News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US opera... by khuey on Friday July 31, 2020 @10:47PM (#24016927)
The premise of why a Chinese company(ies) should be singled out in this way is that China is a totalitarian state where people and corporations are subject to the absolute will of the Communist Party so "ByteDance is not the government of China" isn't going to convince anyone who believes this action is justified.

If Facebook/Twitter/Alphabet were to be acquired by Chinese interests that would almost certainly be blocked by CFIUS just like the potential Broadcom/Qualcomm acquisition was a couple years ago.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US opera... by glglwty on Saturday August 01, 2020 @03:48AM (#24018568)
Should the US also ban foreign TV shows, music, books originated from totalitarian states? Because the producers are subject to the will of their governments and might be compelled into spreading propaganda although it has not happen?

I personally believe that freedom will prevail and this kind of race to the bottom towards censorship and executive branch unilateralism is sad.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US opera... by khuey on Saturday August 01, 2020 @10:25AM (#24020638)
Should it? No, I don't think so. But I do think restricting Xinhua or KCNA is different from restricting the BBC or Le Monde or whatever.
[ Parent | on HN ]