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From The Verge:
President Trump has signed a new executive order which will block all transactions with Bytedance, TikTok's parent corporation, in an effort to "address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain."
The move comes after months of escalating tensions, which saw Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others at the White House warn that TikTok presented a national security threat because of its Chinese ownership. Microsoft is currently in talks to acquire portions of the app, aimed to be complete by September 15th.
A parallel order banned transactions with WeChat, a popular texting app in China that maintains a small user base in the US.
[...] The executive branch has the power to levy sanctions against individuals and corporations by placing them on the "entity list," as the US did against Huawei and ZTE last year. But such sanctions are typically put in place by the Commerce Department rather than the White House, and subject to a specific rule-making procedure that seems to have been short-circuited by the surprise executive order.
See also: Tencent stock plummets after Trump announces plan to ban WeChat in the US
Previously:
(2020-08-01) President Trump Threatens TikTok Ban, Microsoft Considers Buying TikTok's U.S. Operations[Updated 2]
(2020-07-07) Reddit and LinkedIn Stop Copying iPhone Clipboard Contents
(2020-06-30) India Bans TikTok, WeChat, and Other Chinese-Owned Apps
(2020-06-28) TikTok and 53 Other iOS Apps Still Snoop Your Sensitive Clipboard Data
(2019-12-27) Investigation Claims United Arab Emirates Uses The ToTok App To Spy
(2019-10-26) Lawmakers Ask US Intelligence to Assess If TikTok is a Security Threat
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Friday August 07 2020, @04:24PM (5 children)
Trump being a shithead is entirely incidental to how our government is just plain broken.
We broke it ourselves. How many other countries with free and open elections have 40 year incumbents running around like this?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday August 07 2020, @06:33PM (4 children)
Lots of countries have longstanding incumbents, e.g. the UK has a bunch of MP's that have been in office since the 1980's.
What they don't have is:
- A large voter base that's totally fine with bad behavior on the part of their elected representatives.
- A judicial and law enforcement system that tends to look the other way at the crimes committed by said elected representatives.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Friday August 07 2020, @06:52PM (3 children)
The biggest problem in the American system is voter antipathy, amongst the ones that vote anyway. And each side is using it as a hammer. I mean, how can any rational human say no to universal health care and a general pension, and a voting holiday, an end to prohibition, etc etc etc without being a total sociopath?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday August 07 2020, @07:16PM (1 child)
You just answered your own question.
I know in the wake of recent protests, a lot of conservative types have been rallying around the slogan "All Lives Matter", but their behavior has made it abundantly clear that their real value system is "No Lives Matter".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @08:34PM
At least "No Lives Matter" is true.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @08:22PM
You have to remember, most estimates place sociopaths and psychopaths as ~3-10%... A very substantial minority group.