TikTok Ban in USA

[farce©]

Whereas Oracle, Apple, Google, etc. would be facing literally hundreds of billions of dollars in liability.

Here's what Trump cannot do with an executive order: make those charges go away on their corporate balance sheets. It would be criminal level malpractice for any accounting firm to certify financial results without accounting for that liability. It would have to be listed as a deferred liability. Wouldn't that be a fun entry on the old balance sheet: Deferred Liabilities: $500,000,000,000.

Count me skeptical that any tech company is going to take Trump up on the non-prosecution offer.

I believe the only exposure Apple and Google would have is making it available on their App Store. Oracle hosts their US operations so their exposure would be significant under the scenario you describe. If I'm Apple or Google, I'm removing the app from my App Store until there is clarity. I don't think they make money offering the TikTok app since it is a free app that generates its revenue from ads rather than selling merchandise from which they would receive a commission. I believe Oracle (and Amazon if AWS is somehow involved) is the one with the big decision to make.

 

[Carolina Fever]

Why is it so bad if it is banned?

 

[Mulberry Heel]

Why is it so bad if it is banned?

Because millions of Americans would no longer be able to post videos of themselves on that particular site saying and doing clever things and looking sexy and posting them to win public approval and have everyone tell them how wonderful they are to feed their egos and vanity. Like most other social media, basically.

 

[superrific]

I think Trump is intentionally triggering a constitutional crisis on his first day. He’ll issue the EO. Congress will say he had no power to do so. Courts will likely conclude he had no power to do so. Trump will then either (a) ignore the courts completely, or (b) instruct his DOJ and whoever else has power to enforce the fines to simply decline to do so, which will have the effect of nullifying the law.

In other words, I think Trump sees this as an issue in which the optics could favor him (mainly because Americans don’t understand what this ban is all about), and he can use it to achieve a much larger and more important goal (showing his ability to circumvent Congress and the courts whenever he wants).

The more I think about it, the more concerned I’m becoming.

Don't be so concerned yet. I think Trump is just doing his thing where he doesn't understand how anything works and then he's shooting from the hip on social media.

If Tom Cotton is going on TV bashing Trump's actions here, it means there's no plan.

Think about what type of mega leap of faith would be required for anyone to trust Trump not to start collecting the fines later on. Why would Oracle give Trump a sword of Damocles hanging over its head. I mean, if Oracle goes on business as usual, the fines will soon become bigger than its market cap. They would be literally betting the entire company on Trump's prosecutorial discretion (and somehow binding a future administration). That would be insane.

I don't know why TikTok is up today -- if it's only for the purposes I mentioned above, I guess I could see that but it's still a risk. Maybe they are using their own servers now?

 

[JCTarheel82]

Why is it so bad if it is banned?

Because people might actually have to go outside and touch grass instead of zombie watching 30 second brain rot videos for hours.

 

[lawtig02]

Don't be so concerned yet. I think Trump is just doing his thing where he doesn't understand how anything works and then he's shooting from the hip on social media.

If Tom Cotton is going on TV bashing Trump's actions here, it means there's no plan.

Think about what type of mega leap of faith would be required for anyone to trust Trump not to start collecting the fines later on. Why would Oracle give Trump a sword of Damocles hanging over its head. I mean, if Oracle goes on business as usual, the fines will soon become bigger than its market cap. They would be literally betting the entire company on Trump's prosecutorial discretion (and somehow binding a future administration). That would be insane.

I don't know why TikTok is up today -- if it's only for the purposes I mentioned above, I guess I could see that but it's still a risk. Maybe they are using their own servers now?

Hope you’re right. The Cotton statement was what got me worried, to be honest. It reminded me that Trump doesn’t just see Dems as his enemies. He also wants to crush anyone within Congress or the courts who suggests there are limits on his power.

 

[superrific]

I don't know. Trump also wants his nominees confirmed.

 

[wmheel1287]

Anyone who thinks there are any checks or balances on this next administration is totally deluding themselves.

 

[farce©]

Finding myself aligned with Tom Cotton on anything is disorienting and causes me to question myself. Ideologically, Cotton is worse than Trump, aren’t he and Josh Hawley basically the same person? They just aren’t nearly as talented at grifting as Trump.

 

[lawtig02]

Finding myself aligned with Tom Cotton on anything is disorienting and causes me to question myself. Ideologically, Cotton is worse than Trump, aren’t he and Josh Hawley basically the same person? They just aren’t nearly as talented at grifting as Trump.

Yes, but unlike Trump, he had access to the intelligence briefings on the national security threat TikTok poses. Also unlike Trump, he cares about our national security.

 

[1moretimeagain]

 

[dukeman92]

This was nothing more than a political stunt to gain favor for the right.

 

[OGtruthhurts]

Our politicians have made policy errors arising from everything from greed to good intentions but have hardly turned China into a superpower — China’s government has agency of its own, natural resources, nuclear weapons and 1.4 billion people, and in part has reached its current moment despite U.S. attempts to hinder its growth as a global superpower.

hinder its growth? lmmfao. thats sounds cute but the reality is we gave them a huge helping hand because of our thirst for cheaper labor and products that every store in america is full of and our thirst for more and more ROI in company stocks when they moved their operations there........ sad to see americans justifying it, but not shocking because we are all guilty of buying nikes etc that are made by children and everything in the walmarts, amazons etc. i honestly dont know what to say if you dont think we havent enabled them enormously the past 5 decades. sad stuff

 

[finesse]

hinder its growth? lmmfao. thats sounds cute but the reality is we gave them a huge helping hand because of our thirst for cheaper labor and products that every store in america is full of and our thirst for more and more ROI in company stocks when they moved their operations there........ sad to see americans justifying it, but not shocking because we are all guilty of buying nikes etc that are made by children and everything in the walmarts, amazons etc.

Yeah, if only we hadn't passed all those child labor and minimum wage laws, we could have our sweatshops here.

 

[Enigma94]

Wow, I know I'm super out of it, but that's surprising.

I find it difficult to believe as well. It's anecdotal, but I have a 13 and a 17 year old and they nor any of their friends have TikTok. Snapchat and Instagram are pretty ubiquitous on the other hand. And yes Facebook is for the olds.

 

[OGtruthhurts]

Yeah, if only we hadn't passed all those child labor and minimum wage laws, we could have our sweatshops here.

yep pass the morality of it to a communist country so americans can justify buying child labor products in every store in america and save/make money by doing it.

 

[finesse]

yep pass the morality of it to a communist country so americans can justify buying child labor products in every store in america and save/make money by doing it.

Not just communist countries. Fwiw, the American people do take advantage but it was the wealthy industrialists who have made it both necessary and possible. It's called the real world . Live in it and not some utopia that is all (that is?) in your head.

 

[nycfan]

Reminds me of how, after meeting privately with Putin, Trump thought it was a great idea for the USA to cooperate with Russia to have Russia help investigate hacking of U.S. government and companies.

 

[lawtig02]

Reminds me of how, after meeting privately with Putin, Trump thought it was a great idea for the USA to cooperate with Russia to have Russia help investigate hacking of U.S. government and companies.

It's when he says stuff like this that I really do question Trump's raw intelligence. I mean, the guy has undoubtedly made a lot of money. He's lied, cheated and stolen to get a lot of it, and he's also lost a ton (and left countless creditors in the lurch), but I don't think it's common for a person with an IQ below 80 to amass a net worth of more than a billion dollars. But I know five year olds who can tell you why a 50-50 joint venture is an absolutely moronic idea, and why anyone with half a brain would never even consider it, much less propose it publicly for a multi-billion dollar venture. Maybe Trump has just managed to surround himself with enough smart people to overcome his own business idiocy. It's just incomprehensible that a truly smart person would say something like this.

 

[nycfan]

It's when he says stuff like this that I really do question Trump's raw intelligence. I mean, the guy has undoubtedly made a lot of money. He's lied, cheated and stolen to get a lot of it, and he's also lost a ton (and left countless creditors in the lurch), but I don't think it's common for a person with an IQ below 80 to amass a net worth of more than a billion dollars. But I know five year olds who can tell you why a 50-50 joint venture is an absolutely moronic idea, and why anyone with half a brain would never even consider it, much less propose it publicly for a multi-billion dollar venture. Maybe Trump has just managed to surround himself with enough smart people to overcome his own business idiocy. It's just incomprehensible that a truly smart person would say something like this.

Doesn’t his DOGE group have 50-50 leadership?

Usually, I might suggest that you may be mistaking Trump’s own intelligence for what Trump thinks of his supporters’ intelligence, but in this case Trump does seem to be promoting this as his idea in a way that indicates he wants credit for it. So I assume he think it is smart.

There are ways to structure well function joint ventures, though. I represent a huge one that is essentially operating independently of its two joint venture partners.