Short version: there’s an executive order now targeting ByteDance and WeChat. They’ll be banned from doing business with American companies in a month and a half, and everybody in gaming started going “Hubaba-WHAT?” because Tencent (owner of WeChat) owns a metric butt-ton of gaming companies now. Fortnite in particular, although this is of personal interest to me because they just bought FunCom (Secret World Legends, Conan Exiles).
Anyway, it’s just WeChat that’s now outside the Pale, not Tencent in general: “A White House official on Thursday night clarified that the executive order concerning WeChat only blocks transactions related to WeChat, not those involving other Tencent holdings.” (Via @SamAugustDean) At least, for now. But further speculation on my part would be pushing the Line, so I won’t. I’m pretty close to the edge to it as it is.
Well, they don’t OWN fortnight, they have a big stake in Epic, but not a controlling stake. As someone in the industry, Tencent’s buying spree has long made me nervous. I’d feel better about this move if it didn’t seem so “election year”.
Eh.
“Foreign powers should be prevented from surveiling the bleep out of American citizens on American soil” strikes me as a long, long way from the line.
Even if you add “this includes companies in which a foreign power has an ownership stake”, I don’t think you can yet see the line.
Heck, if you went full nuclear and declared “the 4th Amendment obligates the federal government to protect its citizens from extralegal surveillance” I’m pretty sure you’d have a bipartisan supermajority standing up and applauding.
I’m thinkin’ if people were all that aware of the 4th, then the revelation that cell phone companies are recording everything, and letting NSA employees listen to or review everything they want to see without warrants would be more of a thing.
.
Mew
(shrug) In my social circles, CenturyLink refusing to give the feds blanket access into their system was universally applauded.
The CEO of the company being indicted on questionable grounds and removed shortly thereafter, wasn’t.
His replacement falling all over himself to give the feds a tonguebath, was universally reviled.
.
But I could just like unusual people.
After all, someone is evidently buying those Alexa things and voluntarily wiretapping themselves. I don’t know any of them, but my opinion of my fellowman isn’t high enough for me to jump to the conclusion that the ubiquity of the marketing is purely gaslighting.