Honestly, Microsoft could purchase TikTok in its entirety and I still wouldn’t believe that it’s anything more than a front for the Chinese government. MS has a reputation for being exceedingly cozy with governments.
No matter how they try to spin off or rebrand this product or abandon ties to the old parent company, I’d never trust it as much as something entirely new.
If the NSA tried putting out a social media network, nobody would trust it. If they sold it off completely and had zero official NSA employees, nobody would trust it. And rightfully so. TikTok feels the same to me.
> If the NSA tried putting out a social media network, nobody would trust it.
How ironic to see this statement on HN, when almost every American trusts Google or Facebook despite them being PRISM partners and subject to the control of the NSA.
To lower the asking price further, I think. If you can lower it by a few billions by threatening to use an executive order, someone is going to use that power.
Or maybe they just want to ban TikTok and the above conspiracy theory is BS.
The first amendment is a negative right: it forbids the government from acting. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech..." The Supreme Court has historically ruled on a regular basis that most US Constitutional protections extend to non citizens too. Unfortunately the conservatively biased Supreme Court last month decided that interfering with freedom of speech is OK against a foreign company. A loss for freedom and a victory for authoritarianism.
Furthermore, historically our country merely postures about rights. They go out the window when politicians start using words like “national security.”
I'm not partial to tiktok at all but this is way to much of a big government move than I feel comfortable with.
Isn't this a violation of our first amendment rights?