TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the U.S., four sources said.
    • LostXOR
      11•24 days ago

      I’d assume they’ll tell ISPs to block TikTok’s domains/IPs. It won’t stop determined people but it’s realistically the best they can do.

      • AJ Sadauskas
        10•24 days ago

        @LostXOR @yogthos @NoIWontPickAName @technology There’s a few other steps they could potentially take.

        The first would be to block any financial institution in the US, or that deals with the US, from sending any payments to or from ByteDance’s accounts.

        They could also freeze any assets currently held by US financial institutions.

        Second, if they can get Apple, Microsoft, and Google on board to help do their bidding, they could pull the ByteDance app from the Apple and Google Play app stores.

        That includes removing it from any apps where it’s already installed. Globally.

        They could also request that TikTok is removed from Google and Bing search results.

        On top of this, they could do what you suggested, and ask ISPs and mobile carriers to block domains and IP addresses used by ByteDance.

        And the US could apply diplomatic pressure on other countries to implement similar financial and ISP-level blocks and bans.

        So, potentially, it’s also blocked in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and elsewhere.

        • @bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          12•24 days ago

          No need to guess, it’s all outlined in the bill:

          1. ByteDance has 270 days (+90 days at president discretion) to divest of TikTok and sell to an entity not affiliated with an “adversary country” (China, Iran, Russia, N. Korea).
          2. If they don’t sell, hosting providers of TikTok application (servers, storage, app store, etc) will be fined up to $500 times the number of users in the US if they continue to host the application
          3. ISPs are explicitly excluded from the bill, and not considered data brokers, which is what the restrictions apply to.

          So basically, the law will not require ISPs to block access to TikTok domains and IP addresses. Google search results are also explicitly excluded from the term data broker, and exempt from the restrictions. The only requirement is for app stores to stop hosting the application, so existing installations of the app (after January 2025 assuming ByteDance doesn’t sell) will presumably persist and can be used, even if TikTok is banned.

    • @Xatolos@reddthat.com
      7•24 days ago

      They have the app stores ban it from being downloaded if you are in the USA. This is already done, and app stores aren’t affected by on device VPNs, so it wouldn’t be that easy to get around.

      For example, you can’t download this app since (I’m guessing) you live in the USA, similar enough. It’s geolocked. Same will happen with Tiktok.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
      33•24 days ago

      I think there’s a zero chance China would allow the sale. Imagine the precedent giving into such mob tactics would set. US could just go after any successful Chinese company doing business in US and demand that it’s sold off to American oligarchs.

      • Jeena
        0•24 days ago

        Exactly, this asset is worth nothing to the CPP if sold.

        If it was a fully private company which is supposed to make money, they would sell it and move on to invest their money somewhere else.

        Regulating the market is important and is not done enough in the US, last time was decades ago with AT&T and Standard Oil. Today they should have broken up Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. To prevent monopolies but they don’t.

        But yeah, politically it’s much easier to go after a Chinese company.

        • @davelAEnglish
          18•24 days ago

          Exactly, this asset is worth nothing to the CPP if sold.

          TikTok is worth approximately nothing to the CPC either way. It’s not like the Chinese state is hurting for money. They have a surplus of US dollars that they’re busy unloading, and they have fiat monetary sovereignty of their own currency. The app is banned in China, so nobody there is going to miss it. Who is invested in ByteDance that might care? American private equity: ByteDance’s US investors weigh options as bill to ban TikTok advances

          • Jeena
            -12•24 days ago

            You’re missing my point that it’s not money the CCP is after but influence and power abroad. They already have absolute power at home.

            • @davelAEnglish
              18•24 days ago

              specter This is silly. It’s an exaggeration to even call it a Chinese company.

              [Singaporean CEO Shou] Chew added that 60% of ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors such as the Carlyle Group, General Atlantic and Susquehanna International Group, while 20% of the firm is owned by Zhang and 20% owned by employees around the world. Three of the company’s five board members are Americans, he said.

              • Aatube
                -3•24 days ago

                ByteDance’s owners include investors outside of China (60%), its founders and Chinese investors (20%), and employees (20%).[35] In 2021, the state-owned China Internet Investment Fund purchased a 1% stake in ByteDance’s main Chinese subsidiary, Beijing ByteDance Technology (formerly Beijing Douyin Information Service), as a golden share investment[36][37][38] and seated Wu Shugang, a government official with a background in government propaganda, as one of the subsidiary’s board members.[39][40][41]
                —Wikipedia, check article for sources

                In business and finance, a golden share is a nominal share which is able to outvote all other shares in certain specified circumstances

                From the article you linked:

                Is ByteDance Chinese?

                Definitely.

                Does the Chinese government own or control ByteDance or TikTok?

                Chew has emphatically told Congress that ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government.

                However, like most other Chinese companies, ByteDance is legally compelled to establish an in-house Communist Party committee composed of employees who are party members.

                Analysts have said the “golden shares” provide a way for the Chinese government to get more directly involved with the day-to-day businesses of tech companies, including in the content they provide to the public.

                Chew has admitted that the “golden share” exists. But he said it was for the purpose of internet licensing for the Chinese business.

                In 2018, China amended its National Intelligence Law, which requires any organization or citizen to support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence work.

                That means ByteDance is legally bound to help with gathering intelligence.

                In 2021, China introduced a new data security law, which applies to data processing activities conducted outside of the country that may “harm the national security or public interests.”

                There is also a cybersecurity law in China, which says the state will take measures to monitor, prevent and handle cybersecurity risks and threats “arising both within and outside the PRC’s territory.”

                These vague and broad laws apply to technology companies and may be used to regulate them.

                • @davelAEnglish
                  15•24 days ago

                  Is ByteDance Chinese?

                  Definitely.

                  shocked-pikachu

                  Whelp if corporate American media says that then it must be true 😆

  • Ecksell
    7•24 days ago

    They are not giving up the algorithm, simple as that.

  • @maculata@aussie.zone
    -8•24 days ago

    This is purely about subversive influence on the vulnerable and easily influenced people who use the platform, not about money.