• firadin@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    6 months ago

    You’re assuming its a profit-focused endeavor rather than a propaganda arm of the Chinese government.

    • kirklennon@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      I think it’s a privately-owned, profit-focused endeavor that is nevertheless beholden to the Chinese government and which the government wants to take as much advantage of as possible. Deep down, I’m certain that their sole goal is to make as much money for themselves as they possibly can. If they also need to exfiltrate some data and send it to the CCP, that’s just a necessary business expense.

      • firadin@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        Not US corporation good, just US corporation = US controlled. This isn’t a morality play, it’s a national security play.

    • Buttons@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      If TikTok’s purpose is to spread Chinese propaganda, can’t they just find a US Citizen that can run the website for them?

      “Yeah, it’s my personal website where I exercise my 1st Amendment rights, also it has 100 million daily users and I happen to agree with China on a lot of things.” If a US Citizen were to say this, there would be nothing illegal about it I think?

      • firadin@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        Well China is refusing to divest, i.e. sell it to a US owner so clearly that’s not an option for them. If it was about the money they would have.

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        We are talking about the same country right? The US committed the fucking Tuskegee experiments, MK ultra, and more recently Gitmo as a whole. If some dumbfuck wants to be a Chinese puppet I wouldnt put it past the feds to off em, shame they commited suicide by shooting themself in the back of the head twelve times with a shotgun.

        • Buttons@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          Okay, but I’m more interested in intra-legal reasons this couldn’t be done.

          I’m sure they could find 2, 3, or 3000 US Citizens who are willing to sell out to China, and then TikTok would be owned by US Citizens, but would still be doing what China wants.

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            6 months ago

            I was moreso pointing out the obvious and quick solution. On a more legal situation, I suspect that said individual could be taken down as a foreign agent, most of the laws around that shit from the cold war are still on the books. The fact of the matter is youre are coming at this from the perspective that we dont have laws around what foreign agents are allowed to do, Americans can certainly be foreign agents just ask my 2x great grandfather who was snitching on the Bund who were almost all American born.