The TikTok thing is a good old shakedown (literally "agree to sell yourself to us or we ban you") because the US cannot bear the existence of a major tech company out there that they don't own
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1878354799827300676
Yes and that reason is dignity and sovereignty, something some Americans obviously struggle to understand.
The TikTok thing is a good old shakedown (literally "agree to sell yourself to us or we ban you") because the US cannot bear the existence of a major tech company out there that they don't own, and because US tech companies lobby their government to kill a competitor they're losing lots of users to.
Think of the precedent this would set: all the Chinese companies that become successful and internationalize would be forced into a fire sale to the US... Obviously unacceptable.
Think also of the message this would send to other nations and companies. It essentially declares that success in the US market comes with a mandatory exit clause - either sell to American interests or be legislated out of existence. TikTok isn't just defending itself or Chinese interests here but broader principles which ironically used to be championed by the US themselves less than a decade ago: the notion that companies should be able to compete fairly in international markets without facing politically-motivated forced sales, that success shouldn't be punished simply because it comes from a foreign company, and that the rules of commerce shouldn't be rewritten whenever they become inconvenient for some country's interests.
The sheer amount of gaslighting and propaganda on this topic is absolutely insane but at heart this is a fight for whether non-US companies are allowed to exist at the top of the global tech hierarchy. The US has shown its hand - its answer is an unequivocal no, 'free market principles' evaporate when they stop serving American interests. Anyone who actually care about fair competition, digital sovereignty, and preventing a new era of digital colonialism where the US annexes successful foreign tech companies should stand firmly behind TikTok in this fight.
posted by Satish Sharma at
02:26
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