• trebuchet@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      But how does that help capitalists make more money by eliminating their competition?

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    There will be a rush of US startups to replace it, and they will all be stage 1 enshittification, so they might actually be good for a while, like TikTok once was.

  • Vent@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    If they said or implied anything else, they would lose all leverage. The public couldn’t care less about who owns tiktok, so they need people to think they’ll lose it to have any public support.

      • jaybone@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I love how the media has thrown around the word algorithm. They don’t need to sell their algorithm for a competitor to compete. An algorithm produces some result output. So you could easily clone an algorithm without knowing its exact implementation.

        Maybe I know quicksort, but you know mergesort. The customer doesn’t give a fuck which algorithm was used, so long as it’s sorted.

        • bamboo@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          This is a bad take. Yes, “algorithm” is a vague term, but it’s incorrect to suggest that they’re easily cloned. These algorithms are what makes social media companies. Without them, they wouldn’t have the same kind of user engagement. It’s why, outside of the fediverse, social media companies try to hide or demote linear timelines. It’s why they pour most of the R&D money into the recommendation algorithms.

              • jaybone@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                That was my original point. The media and hence business / management use this term (incorrectly)

                They could just say IP, or platform, or service, or implementation. But I guess saying algorithm makes everyone sound smart.

  • squid_slime@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    I do wonder if this is america being anti communist as history has shown before. Not to say China is actually communist but the economic system is hybrid socialist/capitalist and China is catching up or surpassing america so with this said what’s to say america starts using this tactic against more of chinas Chinese owned exports?

    Beyond that america has meta which has done much the same as tiktok, targeting youth, furthering mental health issue, spying, anti trust and coverups yet they get a slap on the wrists.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Anti communist? With everything else we buy from China, this is the tipping point to be anti-communist? How about all the US social media platforms that China won’t let in? Is that “anti-capitalist?”

      • squid_slime@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        socialism has always been anti capitalism. socialism is based on principles like international revolution and a highly configured economic structures whereas capitalism is extraction of capital which western countries have been doing in china as much as china will allow but this isn’t what i am arguing.

        something to keep in mind is that we don’t buy tiktok, similarly to meta and alphabet (google).

        brief easy to read history of cold war activity.

        Cuba and North Korea (the forgotten war) are both good to look in to. i hope the history can bring context to my previous statement as geopolitics is never as it seems.

        • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          While I appreciate the additional info, that really doesn’t add to the conversation about what the tipping point is for the parent comment.

          • squid_slime@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            i was not talking about a tipping point, i was focused on the geopolitics in my original comment.

            Anti communist? With everything else we buy from China

            would you argue America to be pro communist?

            this is the tipping point to be anti-communist?

            maybe but i’ll be honest, i dont know what you mean by this, the fight against communism has been a steady state of proxy wars, embargoes, surveillance and propaganda campaigns, so i would definitely say banning tiktok sits within embargo and propaganda.

            How about all the US social media platforms that China won’t let in?

            yea socialism is apposed/untrusting of capitalist products, usually seen as exploitive by the communist this is due in part to the never ending revolution.

            Is that “anti-capitalist?”

            100%

            • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              I didn’t argue that we are pro-communist.

              The point of my observation was that the premise of the TikTok sale is “anti-communist” and that it’s being brought up at all against the background of all the existing, deep economic ties between the US and China. IOW the US putting its foot down on TikTok is anti-communist, but accepting everything else gets a pass?

              Funny that you point out the mistrust of (in this context of social media) western products as being exploitative when the Chinese exploitation of data and use of algorithms to manipulate what we see on TikTok is exactly one of the reasons the US wants the sale.

              • squid_slime@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                you make a good point that Tiktok is doing some shady stuff but meta were court covertly collecting data from Snapchat through unknowing users devices.

                Facebook whistleblowers testimony where she speaks of fb knowing the harm the platform does, and knows that fb targets minors even though Facebook has a minimum age 13.

                should Facebook be banned or at least forced to sell? this is why the fiasco is coming across as anti-communist, an extension of cold war hostilities.

                IOW the US putting its foot down on TikTok is anti-communist, but accepting everything else gets a pass

                Tiktok offers no financial incentive to America unlike Chinese exports, apple are not about to pay a reasonable amount to create an iPhone in America, china is in a pretty good position with its fabrication and engineering, consumer products or even solar panels are far superior to what America can make on a similar budget.

                Funny that you point out the mistrust of (in this context of social media) western products as being exploitative when the Chinese exploitation of data and use of algorithms to manipulate what we see on TikTok is exactly one of the reasons the US wants the sale.

                this is because you view things through a capitalist scope, i am guilty of this too. Facebook as linked in the above article does the same.

                • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  They are not the same. One manipulates and exploits its own country’s citizens for profit, the other exploits and manipulates both its own and citizens of other countries for profit and government data collection.

                  While TikTok doesn’t offer financial incentive to any US corporation, it certainly offers incentives to the users of the platform.

                  Let’s not move the goalposts/butwhatabout to talking about minors using social media or Chinese manufacturing, that’s too much to get into and keep it focused on the communist/capitalist debate and why TikTok is being treated as it is.

  • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    If the Chinese government is behind this, it’s a great play. Having Joe Biden be “the guy who banned tik tok” would severely undermine his election chances.

  • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    First, negotiations are not yet over, so they’re hoping courts overturn the ban.

    Second, TikTok is very popular outside the US too, though 40% of ad revenue is in the US. They’d survive.

    • kevincox@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      Even if they do plan to sell they wouldn’t say it. If buyers think that a sale is inevitable they can offer less because they “don’t have a choice” but to sell. If they act as if their plan is to pull out the buyers need to not just make them an offer that is higher than the others, but also high enough to make them reconsider their whole position.

      • rockitude@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        This is right on. The best PR right now is to say they’ll never sell. Take a hard line while they challenge the law in court. They can always have acquisition meetings in private, and announce it out of nowhere at the last second if they do find a buyer.