Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/03/microsoft-says-its-got-trump.html
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Microsoft has confirmed it is considering the purchase of made-in-China social network TikTok and that its CEO Satya Nadella has spoken with US president Donald Trump to re-assure him about the security and taxation implications of the putative purchase.
Microsoft has been rumoured to be courting TikTok for the last week, but Trump told reporters that he intended to ban the app and prevent its sale to a US company for reasons he did not fully explain.
Now Microsoft has used its official corporate blog to reveal that “Following a conversation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald J. Trump, Microsoft is prepared to continue discussions to explore a purchase of TikTok in the United States.” And in Canada, New Zealand and Australia, too.
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Great! Now my children’s data and privacy will be respected!
No. Wait. US corporations are world beaters in flagrant, obvious, repeated, wholesale stomping on human rights and are all connected to the world’s largest, most pervasive, most invasive, state spying network.
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In fairness, acquisition by Microsoft more often than not is the kiss of death.
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Swapping Beijing for Fort Meade that’s all.
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Trump’s desire to to be a cyberpunk villain makes him the least cyberpunk thing ever.
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I think we can all agree that cool kids and influencers will flock to Microsoft Meme 365 Azure Social Video Foundation Services 2020.
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The whole thing stinks, as does most anything Trump does or is associated with. I fail to see what business it is of his, even if the TikTok company or app is a little dodgy and why does it sound as if Microsoft is now beholden to him for “giving permission”? Arrogant buffoon. More likely, I feel, that it’s retaliation for TiKTok users reserving numerous tickets for his rally and having no intention of turning up. Sounds Trump’s style, if you can regard him as having any at all - ever!.
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Godfather, I come to you to ask your permission to make my own family…
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I understand that this is how Trump wants it to work, but we have not YET fully succumbed to fascism. Why would Microsoft play along with this, so close to the election?
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Police, army, industry, and business everywhere that fascism took over, all of them backed it to the hilt.
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Microsoft has my permission to buy trump.
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Not this time. The users base would have a huge value by itself, but the real reason is controlling (read: spying) the anti-Trump crowd that made a joke of him in Tulsa, along with any other potential hostile entities over there; The plan is to use Microsoft to give Trump control of the platform before elections to prevent other mishaps.
Microsoft is the same company who is spying on purpose their customers through the so called telemetry in Windows OSes; just expect zero privacy and prepare to migrate soon.
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Soooo, are we in that stage yet?
From the distance it surely looks like a Plutocracy in the making with some elements of Kleptocracy, “strong man” tactics and favours based political system
This is what I would expect of Putin’s Russia… oh wait!
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Pretty sure M$ don’t need Trumpy’s permission to buy a software company. Even if they technically did, they have so much money that laws are more guidelines, surely?
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This is a baffling and extremely stupid thing for Microsoft to have done. They do not NEED his personal permission, and doing this creates a very dangerous precedent. They just participated in kicking the Overton Window further toward fascism.
They should have ignored him, and tie up in court any attempt of his to actually interfere with the deal - they’d only need to delay things a few months and then the issue would be moot.
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“We can just buy things that are cool and hip, and then we will be hip too. Right? Right?”
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Moreover, saying that they have Trump’s permission suggests that his will takes precedence over formal regulatory approval and that the regulators will have to rubber-stamp what the Supreme Leader has already decided.
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No they don’t but they do want to know he won’t ban it even if they do buy it, because otherwise their millions will have been flushed down the drain.
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