TikTok deal is Extortion says China Content Creators fear the worst
TikTok is one of the most popular apps in the United States and around the world. Thousands of content creators have praised the app for a variety of reasons. Now companies like Oracle want to get in on the action. On August 6th President Donald Trump signed an executive order to either sell the company to U.S companies such as Oracle and Walmart or be banned from U.S app stores.
TikTok is now facing shut down in mid November because of Trump’s executive order.
China shouldn’t accept this unfair deal that allows these two companies to take over the popular app. This deal is literal extortion.
What about the content creators? TikTok has nearly 198 million app store and Google Play installs in the United States. Many content creators use this incredible platform for entertainment and ads that they create on the site. Although TikTok is not yet monetized for it’s creators from videos made on the site it’s still an incredible app that these content creators rely on to make a living from ads that they partner with on the platform as well as connecting social media and creating revenue from Instagram and Facebook. This allows creators to build their brand and increase their revenue directly from fans on TikTok. If this app is shut down in the United States it’s going to shake up the creating community in the worst possible way.
These acts by the Trump administration are disgraceful. Oracle’s revenue in 2019 was 39.50 billion dollars and Walmart’s revenue is upwards of 523 million dollars in 2020. These two companies are drooling over the chance to partner with one of the most popular apps in the world. What did they do to deserve this opportunity? The Trump administration has put a proverbial gun to the heads of TikTok and told them to sell or die in the United States. To me this is like going into Shark Tank with a 5 million dollar company with a ton of potential and Mr. Wonderful saying “Yeah I’ll give you whatever I want for the company or I’ll block you from ever selling in the United States again. What are you going to do?” This would be called extortion. President Trump has done something very similar in this example to the TikTok app.
These bullying tactics by the Trump administration has done serious damage to our relationship with China as well. These can come with consequences especially when the bullying tactics Trump has made with the country has been unjust.
According to an NPR article Even a temporary ban could make 90% of users on TikTok quit the app. This would be an incredibly devastating blow to the company. There are alternative apps and sites out there with content such as Spotify which will add video to it’s site soon as well as Youtube.
The Trump administration is picking winners and losers of companies. They’ve done this with Goya with Ivanka Trump holding up a picture of the beans and smiling like a model. This was the perfect (illegal) endorsement a company could have! Now like royalty the Trump’s are putting their hands in companies once again. This time they have chose the behead a company and chose Walmart and Oracle to be the winners of this fixed joust.
Why Walmart? Why Oracle? These are two of the biggest corporate powerhouses in modern history. Does Donald Trump have a secret deal with these two companies under the table to have TikTok up for bids so his friends can get in on the action? This entire thing reeks of corruption.
The main claim that TikTok has security concerns. I understand of some sort of deal that would allow TikTok to operate safely in the United States and abroad. This doesn’t mean that TikTok has to be sold to the biggest companies in the world.
TikTok has sued the administration over this original rule making nonsense back in August. Rightfully so.
As for Wechat which is the Tencent-owned messaging app a judge cited that there were “serious questions” Donald Trump’s Wechat ban infringed directly on it’s users first amendment rights.
We also can’t ignore that this is an election year. These sanctions are likely one of the causes of Donald Trump wanting to be re-elected for a second term in office. This is most likely politically driven. There are other motivations and unanswered questions that should be asked as well. Lets hope the courts, and millions of people continue to oppose this ban and keep this administration balanced.
