US Treasury To Make Recommendation on TikTok To Trump This Week (reuters.com) 35
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Wednesday that popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok was under a national security review and that his agency would make a recommendation to the president on the app this week. From a report: The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks and is led by Treasury, is looking at TikTok, Mnuchin told reporters at the White House. The committee has the power to force companies to unwind deals or put in place measures to protect U.S. national security. "TikTok is under CFIUS review. We will be making a recommendation to the president this week so we have lots of alternatives," he said.
Better title (Score:2)
Treasury Tells Trump to Totally Trash TikTok
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I also think so, Tik Tok will be completely banned
In the USA you cannot really do that. You can ban it on government owned devices, but that's about it.
Now, Apple *could* remove it from the store for USA devices, but somehow I doubt they are interested in doing that on their own and try as he might, Trump cannot order them to do this.
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Trump has a good reason not to ban TikTok, Trump has a huge following on TikTok with news being shared that isn't visible on the main outlets. TikTok has basically become a place for oppressed conservatives to share news, identify as Trump supporters, and support others that aren't hearing their voice reflected in mainstream media.
But that is a great example of one reason why foreign interests should not have a stake in TikTok. 1. Identify individuals with various political leanings and id them with account
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It's still well within the fed's right to prohibit a business from operating within the US. Honestly, the death penalty should only apply to corporations, not people. Instead, we got it backwards.
Why Treasury? (Score:3)
Wouldn't this be the NSA's purview? Why would Treasury be looking into this?
Re:Why Treasury? (Score:4, Insightful)
Wouldn't this be the NSA's purview? Why would Treasury be looking into this?
Because Munchkin is a Trump political appointee as Secretary of the Treasury and can be relied upon to tell Trump exactly what he wants to hear. DIRNSA is a career military officer and will give technically appropriate advice rather than what Trump wants said. Therefore it's a Treasury issue, not an NSA issue.
Heck, it could be an Education issue (Betsy DeVos) or a DoJ issue (William Barr) or any other Trump puppet, I guess in this case it was Munchkin's turn. Anyone want to guess what the pronouncement will be?
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Anyone want to guess what the pronouncement will be?
Munchkin gets fired?
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Your speculative jabs at the administration aside, TikTok is Chinese Communist Party spyware. The sooner it's gone, the better.
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Believe it or not, the Chinese government is not your friend. I know, hard to believe because Orange Man Bad and everyone else Good.
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I'm no fan of the Chinese government, but I have yet to wrap my head around how them watching our teenagers and twenty somethings do stupid dances back and forth is some major national security threat. Is there some part of the government using TikTok to pass top secret information back and forth?
This whole thing seems like a whole lot of nothing when compared with the actual problems we have in front of us right now.
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Because TikTok has access to your phone's contact lists, camera, microphone, gps, internet access, auto-start / background enabled, SD card, and plenty else besides. Think about the implications of that - of what a simple software update could instruct that app to do if it found a sensitive target. That's the justification.
Of course, I think it's also pretty obvious is that TikTok is a pawn in a much larger geopolitical chess game. Huawei was at least a rook.
That being said, I'm not exactly unhappy about
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So does EVERY OTHER APP. EVERY ONE. Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. Amazon. Gmail. All of them. There's nothing special about "Tik Tok".
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And this right here is called whataboutism. The difference between Google, Facebook and all the other silicon valley tech companies and Tik Tok is that one happens to the part of a nation state that is flaunting international law, committing ethnic cleansing on several groups and disappears people whom they disagree with.
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Also, what about the thousands of other Chinese government funded "apps"? Heck, Tik Tok isn't even the most popular by a mile. What about WeChat? If this was really about security from the Chinese government, Tik Tok wouldn't be A. the only "app" that Congress would be concerned about and B. it wouldn't be the first.
As such, it's obvious that there's some other underlying reason for Congress to go
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happens to the part of a nation state that is flaunting international law, committing ethnic cleansing on several groups and disappears people whom they disagree with.
I see your point about the US, but despite them having done all that people still deal with them.
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That's true. But how many Americans are genuinely at risk of being kidnapped by the government of China?
Funny you should ask that. [macleans.ca]
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Nothing different about TikTok... except for their close ties with China, who has been extremely aggressive this past decade in conducting near-open cyber espionage with the US and others [nbcnews.com]. So it appears the US govt and a few others are finally getting a bit tired of putting up with China's aggressive actions [nbcnews.com], and has decided anyone tied to China no longer gets the benefit of the doubt like they used to.
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Just because you can't think of any strategic military, economic or intelligence purpose doesn't mean their is one. That's not a way to prosecute a cold war.
We know how to handle genocidal imperialistic dictatorships. We've beaten several. I don't know why everyone has all of a sudden forgotten that and is so willing to appease again.
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The sudden meteoric rise of Tik Tok has the Chinese oligarch elites' fingerprints all over it to ride its stock price.
This kicks them in the nuts. Good.
"How unfair!" Whuuuuuuut? China is forcing western companies to export censorship into its products in exchange for access to the Chinese market. Hollywood, sports, look at those two-faced bastards as they look the other way for Hong Kong, if not outright be apologists for it. The same companies that boycott (properly IMO) various US states if they do t
Re: Why Treasury? (Score:2)
As an average American, it's better to be spied on by China than it is to be spied on by the NSA or Facebook. It's problematic, but ultimately, what is China going to do to me?
It totally makes sense for the government and election campaigns to get rid of it, though.
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Why make the recommendation on TikTok? (Score:1)
I was going to ask why the US Treasury is posting an important communication to the president on TikTok, but it occurred to me that with this particular president, watching something on TikTok might be the only way to get information to him.
How do they have the time.. (Score:2)
...to make such a recommendation?
I mean, when you're passing multiple, multiple-$trillion congressional bills that hand people ceaseless rivers of money (atop already running a regular 20-25% budget deficit annually, for decades), I'd assume everyone at treasury would be working like galley slaves keeping the money-printers running full steam 24/7?
the real question is... (Score:2)
Anyone that has half a clue has already figured out that Trump doesn't listen to recommendations, unless they're his.
The recommendations have been released: (Score:2)
The department's top recommendations to Trump on TikTok are:
- Don't post a videos of himself taking any "difficult" tests.
- Avoid posting videos to "Gummy Bear" since the dance doesn't fit his build.
- Start by posting duets with the other 2 Republican TikTokkers.
- Repost BLM protest videos with the #2SPOOKY hashtag.
- If any videos become unpopular, blame Obama or Hillary Clinton.