Trump's TikTok Deal Benefited Firms That 'Personally Enriched' Him, Lawsuit Says (nbcnews.com)
- Reference: 0180914018
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/03/05/2041222/trumps-tiktok-deal-benefited-firms-that-personally-enriched-him-lawsuit-says
- Source link: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-administration-sued-us-tiktok-deal-rcna261684
> The suit, filed by the Public Integrity Project, a law firm that seeks to raise the "reputational cost of corruption in America," argues the deal violates a law intended to prevent the spread of Chinese government propaganda and has enriched Trump's allies. That law, signed by then-President Joe Biden in 2024, said that TikTok couldn't be distributed in the United States unless the Chinese company ByteDance found an American-based corporate home by the day before Donald Trump returned to office. The law was upheld by the Supreme Court.
>
> "The law was clear, but it was never enforced," says the lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. "Shortly after the deadline to divest passed, President Trump issued an executive order purportedly granting an extension for TikTok to find a domestic owner and directed his Attorney General not to enforce the law." The plaintiffs in the suit are two software engineers from California: One is a shareholder in Alphabet Inc., YouTube's parent company; the other is a shareholder in Meta Platforms, Inc., which is Instagram's parent company. Both say they suffered financially due to the non-enforcement of the law.
"The original motivation for this law was to prevent the Chinese government from pushing propaganda onto American audiences," said Brendan Ballou, CEO of the Public Integrity Project and a former Justice Department prosecutor. "The deal that the president approved is the absolute worst of all possible worlds, because right now ByteDance continues to own the algorithm, which means that it can censor the content that it doesn't like, but at the same time Oracle controls the data and it can censor the information that it doesn't like. Really it's a situation that's going to be terrible for users, and terrible for free speech on the platform."
[1] https://static1.squarespace.com/static/69375471a1fcf3781452cbc0/t/69a98d8c3eb55c38d1546bb5/1772719501042/TikTok+Petition.3.5.26-compressed.pdf
[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/12/19/2150202/tiktok-owner-signs-deal-to-avoid-us-ban
[3] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-administration-sued-us-tiktok-deal-rcna261684
I'm sorry, what? (Score:3)
Since when has "Free speech on the platform" been a consideration for either Alphabet OR Meta?
No way! (Score:1)
I mean he created his crypto shit coins so you don’t need USD to buy a pardon or favor.
Duh (Score:3, Insightful)
Personal enrichment is the primary purpose of this presidency (staying out of jail is a close second).
Re: (Score:1)
ALL HAIL KING TRUMP
Re: Duh (Score:1)
"Personal enrichment"?
Did you miss this line:
> has enriched Trump's allies
The lawsuit doesn't allege Trump personally benefited from the deal, just people he knows, people who like him.
Also, as a reminder, by definition, the president is excluded from "conflict of interest" charges, because his position impacts/influences everything.
But yeah, "It's Orange Man so I can make up anything and facts don't matter!"
Re: (Score:2)
King of the grift. He’s raking in cash at our expense. [1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/d... [forbes.com]
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/article/the-definitive-networth-of-donaldtrump/
Rotten to the core (Score:2, Troll)
A US president separating himself from his wealth has always been a gesture to prove his fitness for office. The GOP stopped protecting the government (and created policies to dismantle it from the inside), and thus, didn't care about the honesty of their colleagues. This level of corruptions needs to be punished, or it will become the 'new normal'. Notice the Democratic Party spends little time talking about the bribes the president receives. Politicians don't want to kill the golden goose of insider-t
Re: (Score:2)
Announcing and doing are different. What if he hasn’t? There are no repercussions or consequences.
How of hands: (Score:2)
Anybody surprised by the blatant corruption? I'm not...
NBC's own coverage doesn't support the claims (Score:2)
so... in TFS and TFA this activist dude says that ByteDance / China still owns the algorithm.
but NBC's own linked coverage says Oracle does:
> TikTok's powerful recommendation algorithm, which dictates much of what users see, was of particular interest with regard to the app's future. TikTok said in its release that the new U.S. company "will retrain, test, and update the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data. The content recommendation algorithm will be secured in Oracle’s U.S. cloud environment."
[1]https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/s... [nbcnews.com]
also this dude claims that the law was about:
> to prevent the Chinese government from pushing propaganda onto American audiences," said Brendan Ballou, CEO of the Public Integrity Project and a former Justice Department prosecutor.
which is true. but the guys suing are suing because they claim they somehow lost money in this deal ( presumably they picked shareholders and made this claim because otherwise they'd get thrown out for not having "standing" ( which they don't) ) .
i'm "so-so" on whether the original g
[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/white-house-china-finalize-deal-sell-control-us-tiktok-business-invest-rcna255498
Yeah But!!! (Score:2)
At least he's not a warmonger like Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris! - MAGA (up until six days ago)
Re: Sounds about right (Score:1)
You got down voted for not being woke enough. You can never appease the woke mob completely - should have called Trump a Nazi.