Still, Oracle’s co-founder donated a considerable amount of money to the Trump campaign. This is usually enough to buy a position as a U.S. ambassador or at least the head of the USPS. Trump usually sells these positions to the highest bidder, surely a large fundraising event would be enough to buy a business deal.
But apparently not. I know, Trump might have stood by his word, even in the face of money. It’s unprecedented. Not for normal presidents, it would be standard operating procedure for any other U.S. president. But this one? Definitely unheard of.
Still, time for me to eat crow, I was wrong.
At least, for now.
The U.S. Commerce Department announced that it will force TikTok and WeChat off the App Store and other stores on Sunday, September 20th.
If you thought you might someday want to check out TikTok, now’s the time to download it.
What’s Happening?
From a strictly judicial standpoint, that is, judging the situation based on Trump’s executive order and not any form of morality or law, then, yes, it’s still “right” to force TikTok off app stores, to “deplatform” it. This is because TikTok will still have data processing outside of the U.S. and could still potentially leak information. A U.S. company will not own TikTok, which is what Trump wanted. Finally, Trump’s original executive order demanded a sizable financial contribution to the United States, which the deal between Oracle and TikTok did not include.
On Sunday, Apple will remove TikTok from the App Store at the president’s orders. As will Google from Google Play and Amazon from their own app store. Every U.S. company will have to remove TikTok from their stores.
If you already have TikTok on your device, you’ll be able to continue to use it, for now. However, even that’s in danger. On November 12th, Trump may ban the service outright.
TikTok Fighting Until the Last Minute
ByteDance says they’re considering a U.S. IPO. This would create a U.S. TikTok company with U.S. investors. It would still be an Oracle property, but Oracle and still potentially Walmart would own minority stakes in the company.
WeChat, it seems, has no chance for recovery. The Chinese-owned app is separate from TikTok, and is owned by tech giant Tencent. Tencent owns Riot Games, makers of League of Legends, as well as a large stake in many other gaming companies, including Epic, makers of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine. Suspiciously, Trump hasn’t gone after any of these companies, focusing solely on social networking.
Trump may still be willing to work with TikTok and Oracle, though they haven’t stated anything yet.
I wonder if Larry Ellison will still want to hold Trump fundraisers after this?
This Ban is Unethical
Full stop. Yes, China may be collecting data. We should prove that, or at least have good evidence suggesting it, and then take action. However, this is just a sweeping blow to TikTok because they upset Trump. The fact that Tencent and ByteDance’s other U.S. operations aren’t being targeted makes it clear: Trump just wants to shut down the Gen Z/young Millennial social network that has organized against him before.
It’s true, TikTok might be problematic. They’re collecting large amounts of data and censor LGBTQ topics (not that this would bother Trump). But Facebook, Amazon, and Google are just as bad if not worse. Google tracks users locations via their credit card purchases and uses machine learning to predict their whereabouts, all while allowing harassment of LGBTQ people on YouTube and demonetizing their videos. For the average consumer, these companies are far greater threats to privacy than China’s data hogging. That’s not to say that it’s good, just that unless you’re involved with government, China isn’t using your data for anything worse than Facebook is. You should avoid both.
But let’s say a ban is justified. Honestly? It probably is. However, a 45 day window is not enough time to completely restructure an international company around the whims of one small man. This ban had no legal backing, no debate, no senate action. It denied a company due process. All because its users hurt Trump’s feelings.
Do you think Twitter or Facebook are safe? Or anyone who stands up to Trump?
No.
Un-American
This is the kind of thing you hear about coming out of Russia or China. It’s the tactic of an authoritarian government. This isn’t what a healthy democracy or a healthy country looks like. This is authoritarianism.
“We will continue to challenge the unjust executive order, which was enacted without due process and threatens to deprive the American people and small businesses across the US of a significant platform for both a voice and livelihoods.”– TikTok Statement
TikTok may have been a sketchy company, but even sketchy companies deserve time to improve and reformat. They deserve due process. As long as Trump can improve his chances for reelection, none of that really matters.
Sources:
- BBC News
- Hartley Charlton, MacRumors
- Luke Dormehl, Cult of Mac
- Matthew Fox, Business Insider
- Eamon Javers, Kevin Stankiewicz, CNBC
- Matt Novak, Gizmodo
- Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider