The US government's plan to either ban TikTok or force owner ByteDance to sell it to a (US) company is part of Washington's economic war on China, and an att...
China: Okay hey we need you to follow our local laws and legislation, for instance this terrorism in our west, we need Facebook and others to ban those people and hand over their information to national security investigators because they’re posting pro-terrorism content in accordance with ours laws which demands action.
US companies (Google/Facebook/etc): Fuck off evil CCP, we will never censor, this is literally oppression, you can’t tell us what to do!! We’re leaving.
China: Okay fine, we’ll block you because you won’t follow our laws, we’ll also help encourage domestic alternatives so our population gets to live in the digital age.
China in another instance: US companies need to have a partner or locate the data on Chinese citizens on Chinese soil so they’re under our control in case of conflict and kept a bit more safe from US national intelligence spying which they may be subject to were they stored in the US.
Some US companies: Sure sounds fine (they’re still in China)
China: Sounds good, here are the relevant regulations and rules all companies must abide by, thanks for doing business in China
Other US companies: Evil CCP oppression, never!
China: Okay, bye.
By contrast…
US government: Tiktok is an evil CCP spy platform, they’re propagandizing our youth
Tiktok: Very well we will not only locate our servers in the US which we were already doing but we will transfer custody of them to Oracle, a US intelligence aligned US company that is trusted, they were verify we are complying and not stealing all this data or acting improperly.
Tiktok: We also of course follow all applicable laws, relevant and legal requests from US law enforcement and intelligence will be followed through and we will respond. We have also taken the liberty of hiring tons of “ex” CIA, NSA, and FBI agents to directly work in our company so you can be sure we’re following the rules and doing nothing untowards, we’re happy to follow the laws of the countries we operate in and will even allow their spies into our operations.
US: government: … tiktok is stealing American data and must be stopped.
China: It follows all relevant rules and laws, it has done what you asked, you just hate China and want to crush Chinese companies
YOU: These are exactly the same. China and the US treat each other’s companies exactly the same 🤡
China: Okay hey we need you to follow our local laws and legislation, for instance this terrorism in our west, we need Facebook and others to ban those people and hand over their information to national security investigators because they’re posting pro-terrorism content in accordance with ours laws which demands action.
US companies (Google/Facebook/etc): Fuck off evil CCP, we will never censor, this is literally oppression, you can’t tell us what to do!! We’re leaving.
China: Okay fine, we’ll block you because you won’t follow our laws, we’ll also help encourage domestic alternatives so our population gets to live in the digital age.
China in another instance: US companies need to have a partner or locate the data on Chinese citizens on Chinese soil so they’re under our control in case of conflict and kept a bit more safe from US national intelligence spying which they may be subject to were they stored in the US.
Some US companies: Sure sounds fine (they’re still in China)
China: Sounds good, here are the relevant regulations and rules all companies must abide by, thanks for doing business in China
Other US companies: Evil CCP oppression, never!
China: Okay, bye.
By contrast…
US government: Tiktok is an evil CCP spy platform, they’re propagandizing our youth
Tiktok: Very well we will not only locate our servers in the US which we were already doing but we will transfer custody of them to Oracle, a US intelligence aligned US company that is trusted, they were verify we are complying and not stealing all this data or acting improperly.
Tiktok: We also of course follow all applicable laws, relevant and legal requests from US law enforcement and intelligence will be followed through and we will respond. We have also taken the liberty of hiring tons of “ex” CIA, NSA, and FBI agents to directly work in our company so you can be sure we’re following the rules and doing nothing untowards, we’re happy to follow the laws of the countries we operate in and will even allow their spies into our operations.
US: government: … tiktok is stealing American data and must be stopped.
China: It follows all relevant rules and laws, it has done what you asked, you just hate China and want to crush Chinese companies
YOU: These are exactly the same. China and the US treat each other’s companies exactly the same 🤡