During a CNBC interview, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned that the Trump administration has decided that TikTok cannot be allowed to continue as it currently operates, adding that Treasury has been empowered to end the company.
The Trump Administration has accused TikTok of collecting data on Americans, though the CIA confirmed just days ago that there is no evidence that the Chinese government ever attempted to acquire that data from the private company.
President Trump has threatened to ban TikTok next month, unless the company is sold to an American parent. Microsoft is reportedly in talks for buying the company, though Mnuchin declined to comment on this.
The biggest obstacle, beyond TikTok contesting the ban in court, is Trump’s claim that Microsoft will have to pay him the majority of the purchase price of TikTok, something which Chinese media are loudly objecting to.
US tech officials aren’t thrilled with the US imposed restrictions either, saying it sets a dangerous precedent for other foreign companies they may want to acquire in the future.
No, of course China can’t own that. WE want it, so they have to give it to us. It’s the rules.
Better if it were sold to a fine Israeli company 🙂
China is having a” dreadlock holiday”
If China’s govt is smart they will stand by TikTok’s owners all the way, bailing them out for any losses. When Trump blocks the app thus taking away a fun part of the internet from millions of Americans, the chilling message sent to tech firms and governments everywhere will be reaffirmed again: The US is an erratic, unreliable bully that can’t be negotiated with, that lashes out frequently whenever pushing others around might be profitable. From world police to the enforcers running the protection racket, our dubious trajectory now increasingly stinks enough to warn the formerly foolish.
I’m not an expert on this but is it even possible for the govt to block internet apps in this way? What if TikTok simply continues as is?
And also, and I guess this may be quaint, but what happened to the first amendment protections agains censorship?
The only way Trump comes out of this looking like anything but an idiot is if the company that owns TikTok surrenders (e.g. sells the app to Microsoft and gives the Trump regime a big cut).
Even setting aside the question of whether Trump’s ban order is legal, it’s unenforceable. Even if American ISPs agree to try to block the app, and even if Google and Apple remove the app from their app stores, users will download it from abroad, “side load” it onto their phones, and use it over Tor/VPNs and other tools that make it hard for their ISPs to see what it is they’re doing.
Exactly. Now, I wonder, is this some kind of inside deal? Trump gets to look “tough” and TikTok gets a few billion cash? After election, everything blows over?
But this stuff with Pompeo is perverse though, and strikes at the whole concept of the world market economy. It will be hard to walk it back …
A question. As I understand from Chinese perspective this is a bigger problem than this popular teen application. Trump order requires any American corporation to stop enabling TikTok. That is not only to prevent
Google or Apple to stop carrying it, but any American component of Internet — in US or abroad — is obliged to obey. This is a message to friend and foe that US can disrupt their operations at will. Imagine if Windows is banned in any country for any unspecified security transgression?
WeChat is even bigger problem. One third of Apple sales are in China — and if Apple smartphones drop WeChat, Chinese will drop Apple. WeChat is their e-commerce, social media, banking, etc rolled up in one.
Is Trump targeting Apple because of its exposure to Chinese market?
“Trump order requires any American corporation to stop enabling TikTok.”
The Trump order might “demand” any American corporation to stop enabling TikTok, but it can’t “require” that any more than it can require water to start freezing at 5 degrees (celsius) instead of zero degrees.
The difference between President Trump and King Canute is that King Canute understood the ocean couldn’t be made to obey his orders.
One more question. Can he then start selectively penalizing American corporations that violate sanctions?
I see potential for a problem similar to Taiwanese chip foundry forced to stop producing Huawei chips because the foundry uses American made equipment. With the company losing big chunk of business it was forced to accept US offer to build a plant in Arizona. Similar to Ericsson having to build in Texas.
Foreign countries will have to asses the risk of being exposed to critical operations being in danger in trade war.
TikTok may amount to nothing, but the message has been sent and received globally. Is this Trump’s way to get American production restarted?
Yes, he could start selectively penalizing corporations that violate the ban — which means that probably the app would only be available from sites within China. Thing is, though, those sites are a mouse click away from Baltimore and Billings and Baton Rouge. The Chinese government has been at its “Great Firewall” project since 1997 and Chinese citizens still download and run whatever they damn well please. The US government isn’t going to catch up even with Beijing’s imperfect efforts any time soon.
No, this isn’t Trump’s way to get American production restarted. For one thing, if by “production” you mean “manufacturing,” it hasn’t stopped yet, although he seems hell-bent on stopping it. It started on a 30-year upward trajectory when NAFTA was ratified and reached its highest point in history shortly after he was inaugurated. He’s been doing his damnedest to kill it ever since but with limited effect. This isn’t about economics. This is about using China as a bogeyman to get re-elected.
And just to be clear, when it comes to “violating” a ban on TikTok:
If I am addressing TikTok or any other app via a VPN tunneling, there’s no way for my ISP to know that it’s TikTok I’m using.
And the only way for the government to know what I’m doing is to be monitoring my computer’s operations at a level prior to the data entering the VPN process (e.g. keystroke logging, Van Eck phreaking, direct visual surveillance through my office window, etc.).
In order for a TikTok ban to be effective, an entire large class of software that’s used for lots of other stuff (VPNs) would have to also be effectually outlawed, OS makers would have to proof their systems against “side loading” schemes, etc. That would be a long-term project that’s a little too overtly totalitarian to happen just yet. We’re on our WAY down the fascist rabbit-hole, but we’re not far enough down it for light not to penetrate.
That Mnuchin is nearly as offensive as Pompeo.
This is just yet another distraction for Trump, so people talk about a phone app rather than the tanking economy or his total lack of responsibility concerning COVID.