This is what a lot companies who do business in China have to go through.

For example, Activision-Blizzard are pretty much fully separated from The9, which is the only authorized distributor for World of Warcraft in China.

Edit: Apologies, the source I was looking at was outdated and NetEase is the current distributor for WoW in China.

The9 stopped distributing wow in China in 2009.

You’re totally right, edited my post with this info. Thanks!

But unlike China, America fashions itself as a bastion of capitalism. Borrowing Chinese practices seems a little antithetical to everything I see America as

Turning the other cheek are nice words on paper but in reality you'll just end up being abused.

America has been acting neutral for last decades, especially last 15 years where China has asymmetrically taken advantage of American companies. China is getting a taste of their own medicine and I am fine with that.

This is essentially admitting that the free market lost and doesn't work anymore. Because the free market has clearly decided that it likes TikTok, even enough to share its data with the company.

I don't think people realize how significant this might be.

> even enough to share its data with the company.

How many people do you think have opted into this with informed consent vs clicking through multiple pages of deliberately obfuscated terms?

how is this in any way in opposition to the free market? The information is freely acceesible, the fact that its hard to understand is the problem of the consumer no? The free market solution would be to have some kind of independent organization summarize this information and attempt to distribute it in the hopes people read.

Countries intervening in private industry for national security reasons is a pretty ancient phenomenon. I doubt many people will see it as a fatal compromise of free market principles.

Capitalism is the reason the US outsourced its manufacturing to China to begin with - borrowing Chinese labor practices and corruption to do an end run around its own ideals for the sake of maximizing profits.

I mean, America is the country that fought the Nazis then hired them to build their space program just so they could plant their flag on the Moon and claim it before the Soviets. Hell, American companies were doing business with the Nazis while at war with the Nazis.

No nation puts it principles ahead of its interests.

> But unlike China, America fashions itself as a bastion of capitalism. Borrowing Chinese practices seems a little antithetical to everything I see America as

China is approaching fascism from the Lenin-Stalin-Maoist “Communist” side, the US from the mixed economy welfare state side. That they should be increasingly borrowing unpleasant tactics from each other is unsurprising, even if contrary to the image each side tries to project for propaganda purposes.

The US hasn't yet quite established unquestioned control of the faction working to implement fascism, so has a better chance of changing course in the near future.

Even if they were honest and absolutely no data ever went back to China after this (not likely), that’s still billions flowing right back to a Chinese company straight out of America if they’re purchased. If Trump is sincere about his America first claims, he’d have a good reason to ban it and make the product worthless regardless.

There are billions flowing between China and the US for all sorts of reasons. I've seen arguments that complete divestment from China is the morally right thing to do, but it's hard to imagine how it could be economically advantageous for the US from an "America first" perspective.

yeah and I guess it makes sense in the aspect that they're trying to survive however they can.

That seems like a bit of an overreaction on the company’s part though, doesn’t it? It’s not at all clear that the president had a legal avenue to ban the service, and he has certainly said a lot of outlandish things that don’t come to pass.

It seems less about the app itself than it does about China. It's so passive aggressive it reminds me of middle school.

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>Better to throw away the US TikTok company at this point. It's clear the American general public, Trump and US government does not like dominant foreign social media companies in the US.

This would not be happening were TikTok German, French, British, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, etc. Just Chinese and Russian.