we sort out our entanglements with them and re-nationalize key industries.
But on the other hand, do I think pin the tariff on the donkey, blindfolded, is actually the way to do that...?
Ha. No.
Frankly, while I'm perfectly willing to admit when someone I loathe does something good, I have to say that it would be hard to imagine anyone doing a better job of wrecking the United States and its institutions than Trump has.
And basically every single instance where I'm tempted to agree with Trump's policy direction, I strongly disagree with how he is trying to do it—often to the extent of thinking it the worst possible way he could try to do X thing.
Like Tiktok: is it actually a national security risk? I do seriously believe that it is, and that there is demonstrable evidence, not just rhetoric, to support that.
But is the answer a corrupt good 'old boys deal to fucking Mark Zuckerberg?
Fuck no.
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So you're all for the US scuttling all nuclear weapons cause that's what you're saying here.
edit: beaten like a dead horse..
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They already exist, and few people care about them. Also, that's actually worse. At least with TikTok, you have the potential of getting viewpoints that aren't restricted to what American Big Brother approves of.
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Also, you know/understand the risk, at least to some degree. You know TikTok is owned by China, and it's a short reach to assuming they're peddling Chinese propaganda in various forms, and collecting personal information from (in this case) the US populace that's useful to China. Forewarned is, at least to some extent, forearmed.
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I predict that the orange idiot will invent a flimsy excuse and kick this particular can a few more months down the road.
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It's worth pointing out that everyone involved in operating, distributing, and even regulating TikTok is in violation of the law right now. Trump never had authority to waive the requirements of the law, but he did it anyway. That puts Trump, and not the US Government writ large, in the position of "that's an awfully nice algorithm you've got there, it'd be a shame if something happened to it".
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No more than content creators being on YouTube, or Twitch.
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That's the biggest thing here. People understand the potential and fear of data being shared with the CCP. They don't realize the risk and fear of Facebook and Google sharing data with the GOP.
Frankly, I'm far less concerned about what Beijing might do with my social media history than I am what Washington might do.
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Selling Tik Tok would be STUPID on Bytedance's part. Once Trump has secured the algorithm behind it he would just renege on any deal he made to get it.
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Truth Social is owned by Trump and is peddling Trump propaganda and collecting personal information for Trump. TikTok is the lesser of those two evils.
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Okay China, you win. Keep TikTok and do whatever you want with it. Just give Meta, Snap and X unfettered access to mainland China as a market and we call it a day.
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i hope not, i think bytedance being in full control of by the CCP is not a net good thing for americans. the algorithm is obviously not in our best interests, simply demonstrated by comparing what the US algo serves up vs the chinese version......i think its more insidious than merely tracking or otherwise surveilling american citizens.
when a huge percentage of a countries youth population can be algorithimcally programmed slowly over time by a government counter to the US's interests.........it would be like giving the soviets 100% control of our major media outlets in the 50s and 60s.
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How is this any different or worse than being "algorithmically programmed" by Meta, Instagram, YouTube, or Truth Social?
Shouldn't the goal be to spread awareness of social media manipulation so people can guard against it, regardless of its source?
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This is how @bsamsel needs to think about it. Billionaire oligarchs have about as much respect for democracy and 'American values' as the Soviets did (or the Russians do, speaking of 'more insidious...')
Social media needs to be regulated, no matter what country corporate HQ happens to be in, because they have each demonstrated disdain for social norms, personal privacy, the mental well-being of their user bases and the list goes on.
Americans should demand that from their reps if they truly want better for the US, and boy is that just the tip of the iceberg.
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And past United States, minus the authoritarian bit. That's a new thing.
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Perhaps more importantly, why is exposure to viewpoints other than the ones he has been programmed to favour a bad thing?
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The elite are using him. They’re taking advantage of his complete lack of morals and his ability to evade prosecution. They need him to to act fast and tear down all of the guardrails so they don’t have to take any of the blame… that’s all they care about right now. They know he doesn’t have much time left on this earth.
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