ByteDance Sells to Non-Chinese-ish Investors, US Keeps TikTok; 'National Security' Hypocrisy Wins Again
📰 THE STORY: TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has reportedly sold a majority stake in its US operations to non-Chinese investors, including Oracle, to circumvent a looming ban by the US government. The Independent's spin is that this deal 'lets the wildly popular social media app continue to operation in the U.S., ending the threat of a looming ban,' painting it as a pragmatic solution to a
national security predicament. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: The US has a long and sordid history of weaponizing 'national security' to force economic concessions and control over foreign assets. Consider the 1987 acquisition of Fujitsu's stake in Fairchild Semiconductor, eventually sold to an American company after intense political pressure, or the broader 'Committees on
Foreign Investment in the United States' (CFIUS) activities which disproportionately target non-allied nations. This isn't about data security; it's about controlling a platform, especially one capable of shaping public opinion, that isn't directly subservient to Washington's narrative control. Double Standard: The breathless concern over TikTok's data security due to its Chinese ownership
contrasts sharply with the complete silence and lack of legislative action regarding US tech giants like Facebook, Google, and countless data brokers, who routinely harvest and sell unprecedented amounts of personal user data, often to questionable entities, without any 'national security' outcry. There's no equivalent push for US companies to sell majority stakes to global investors to protect