Is Oracle Closer to Running TikTok? (politico.com) 32
America's Vice President "expressed confidence Friday that a deal to sell TikTok and keep the social media app running in the U.S. would largely be in place by an April deadline," reports NBC News. (Specifically the Vice President said "There will almost certainly be a high-level agreement that I think satisfies our national security concerns, allows there to be a distinct American TikTok enterprise.")
The article adds that TikTok owner ByteDance "has not publicly confirmed negotiations with any potential U.S. buyer, nor has it confirmed its willingness to sell TikTok to a U.S. bidder." But ByteDance "favors" a deal with Oracle, according to an X.com post on Thursday from tech-publication The Information.
And today Politico adds that Oracle "is accelerating talks with the White House on a deal to run TikTok, though significant concerns remain about what role the app's Chinese founders will play in its ongoing U.S. operation, according to three people familiar with the discussions." [Oracle's discussions are happening] amid ongoing warnings from congressional Republicans and other China hawks that any new ownership deal — if it keeps TikTok's underlying technology in Chinese hands — could be only a surface-level fix to the security concerns that led to last year's sweeping bipartisan ban of the app. Key lawmakers, including concerned Republicans, are bringing in Oracle this week to discuss the possible deal and rising national security concerns, according to four people familiar with the meetings. One of the three people familiar with the discussions with Oracle said the deal would essentially require the U.S. government to depend on Oracle to oversee the data of American users and ensure the Chinese government doesn't have a backdoor to it — a promise the person warned would be impossible to keep.
"If the Oracle deal moves forward, you still have this [algorithm] controlled by the Chinese...."
The data security company HaystackID, which serves as independent security inspectors for TikTok U.S., said in February that it has found no indications of internal or external malicious activity — nor has it identified any protected U.S. user data that has been shared with China.
The article adds that TikTok owner ByteDance "has not publicly confirmed negotiations with any potential U.S. buyer, nor has it confirmed its willingness to sell TikTok to a U.S. bidder." But ByteDance "favors" a deal with Oracle, according to an X.com post on Thursday from tech-publication The Information.
And today Politico adds that Oracle "is accelerating talks with the White House on a deal to run TikTok, though significant concerns remain about what role the app's Chinese founders will play in its ongoing U.S. operation, according to three people familiar with the discussions." [Oracle's discussions are happening] amid ongoing warnings from congressional Republicans and other China hawks that any new ownership deal — if it keeps TikTok's underlying technology in Chinese hands — could be only a surface-level fix to the security concerns that led to last year's sweeping bipartisan ban of the app. Key lawmakers, including concerned Republicans, are bringing in Oracle this week to discuss the possible deal and rising national security concerns, according to four people familiar with the meetings. One of the three people familiar with the discussions with Oracle said the deal would essentially require the U.S. government to depend on Oracle to oversee the data of American users and ensure the Chinese government doesn't have a backdoor to it — a promise the person warned would be impossible to keep.
"If the Oracle deal moves forward, you still have this [algorithm] controlled by the Chinese...."
The data security company HaystackID, which serves as independent security inspectors for TikTok U.S., said in February that it has found no indications of internal or external malicious activity — nor has it identified any protected U.S. user data that has been shared with China.
Weirder things were done by Oracle.They bought Sun (Score:3)
Weirder things were done by Oracle.
They bought Sun Microsystems, for example.
Re:Weirder things were done by Oracle.They bought (Score:4, Funny)
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Not really. https://www.reuters.com/articl... [reuters.com]
You kiss the ring and he grants favors.
Re: (Score:2)
Like way back when Microsoft bought Skype? Rumours were they got paid to buy it so that Skype didn't put in end to end encryption in calls. Wasn't Skype Israeli or something? Either way, they were starting to get "skype buttons" on landline phones - they were something of the "disruptor to POTs calling" back in the day. As I recall, one of the first things Microsoft did with it was to put in some sort of transcript service, which necessarily meant it could decrypt the encrypted streams.
Microsoft bought (bro
Betteridge says "no". (Score:5, Informative)
Have there been any official statements from the involved parties about any sale? Last I heard Tiktok has indicated they would not be selling, and the only people who claim that is going to happen are connected to the Trump administration.
More of this weird idea from the Orange One that he can force someone to sell something he wants (and no, Trumptards, a ban in the U.S. does not mean they have to sell).
Re: (Score:3)
And he's paying off Uncle Larry for his "support". He had that rotting fish in the Oval Orifice and was heaping praise on him for something stupid, and Uncle Larry was basking in it. So now he gets TikTok. As with everything by el Bunko, look for the trail of money back to his bank account.
Whole damn scam is so obvious (Score:1)
Oracle was created by the CIA... (Score:4, Insightful)
This is gross. If Tik Tok is dangerous, it shouldn't exist. If it isn't dangerous then the government shouldn't be taking it over.
Re:Oracle was created by the CIA... (Score:4, Insightful)
This is misleading.
"And that the CIA was Oracle’s first customer." (almost 50 years ago, I might add) is not the same as "Oracle was literally created by the CIA"
Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying they're not cosy with each other, but by misrepresenting reality you are making the point weaker, not stronger.
Re: Oracle was created by the CIA... (Score:2)
Hard disagree. If your first customer is the CIA, rather than a bunch of Mom and pop shops? You were created by the CIA. You already had your hands in the government pie and they helped create you so that you could help the CIA.
Re: (Score:2)
Tik Tok is an entertainment platform. That's what counts as important for "national security" these days.
I'd be nice if the government would focus on consumer protections, which would improve the situation across ALL platforms, but hey... they have their priorities.
The damage is already done for Tiktok (Score:2)
If we had a choice: (Score:4, Funny)
Trump Wants Oracle to Own TikTok (Score:3)
This is interesting because the original reason Trump hated TikTok is because it's the platform people used to coordinate mass reservations of tickets for his rally in Tulsa which they had no intention of attending. And if Oracle owns TikTok, Trump won't need to get warrants for TikTokers' data - he just needs to phone his buddy Larry, who will likely be more than happy to provide the data of anyone who expresses anti-Trump sentiments. At that point, he'll have side-channels to every major social media platform (other than Bluesky).
Fun fact multiple states are flooded right now (Score:2, Interesting)
Last year a new phrase entered the American lexicon, sane washing. It refers to how every time the Republican candidate did something balls to walls insane The news media collectively got together and talked about how i
Re: Fun fact multiple states are flooded right now (Score:1)
Wow, an AC with a pro Trump opinion?
Shocked.
Kids are smarter than politicians (Score:2)
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The size of TikTok is similar to the size of Facebook.
You have to stop looking at internet things from your American perspective, why you think TikTok comes from china? Oh, because there is a China on the other side of the planet. So simple. ... she is to busy as admin on a few Facebook pages.
And China is surrounded by Asian countries. I only know one single person that is not on TikTok
Also it is hard to imagine that someone will make a better TikTok, and people migrate there. A platform needs to be markete
Spelling (Score:3)
You spelled RUINING wrong.
PLEASE! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
MariaDB is the open source, non-Oracle, fork of MySQL. It's not an Oracle product, it's a fork of something that was acquired by Oracle, I believe based upon the last non-Oracle release of that product.
Other products you could have mentioned would be Java and VirtualBox, alas both also being products Oracle acquired, and acquired the same way they did MySQL - via their purchase of Sun Microsystems. Alas Sun was a pretty cool company that managed a lot of great free and open source projects, Oracle buying th
Oracle buying TikTok is like MS buying Skype (Score:2)
Hello massive write-off, say goodbye to your beloved TikTok.