Hey Richard, I actually wasn’t aware of that UK discussion although it doesn’t surprise me I do think that ownership of private companies is usually not a matter of government and that national security fears are almost always contrived in order to create political interest and are usually self-serving by the politicians. I do think that’s the case here in the States with the discussion around TikTok , and likely also true in the UK but I have less inside there so I defer to your to your judgment.
I do think that take TikTok is is relatively harmless. It’s essentially an entertainment medium made up of peer to peer content and broadly speaking I think it’s successful in that goal and that the level of interest from individuals reflects that. Anything more sinister seems to be a conspiracy theory.
The attention economy is an interesting concept. I think attention is garnered where it’s deserved. Most human beings have times when they want to be entertained and amused and times when they want to be informed and times when they want to be isolated from content, I think most people make those choices fairly consciously at the very least when unconscious it serves happiness in some way. The fact that TikTok dominates is no more concerning than if the BBC was dominating.
I assume that both you and Keith have been aware of the UK controversy regarding whether "the Emiratis should be allowed a minority stake in the Telegraph and Spectator." In both the Commons and House of Lords, all of the major parties (Tory, Labour, Lib Dem) have agreed that the government has both the right and responsibility to permit or disallow foreign purchase of some categories with national security consequence. That makes sense, in that national security is not something any democracy should allow others to tamper with. So, in my mind, despite Keith's question about the Chinese having access to all the logs (and so on), I am not convinced that allowing TikTok to have foreign ownership is as harmless as you both say. And, I also assume you both read Scott Galloway's missives about TikTok totally dominating the Attention Economy. I'd enjoy hearing your response to these two facts. My opinion: its not Nothing.
Hey Richard, I actually wasn’t aware of that UK discussion although it doesn’t surprise me I do think that ownership of private companies is usually not a matter of government and that national security fears are almost always contrived in order to create political interest and are usually self-serving by the politicians. I do think that’s the case here in the States with the discussion around TikTok , and likely also true in the UK but I have less inside there so I defer to your to your judgment.
I do think that take TikTok is is relatively harmless. It’s essentially an entertainment medium made up of peer to peer content and broadly speaking I think it’s successful in that goal and that the level of interest from individuals reflects that. Anything more sinister seems to be a conspiracy theory.
The attention economy is an interesting concept. I think attention is garnered where it’s deserved. Most human beings have times when they want to be entertained and amused and times when they want to be informed and times when they want to be isolated from content, I think most people make those choices fairly consciously at the very least when unconscious it serves happiness in some way. The fact that TikTok dominates is no more concerning than if the BBC was dominating.
FYI: Fraser Nelson's update on the Spectator ... https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-to-sell-the-spectator/
I assume that both you and Keith have been aware of the UK controversy regarding whether "the Emiratis should be allowed a minority stake in the Telegraph and Spectator." In both the Commons and House of Lords, all of the major parties (Tory, Labour, Lib Dem) have agreed that the government has both the right and responsibility to permit or disallow foreign purchase of some categories with national security consequence. That makes sense, in that national security is not something any democracy should allow others to tamper with. So, in my mind, despite Keith's question about the Chinese having access to all the logs (and so on), I am not convinced that allowing TikTok to have foreign ownership is as harmless as you both say. And, I also assume you both read Scott Galloway's missives about TikTok totally dominating the Attention Economy. I'd enjoy hearing your response to these two facts. My opinion: its not Nothing.