China has successfully kneecapped Trump's TikTok ban as sale talks hit a speed bump

[Suburban Warrior]

Beijing has successfully thrown a spanner into the acquisition talks between TikTok and various prospective American buyers according to multiple reports from Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg.

Late last week China introduced a set of new export restrictions on 23 categories of technology. Included among these was any content-recommendation technology, meaning TikTok's parent company ByteDance would have to seek government permission if it was going to include TikTok's recommendation algorithm, which decides what videos to show users, in any deal. TikTok's recommendation algorithm is considered the secret sauce that makes the app both highly addictive and valuable.

Currently, TikTok's Chinese parent firm ByteDance is in talks with prospective acquirers about selling off parts of the app to a US buyer, including its US operations.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the prospect of having to strip TikTok of its recommendation algorithm had stalled acquisition talks. A source close to the talks told the Journal that buying TikTok without its recommendation algorithm would be like buying a fancy car with a cheap engine.

https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktoks-us-sale-talks-hit-speed-bump-reports-2020-9

[mr_lebowski]

1. Trump will likely just go ahead with the ban anyway ... he's a petulant child who hates losing ...

And it would be a loss for him if he can't force this sale to occur.

Of course, that will just show what a shitty deal-maker he is, but he doesn't really care about that. He cares about winning and looking 'strong'. A ban will allow him to claim victory, and Cult45 can easily be led to believe that's what happened.