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TikTok Gets A Biden Ultimatum
The never-ending TikTok soap opera may finally be nearing some manner of resolution, albeit not one that's especially amicable.
Earlier this week, reports indicated TikTok was considering a split with parent ByteDance in yet another bid to placate US regulators and pacify irritable lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Now, the White House has instructed ByteDance to sell its stake. Or else.
The Wall Street Journal originally reported the ultimatum on Wednesday evening, calling the move "a major shift i
It would be nice if the administration (or anyone really) would point out the number of Western apps banned in China. Once the Chinese government has its chance to shriek about how awful America is for banning TikTok, the correct response is, “You’re right. That was wrong of us. We’ll reverse it just as soon as you allow Facebook, IG, Uber, Twitter, Snap, Google, Slack, Pinterest, Reddit, Vimeo, Twitch, Wikipedia, Telegram, Medium, WordPress…”
Back when Covid was raging, I was lucky enough to secure an appointment with a senior neurologist at the largest healthcare provider in our region. They asked if I would accept a telemedicine appointment, which was fine with me.
I was carrying some positions in Teledoc at the time and was interested in trying it out. Or so I thought. It turned out the appointment was done via Zoom. I mentioned this over on seeking Alpha and the TDOC bulls went crazy, citing the data security risk posed by Zoom.
Why? Because it was partly based on code written in China. They worried that the Chinese coders leave “back doors” so the PRC could snoop into our healthcare records and other communications.
A TikToc ban is a strong signal, but how far will CIFUS dig into the software used by many companies? Or the software embedded in motherboards and such? Thanks to US firms outsourcing just about everything, that will not be an easy task.
Excellent point. We used to believe only the US could write good software. Guess what, most of our serious suppliers and competitors can too.