Trump, Who Promised To Save TikTok, Threatens To Shut Down TikTok (arstechnica.com) 96
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Donald Trump vowed to save TikTok before taking office, claiming only he could make a deal to keep the app operational in the US despite national security concerns. But then, he put Vice President JD Vance in charge of the deal, and after months of negotiations, the US still doesn't seem to have found terms for a sale that the Chinese government is willing to approve. Now, Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has confirmed that if China won't approve the latest version of the deal -- which could result in a buggy version of TikTok made just for the US -- the administration is willing to shut down TikTok. And soon.
On Thursday, Lutnick told CNBC that TikTok would stop operating in the US if China and TikTok owner ByteDance won't sell the app to buyers that Trump lined up, along with control over TikTok's algorithm. Under the deal Trump is now pushing, "China can have a little piece or ByteDance, the current owner, can keep a little piece," Lutnick said. "But basically, Americans will have control. Americans will own the technology, and Americans will control the algorithm." However, ByteDance's board has long maintained that the US can alleviate its national security fears -- that China may be using the popular app to manipulate and spy on Americans -- without forcing a sale. In January, a ByteDance board member, Bill Ford, told World Economic Forum attendees that a non-sale option "could involve a change of control locally to ensure" TikTok "complies with US legislation" without selling off the app or its algorithm.
At this point, Lutnick suggested that the US is unwilling to bend on the requirement that the US control the recommendation algorithm, which is viewed as the secret sauce that makes the app so popular globally. ByteDance may be unwilling to sell the algorithm partly because then it would be sharing its core intellectual property with competitors in the US. Earlier this month, Trump had claimed that he wasn't "confident" that China would approve the deal, even though he thought it was "good for China." Analysts have suggested that China views TikTok as a bargaining chip in its tariff negotiations with Trump, which continue to not go smoothly, and it may be OK with the deal but unwilling to release the bargaining chip without receiving key concessions from the US. For now, the US and China are enjoying a 90-day truce that could end in August, about a month before the deadline Trump set to sell TikTok in mid-September.
On Thursday, Lutnick told CNBC that TikTok would stop operating in the US if China and TikTok owner ByteDance won't sell the app to buyers that Trump lined up, along with control over TikTok's algorithm. Under the deal Trump is now pushing, "China can have a little piece or ByteDance, the current owner, can keep a little piece," Lutnick said. "But basically, Americans will have control. Americans will own the technology, and Americans will control the algorithm." However, ByteDance's board has long maintained that the US can alleviate its national security fears -- that China may be using the popular app to manipulate and spy on Americans -- without forcing a sale. In January, a ByteDance board member, Bill Ford, told World Economic Forum attendees that a non-sale option "could involve a change of control locally to ensure" TikTok "complies with US legislation" without selling off the app or its algorithm.
At this point, Lutnick suggested that the US is unwilling to bend on the requirement that the US control the recommendation algorithm, which is viewed as the secret sauce that makes the app so popular globally. ByteDance may be unwilling to sell the algorithm partly because then it would be sharing its core intellectual property with competitors in the US. Earlier this month, Trump had claimed that he wasn't "confident" that China would approve the deal, even though he thought it was "good for China." Analysts have suggested that China views TikTok as a bargaining chip in its tariff negotiations with Trump, which continue to not go smoothly, and it may be OK with the deal but unwilling to release the bargaining chip without receiving key concessions from the US. For now, the US and China are enjoying a 90-day truce that could end in August, about a month before the deadline Trump set to sell TikTok in mid-September.
Go ahead, shut it down (Score:5, Insightful)
Then let's see how the base feels about that being taken away too.
Re:Go ahead, shut it down (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Go ahead, shut it down (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Go ahead, shut it down (Score:4, Interesting)
Gislaine Maxwell will say that Trump is the messiah and that she never saw him with Epstein, and in 3 years a pardon or commutation will mysteriously drop on her lap.
Or she'll have info incriminating Trump and she'll "die by suicide". In any case, can't see a pardon/commutation going over well with his base - they love him, but hate pedophiles, and letting her off makes no sense (yes, I know... Trump) - but if he waits until he's almost out of office, I can't imagine him giving two fucks about political consequences. He'll be off somewhere retired. If that happens Republicans will have a tough time running away from the fallout.
Re:Go ahead, shut it down (Score:5, Interesting)
His base will do what they're told. A few days on Reddit demonstrated while there is a core of what one might call libertarian and far right true believers who are disappointed, most of MAGA is really a religious cult, and if Donald Trump says he didn't know Epstein and to blame Obama for something, they'll go along with it.
One can see clearly how guys like Jesus and Mohammed produced religions practically defined by believing absurd, nonsensical and at times even outright impossible claims.
Frankly, it's getting to the point where I suggest leading Democrats probably start getting the hell out of the US while they can, before the judiciary is so undermined and marginalized that if the DOJ orders the arrest of Barack Obama as an illegal alien in the US, ICE will do it and Obama will never be seen again. The US is becoming a Falangist state, and enemies of the state won't be sued into silence soon, they'll be disappeared.
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Proof that Obama really did break conservatives brains.
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Re:Go ahead, shut it down (Score:4)
Just a cautionary note, the Christian religion was actually create by Paul. You'd have to read biblical studies to understand precisely what Jesus was. He was an apocalyptic preacher. That philosophy, if you want to call it that, started in Judaism about 200 years before Jesus in response to getting rolled over by the world repeatedly. They decided, not all at one time, that there must be an evil force in the world and it was what was doing it to them. They then glommed onto the idea there would a Messiah who would vanquish their enemies and usher in God's Kingdom. The Messiah was not to be King-O-The-Jews but a divine warrior.
Jesus bought into this but added his own twist, that he would be the new King-O-The-Jews when the End Came. His twelve disciples were to head the twelve tribes of Jews. He never claimed to be divine. And you cannot count on merely reading the New Testament to get this as it has a lot of contradictions and was written by people grinding their own axes. It took a fair amount of scholarship, some of it on going, to ferret it what he *probably* said as oppose to what was put onto his lips. To see the contradiction, line the Synoptic gospels (the first 3 books) up side by side and read them that way; write down where they differ. The contradictions are glaring. And the last book, John, seems to have benefited from special mushrooms, one cannot take that seriously.
The final tell was that Pilate had him nailed up for claiming to be the incoming King-O-The-Jews. There was only one Emperor and he was in Rome; this was insurrection talk, and Palestine was full of it at the time. Pilate was a nasty creature and had many nailed up. And he wasn't about to listen to Jews claiming he should nailed up, he didn't give a flying rat's ass what the Jews thought. The bit about the Jews claiming they wanted his ass nailed up was just later Christian antisemitism wanting to screw the Jews for not taking off all their clothes and following the brand spanking new Christian relation. And the New Testament was written well after Paul went tits up.
The early Christians had to explain; if Jesus was so damn divine, how come the Romans were able to nail him up? So they found a way by embroidering their religion to make sense to them. The cult of la Presidenta is no different. They will merely embroider around anything that shows Dear Leader is a slime, sucking grifter. Cult members always respond with embroidery rather than dropping their beliefs, much research has shown this.
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You'd have to read biblical studies to understand precisely what Jesus was.
I don't know, The Life of Brian, The Last Temptation and certain episodes of Southpark also contain valuable truths in a story that no one knows completely.
Historically, probably a charismatic Jewish reformer who challenged the established religious and social orthodoxy. He was executed on the advise of the Jewish leadership by the occupying Romans, both of whom saw him as a threat to their authority, but he was survived by a small number of followers dedicated to his vision.
Re: Go ahead, shut it down (Score:1)
If I remember correctly, Obama (and more recently Fetterman) said that rooting against the president is rooting against America. Wanting the president to fail is the same as wanting America to fail.
Trump is partially the result of both sides demonizing eachother. I remember looking much more lowly at Bush JR until I saw them becoming best friends if the Obamas. That was a healing moment..
One of the things Trump does is haggle. That means moving days around and sometimes giving concessions. There is a wei
Re: Go ahead, shut it down (Score:1)
Fetterman said that, and I don't remember Obama saying that.
Trump and team want to destroy America, why would I root for that?
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As a first-term Obama voter, and longtime supporter of Bernie, Tulsi, Bobby and all the other honest ones who ran and were fucked by the establishment, nothing makes me happier seeing them in elected office. Obama is the reason I will never vote for a Democrat again, and lots of us made a deal with the devil to have him win the election to see this day. You can go fuck yourself. This wouldn't be a coincidential timing if Biden wasn't covering this shit up. The people who betrayed MY party, who peddled f
Re: Go ahead, shut it down (Score:1)
I personally think we like to choose single targets. And yes, I think the Democratic party is driving away voters and betraying then in their own way.
You have valid arguments but phrasing them more calmly is much more pursusive.
I think Obama is vilified in a very similar way to Bush JR within their respective groups. I also believe it was either going to be Benie or Trump in office and the Democratic party chose Trump. Voters just obliged tje DNC's wishes./p)
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Do they need Gislaine at this point? Seems like there is enough evidence without her, and it's going to leak out eventually.
Re:Go ahead, shut it down (Score:5, Insightful)
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He absolutely loves scandals and through some sort of moronic luck is able brush nearly everyone aside without negative consequences.
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You had 4 yearrs of Biden to go after Trump over Epstein, everything at this point from Democrats is fake concern for power's sake, like always. Trump campaigned and won on ironically releasing the Epstein files. If you didn't vote for Trump, you stood with Epstein, and you have no ground to stand on claiming you now care about kids being raped.
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... It is Trump that decided that Epstein had to be dragged into the political arena and now he is whining it won't just go away like he wants to now that it no longer has a positive political spin for him. ...
I'm honestly surprised so many people are buying into the idea that trump actually wants the Epstein stuff out of the news. Who cares if it's a bad look for him? It's consuming a HUGE amount of peoples attention on all sides, and that generally seems to be the goal with most of these diversions. Oooo, they *might* get to talk to Maxwell - like that will make one iota of difference! You know what that did do? It kept the story alive and at the top of the list.
Basically if you stood for Trump you stood for kiddie fiddling Epstein.
Also an adjudicated rapist, twice impeached, mul
Re: Go ahead, shut it down (Score:1)
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That's the point. Get them taking about sometime besides Jeffrey Epstein
There must be some really juicy things in those files about him. No other explanation makes sense. Or maybe about someone of the group of cretins he put into important positions.
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I think there's a very good possibility that Epstein was an intelligence agency(s) asset....and there are a lot of people that do not want that out....that he was used for intelligence purposes, to blackmail, etc famous people and world leaders.
Something tells me that is something they dug up and now are wanting to shut down...
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That is a possibility. It would have been relatively easy to find out he was after underage girls and then use that to recruit him.
Trump is definitely trying his best to keep the files under wraps and he did not do that before. I think his promise to publish them was genuine. Now his fear of them getting published looks genuine as well. Which probably means that Trump did not rape any teens, at least not with the help of Epstein. But something they found in these files in the last few months has Trump deepl
Re: Go ahead, shut it down (Score:1)
The base doesn't care about TikTok like libs do
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Frankly, who the fuck cares? If that's something that will influence someone's decision around who should manage our government affairs then well....we're already fucked.
Trump (Score:1)
Why not just block TikTok (Score:2)
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the value is in the user base, not the app
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More Epstein distraction (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:More Epstein distraction (Score:5, Informative)
A woman who says Donald Trump raped her at a private sex party when she was 13 years old refiled a lawsuit against him Friday. ...she was lured by a recruiter to summer parties hosted by co-defendant Jeffrey Epstein [courthousenews.com]
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That article is dated September 30, 2016, which is probably the Friday referenced. I was curious, and found this follow-up [politico.com], dated 11/04/2016, indicating that lawsuit was again dropped. it further stated that the first lawsuit was dismissed because the federal law cited did not apply (apparently it would have had to have been a race based rape, which seems like a really crazy law).
btw, this was based on a some simple Google searching. Here is a brief Wikipedia description of the case: https://en.wikipedi [wikipedia.org]
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Justice Department Told Trump in May That His Name Is Among Many in the Epstein Files [wsj.com]
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yay - lets make shit up as fact
It is what Trump is best at.
Re:More Epstein distraction (Score:5, Insightful)
There’s more pictures of Trump and Epstein together than there are Trump playing with his children.
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There’s more pictures of Trump and Epstein together than there are Trump playing with his children.
What we're interested in most is pictures of Trump playing with other people's children.
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What we're interested in most is pictures of Trump playing with other people's children.
Are you sure you want to phrase it that way? LOL
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That's all this is. He's trying to shut down discussion of Epstein because his name is all over the files
Actually, if Trump hadn't given TikTok a temporary reprieve, it'd still be banned (it already was, remember?).
The timing might seem convenient, but the Epstein files really are an entirely separate issue. Plus, let's be brutally honest here, do you truly it'd make one iota of a difference if it turns out that Trump had in fact been getting his freak on with underaged girls? Trump is made of Teflon, there isn't a single scandal that can stick to him. His base considers it all to be "fake news" and "a plot
Re: More Epstein distraction (Score:1)
I think a lot of famous people are on there. I don't actually think it should surprise anyone if Trump is.
I also think a lot of his core voters already knew his personality before voting. I would be really surprised if this effected future elections (and it also being his final term.) The "trade war" stuff will also be too far in the past to remember if things bob back up as they probably will after negotiations.
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While he might be one on the list, you have to remember that several billionaires of all political parties are in that list as well, and they're all pressuring trump to shut it down, besides himself wanting to shut it down.
ah trump (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm going to kill tiktok.
I'm going to save tiktok.
I can't save tiktok from myself.
Real stable genius.
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It all depends on whether Maximum Leader is getting his beak wetted enough. Will saving TikTok or killing TikTok put more money in his pocket? Everything in this administration is for sale.
Leverage (Score:2)
Bookmark this (Score:4, Insightful)
"Trump is a liar who destroys every thing and particularly every one he comes in contact with"
Pin that in your clipboard and paste it into discussions as needed.
Ah, now it becomes clear (Score:4, Funny)
I guess I should have seen that coming. I assumed Trump was only waiting for a kickback... but he also wants personal control over what people see, going forward. I am shocked. SHOCKED!
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TikTok owner ByteDance won't sell the app to buyers that Trump lined up,
I assumed Trump was only waiting for a kickback... but he also wants personal control over what people see, going forward
He also wants to distract from the TrumpStein files, but yes, his main aim is the grift. It's always, ALWAYS the grift.
10th dimensional chess ... (Score:5, Funny)
Donald Trump is like a magic 8 ball, every time you shake him you get a different answer.
-- John Oliver
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But like the Magic 8 Ball, it is a very limited set of possible answers.
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Dementia does that to people. Especially when they haven't been particularily bright even before.
Thank fuck for 5 second attention spans (Score:3)
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Such a society would not elect Donald Trump as President.
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Such a society would not elect Donald Trump as President.
People didn't know at the time.
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Such a society would not elect Donald Trump as President.
People didn't know at the time.
A direct lie. People were not looking at who they voted for, but that is rather different.
Hate to side with China, but ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Lutnick told CNBC that TikTok would stop operating in the US if China and TikTok owner ByteDance won't sell the app to buyers that Trump lined up, along with control over TikTok's algorithm. ... "China can have a little piece or ByteDance, the current owner, can keep a little piece,"
Trump sees everything as a zero-sum game and only makes deals that benefit him, or tries to anyway. This benefits China/ByteDance how? They can operate in the entire rest of the World. Of course, if Trump doesn't get his way I can see him trying to enact secondary tariffs (what else /s) on countries that allow TikTok, but can't really see that working - cutting off our nose, etc.... In the end, China just has to wait 3.5 years ...
Re:Hate to side with China, but ... (Score:4, Interesting)
In the end, China just has to wait 3.5 years ...
Can I be the person this time who gets to say "That's assuming we're still having elections by then"?
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These idiots are of the opinion that everyone is dying for access to the US market. They think that without unfettered access to US markets and the US banking system any country's economy will collapse overnight. Of course Russia has shown decisively that's not true, and China is giving the middle finger to the 15% of its exports that come here and it's already hitting the MIC hard. Without the magnets and rare earth elements that only China can supply Boeing, for example, is totally screwed.
Lies running out of extra lives. (Score:4, Insightful)
Aren't we on the third extension of the delay of the TikTok ban? Seems Trump has finally realized he can't just keep kicking the can along on the fake idea he's about to have a breakthrough deal on the platform.
- No statement from TikTok saying they are going to sell.
- Only statements the business was going to sell coming from Trump stooges, or people who would not go on record (likely the same group as the former)
- Trump looking weaker every time he granted a reprieve.
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Pretty sure he just did that 3 times.
Can't see a reason why not a fourth time.
It's been called "operational flexibility" although others might call it hypocrisy.
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"They" take or destroy everything that is valuable. If they can't have it, they destroy it.
Politician promises _THING_, breaks promise (Score:1)
I've seen this movie before.
Yayyy!! I mean Boooo!!! Wait, I mean Yayyy!!! (Score:3)
Booo!! I'm gonna beat you up after school.
I'll believe it when I see it (Score:5, Insightful)
Trump's said he was going to ban TikTok in 2020. Then in January 2025. Then in March 2025.
Until something actually happens, I'll just keep calling our commander-in-chief a TACO.
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Anyone... (Score:4, Insightful)
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And you can bet China knows exactly what is on Trump's mine withh all the recent news.
So America (Score:4, Insightful)
So America, how's it going with this demented halfwitted sociopathic president of yours that is so much better than Harris would have been?
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They had principles? Are you sure? Principles are rather rare with deranged cult members...
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Re:So America (Score:4, Informative)
So America, how's it going with this demented halfwitted sociopathic president of yours that is so much better than Harris would have been?
I mean you can go over to /r/conservative on Reddit to see what that side of the aisle is thinking. Mostly it boils down to "Yeah, I disagree with Trump on $ISSUE, but I still wouldn't vote for a Democrat."
That's tribalism for you.
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demented halfwitted sociopathic president
Don't forget pedophile fascist.
Re: So America (Score:1)
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She laughed too much...
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I didn't vote for Trump, but Harris would not have been much better over the long term. Her winning would have put off Project 2025 by a few years. Wealth and inertia is winning this battle and it has nothing to do with "elections" or parties. Those are merely details to be manipulated.
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So in other words, her winning would have been materially better.
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I know the way to save TikTok (Score:3)
South Park does Trump :] (Score:5, Funny)
Lying liar lies again??? (Score:4, Interesting)
I truly do not understand how so many people are fooled, time and time again, by charlatans and hucksters. Now the carnival controls the nation.
It's TACO Thursday! (Score:1)
Donald Kleptocracy Trump Marches On (Score:2)