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Ask HN: Why isn't TikTok owned by the U.S. government?

5 points by frozencell ↗ HN
If TikTok is a national security threat, don't we have gov reports of 1) the backdoors of the app 2) detailled understanding of shareholders and their action scope, (3) purchase of shareholders voting power?

Does the U.S. government asks Google to make YouTube shorts better than TikTok?

23 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 43.6 ms ] thread
Pakdef
How do you know they don't?
frozencell
I’m looking for proofs of its infiltration.
liberia
TikTok is Chinese malware masquerading as a friendly social media app that people use for giggles when waiting for the bus or loafing at work. It’s a Trojan horse firmly embedded in the US with no oversight or regulation. And the amount of data it grabs behind the scenes is astonishing.
rvz
Correct.

Not only they collect more invasive data than Facebook does, but it is the fact that they lied about accessing that user data from China already tells you that this thing needs an investigation into both the amount of data it is collecting and the over-worshipped algorithm that uses that data to dictate what is seen and unseen.

If they were able to do this to Facebook and fine them for billions, they can also do it to any other social network. Especially, TikTok.

gc22browsing
The US govt outsources software development to the big consulting firms. Any one of them would take 5 years and $10B to create an equivalent app. And then it would only run with Microsoft Explorer (not Edge).
muzani
I'd bet Meta has/will spend at least 5 years and $10B creating an equivalent app, and they're the (second) best in the world at this.
ksherlock
Pepperidge Farm remembers when Donald Trump tried to ban Tik Tok and force a sale to Oracle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump–TikTok_controvers...

bediger4000
Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.
throwntoday
Why is it so difficult for people to just say he was right about something? Guess TDS is real.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
codingdave
A broken clock is right twice a day. It is still a broken clock.
gnz11
Trump wasn’t right by virtue, he was feuding poorly with Xi Jinping on the national stage at the time. It just worked out in his favor that TikTok could be banned on national security reasons. Ellison is/was also a Trump backer, so Oracle being in the mix probably had to do with that.
bediger4000
It was easy to say Trump was right about TikTok. Just for the wrong reasons. There's even a pungent rural metaphor about that situation, which I, as a rural Missourian, used.

Being quick on the draw with accusations of "TDS", or "BDS" seems like a tell for insecurity. Being wrong about it is even worse.

throwntoday
Except he was right on many occassions and even vindicated on his predictions (see: German energy crisis).

Just strange to see people disagree with a sound idea simply because of the person pitching it. And the slight about insecurity is odd coming from someone on SSRI's.

bediger4000
A sly dig from literally a throwaway account! I'm mortality wounded, cut to the quick!

You're twice wrong - SSRIs treat depression, not insecurity. And dude you don't need to take SSRIs to understand if they work. You can see the effects on friends, relatives,coworkers or even those so habitually coarse as to use throwaway IDs.

throwntoday
I've been using this "throwaway" for a year. It's my only account.
xster
Why isn't Twitter owned by the Chinese government?
ceasesurthinko
Because Twitter is banned by China and isn't used there.