Amazon Makes Last Minute Offer for TikTok as Ban Looms

[mansplains]

Basically it will give other countries the green light to block ban Facebook, Google etc. what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

China already does this. They don’t wait for western nations to greenlight such actions.

 

[SactoGuy18]

The whole point of TikTok being so valuable is it's AI. There's a really good algorithm. Nobody is reviewing the 30 million videos that are uploaded to the platform every day.

The U.S. law says TikTok must sell the super valuable algo, which would never happen.

This is why Amazon (in my opinion) may be willing to pay up to US$30 billion for it. And integrate the TikTok AI into Amazon's own internal AI.

 

[JPack]

China already does this. They don’t wait for western nations to greenlight such actions.

It's quite different. Facebook and others were unwilling to comply with local laws hand over user data. We know those companies already comply, but only to the U.S. gov.

The U.S. law is basically, "hand me the crown jewels for a single lump sum."

 

[JPack]

This is why Amazon (in my opinion) may be willing to pay up to US$30 billion for it. And integrate the TikTok AI into Amazon's own internal AI.

Of course they're willing to pay that little. The company is worth closer to $200B.

Whoever has the algo in hand can then create a competitor to TikTok globally, including China. Why would ByteDance agree to something so dumb?

It's like asking Apple to hand over the keys and code to iOS for $100B. Nobody in the right mind would do it.

 

[Tr55]

There is really a simple solution.

Reciprocal bans.

China doesn’t allow any American social media company to operate in China. Doesn’t allow every American technology company to sell their wares in China either, lots of restrictions and bans.

 

[picpicmac]

Trump plans to meet with White House officials on Wednesday to discuss what will happen with TikTok

Why is this thread not in the Politics forum?

Because... this is all politics. Always has been.

And the Act as made by Congress and signed by Biden is worthy of a conversation... that belongs in the Politics forum.

 

[CEmajr]

There is really a simple solution.

Reciprocal bans.

China doesn’t allow any American social media company to operate in China. Doesn’t allow every American technology company to sell their wares in China either, lots of restrictions and bans.

China already bans US social media in their country.

 

[CrysisDeu]

I think there are about 6 countries that would follow the US' lead.

That’s exactly why Bytedance and China won’t sell it.

 

[CrysisDeu]

There is really a simple solution.

Reciprocal bans.

China doesn’t allow any American social media company to operate in China. Doesn’t allow every American technology company to sell their wares in China either, lots of restrictions and bans.

So what moral high grounds can US still hold if it does the same thing China does?

 

[Tr55]

So what moral high grounds can US still hold if it does the same thing China does?

The moral high ground and $5 will get you a cup of coffee.

 

[Tr55]

China already bans US social media in their country.

That was my point, the USA should reciprocate the China bans.

ByteDance can sell TikTok or close it, their choice.

 

[Student of Life]

China already does this. They don’t wait for western nations to greenlight such actions.

I was thinking more like Europe doing the ban.

 

[CarAnalogy]

The U.S. needs TikTok more than TikTok needs the U.S. We've already seen this with ByteDance accepting the ban.

I would like to hear more about why you think this. Seems to me it's a US targeted psy-op so without US operations it's pointless.

 

[CarAnalogy]

100% of TikTok in the U.S. already goes through Oracle.

Delivering on our US data governance - Newsroom | TikTok

TikTok is the world's leading destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world's creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter in everyday life. TikTok empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones, and is committed to building a...

newsroom.tiktok.com

For more than a year, we've been working with Oracle on several measures as part of our commercial relationship to better safeguard our app, systems, and the security of US user data. We've now reached a significant milestone in that work: we've changed the default storage location of US user data. Today, 100% of US user traffic is being routed to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. We still use our US and Singapore data centers for backup, but as we continue our work we expect to delete US users' private data from our own data centers and fully pivot to Oracle cloud servers located in the US.


Oracle audits their systems to make sure data is secure.

TikTok Facts: How we secure personal information and store data - Newsroom | TikTok

TikTok is the world's leading destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world's creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter in everyday life. TikTok empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones, and is committed to building a...

newsroom.tiktok.com

As of July 2022, all new U.S. user data is stored automatically in Oracle's U.S. Cloud infrastructure, and access is managed exclusively by the TikTok US Data Security team. USDS is dedicated to making every U.S. user on TikTok feel safe and confident their data is secure and that the platform is free from outside influence. To help ensure that there is no unauthorized access to our systems, such as no "backdoors" or data leakage, Oracle and a third-party source code inspector will work to ensure that everything is performing as intended.


This is completely different to how Apple operates in China where Apple's datacenters are operated/controlled by China.

They used to be in China and operated by Apple in China with US controlled encryption keys, and then the Chinese said that's not good enough, we need the decryption keys.

That's my recollection anyway, and the real point. Doesn't really matter where the servers are if all the useful data on them is encrypted before it gets there with keys that reside on systems outside the country.

 

[JPack]

I would like to hear more about why you think this. Seems to me it's a US targeted psy-op so without US operations it's pointless.

Only 25% of ByteDance revenue comes from outside China. A fraction of that is from the U.S.

China invented live streaming e-commerce and Douyin was built for that purpose. TikTok was built for outside China. Not everything is about Americans. If they want to ban it like India, Somalia, etc. that's fine.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Only 25% of ByteDance revenue comes from outside China. A fraction of that is from the U.S.

China invented live streaming e-commerce and Douyin was built for that purpose. TikTok was built for outside China. Not everything is about Americans. If they want to ban it like India, Somalia, etc. that's fine.

I see then why perhaps they don't need the US. I don't see why the US needs TikTok.

 

[JPack]

I see then why perhaps they don't need the US. I don't see why the US needs TikTok.

A few million small business jobs have been created due to the app, which is why he's trying to keep it.

 

[Jetscreamer]

This is the equivalent of China asking the U.S. to sell Apple to Chinese investors.

 

[drrich2]

TikTok has value for a number of reasons - enormous pre-existing user base and vast amount of content, powerful brand recognition and, from what others have said, apparently this particularly valuable algorithm.

While it would be hard for a new offering to break into the market niche and gain the critical mass user base to take over TikTok's role, this situation raises a question...

How hard would it be for Meta, Alphabet, X or Amazon, given their vast financial and technological resources, to create an algorithm that's roughly comparable to TikTok's in function?

In other words, how difficult would it be for them, with their enormous wealth and high end technical talent, to reverse engineer the TikTok algorithm well enough?

 

[svish]

Will be interesting to see what happens to this over the next few days. Will not be surprised that if it is not available in the US again.

 

[TroyBoy30]

shut it down. the world would be a better place.

 

[picpicmac]

And integrate the TikTok AI into Amazon's own internal AI.

And Twitch... and IMDB.... and ....

 

[picpicmac]

and $5 will get you a cup of coffee.

Did you know the US imports all the coffee we use?

Just sayin'.

 

[Tr55]

Did you know the US imports all the coffee we use?

Just sayin'.

Who else are they going to sell their coffee to?

The US is doing things only they can do.

I’m not American, my country couldn’t pull this off.

 

[webkit]

This is the equivalent of China asking the U.S. to sell Apple to Chinese investors.

Not really. TikTok is just one of ByteDance's products. The U.S. isn't asking for the entire ByteDance company to be sold.

This would be more like China asking Apple to sell a single product (e.g., Safari, TV+, Music, etc.) to Chinese investors and specifically the portion of it used in the China market.