TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users

Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by kelseydh on Monday January 20, 2025 @12:31AM (#42765281)

The world is more than just China and the United States. That was the point of my original comment. The United States here feels entitled to own and run an app used on every continent of the world. No other country could get away with demanding this.

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Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by linkregister on Monday January 20, 2025 @01:26AM (#42765569)

India banned TikTok a few years ago. Brazil banned X until it agreed to take down posts in violation of Brazilian law. The European Union fines US-based tech companies frequently.

"Entitlement" in the context of nations is irrelevant. Nations exercise power in accordance with their interests.

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Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by saagarjha on Monday January 20, 2025 @03:38AM (#42766329)

The latter two, in theory, apply to local companies too. The TikTok bans specifically apply to “foreign adversaries”.

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Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by lupire on Monday January 20, 2025 @09:12AM (#42768909)

Domestic adversaries don't own any companies, for obvious reasons.

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Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by saagarjha on Thursday January 23, 2025 @08:51AM (#42803990)

I would disagree…?

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Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by scarab92 on Monday January 20, 2025 @01:25AM (#42765568)

> The United States here feels entitled to own and run an app used on every continent of the world.

This isn’t correct. The US law only applies to the services provided within the US.

ByteDance could spin out the US userbase while retaining the rest of the userbase. Many US companies already have to do exactly this for their Chinese userbase. Spin it off to a JV with a Chinese partner.

I’m not aware of anyone doing this, but you could even have a content syndication model whereby the global TikTok and the US TikTok share a common pool of content and username reservations so that both services appear global to their users, but with separate companies controlling distribution of their own apps and the recommendation model used to serve content.

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Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by kelnos on Monday January 20, 2025 @01:50AM (#42765712)

That's false. The US law requires TikTok to be sold to a non-adversary. A US company could buy it, or some German or Spanish company, and either would fulfill the requirements to avoid a ban in the US.

> No other country could get away with demanding this.

TikTok is already banned in India. Brasil banned Twitter for a while until they caved to Brasil's demands.

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Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by josephcsible on Monday January 20, 2025 @12:42AM (#42765335)

> The United States here feels entitled to own and run

It doesn't have to be the United States. It just has to be anyone other than Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia.

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Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by wqaatwt on Monday January 20, 2025 @02:15AM (#42765837)

Well.. SAP could buy it. Or some other European tech company that could afford it..

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Re:TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users by fc417fc802 on Monday January 20, 2025 @12:54AM (#42765403)

> The world is more than just China and the United States.

But this particular situation is not. A Chinese controlled company that operates in the US. If you want access to $CC market you are subject to $CC's rules. Other countries do exactly the same thing (aside from China, GDPR comes to mind) so it's unclear what the basis for your complaint is here.

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