The whole thing is fucking hilarious.
Like, if you wrote some kind of clandestine spy novel plot about this shit, it would be about how the NSA or something was seizing control of this popular internet app from the Chinese MSS, ostensibly to 'prevent Chinese subterfuge' but really to allow them to spy on and subvert their own public.
But in collapitalism, it's Walmart seizing it from Bytedance, and instead of being forced by the US government to give them a backdoor or something, they're the ones asking them to do it because it's ultimately good for their bottom line.
The whole thing is fucking hilarious.
Like, if you wrote some kind of clandestine spy novel plot about this shit, it would be about how the NSA or something was seizing control of this popular internet app from the Chinese MSS, ostensibly to 'prevent Chinese subterfuge' but really to allow them to spy on and subvert their own public.
But in collapitalism, it's Walmart seizing it from Bytedance, and instead of being forced by the US government to give them a backdoor or something, they're the ones asking them to do it because it's ultimately good for their bottom line.