News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by threeseed on Sunday January 19, 2025 @02:51PM (#42761033)
> Not to mention, why would they trust the US to pay tens of billions of dollars

Why would the US government be involved in paying tens of billions ?

The idea is that ByteDance would sell it to Meta, X, etc and would be a private transaction.

Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by yibg on Sunday January 19, 2025 @03:32PM (#42761480)
Which makes no sense. Meta wouldn’t sell “meta Uk”, data product, algo and all to a competitor for 20 billion or whatever the number floating around is.
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by threeseed on Sunday January 19, 2025 @04:14PM (#42761917)
It doesn't have to be a competitor. They simply have to divest the US operation.

Just like happens in China and in many other countries.

Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by yibg on Sunday January 19, 2025 @04:35PM (#42762129)
Whoever they sell to becomes an immediate competitor though no? They’d get the software, US users and algo.
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by rchaud on Sunday January 19, 2025 @06:14PM (#42763124)
Divesting the US operation would be pointless, the goal of the law is to control the algorithm, and that isn't something that the US office has access to. If they did they could simply be poached like Uber did to Waymo.
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by baobun on Sunday January 19, 2025 @03:32PM (#42761476)
How separate is Twitter and the government really from today?
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by None4U on Sunday January 19, 2025 @03:58PM (#42761738)
Today? Quite. Tomorrow?
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by FpUser on Sunday January 19, 2025 @04:43PM (#42762202)
Ask the same question when the person that owns it finally buys the government.
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by cbzbc on Sunday January 19, 2025 @03:33PM (#42761487)
Sanctions regimes still exist.
Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by rchaud on Sunday January 19, 2025 @06:12PM (#42763102)
It's a distinction without a difference. Musk is effectively an agent of the state, with billions in subsidies he wants to protect, and a Chinese auto market he is desperate to be allowed into.

The CCP would not miss out on taking advantage of the situation and demanding trade concessions for agreeing to sell. US government would absolutely be involved in raising the necessary finance, as banks won't be bending over backwards to lend Musk money for another speculative venture.

Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by absolutelastone on Monday January 20, 2025 @12:25AM (#42765250)
I don't see why any of this must be so. Couldn't they just move or sell to any other country on the planet not on the adversary list?

Congress doesn't appear to care if TikTok survives or not. TikTok bans are not news.

Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by kelnos on Monday January 20, 2025 @03:06AM (#42766132)
They could, but why would they want to? Consider:

* If ByteDance divests their US TikTok operations, they create a new competitor that could potentially out-compete them in other (non-US, non-Chinese) markets.

* Whatever amount of money they get for this divestiture would be much lower than what the business is worth to ByteDance (when your options are sell or shut down, potential buyers will not feel the need to bid high).

* ByteDance's US TikTok operations are certainly of non-financial value to the Chinese government. That value is likely orders of magnitude higher than their financial value to ByteDance. Selling that user base is probably not preferable to shutting down. Influence campaigns are certainly easier to run on a platform you own, but certainly those campaigns are already running on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Why add another platform that they can't control where they have to run influence campaigns?