Politicians Who Voted to Ban TikTok May Own as Much as $126 Million in Tech Stocks Disclosures suggest Congress holds millions worth of stock in Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snap, companies that could benefit from a TikTok ban. By Thomas Germain Published 5 hours ago Financial disclosures show that members of Congress who voted for the so-called “TikTok ban” last week may own between $29 million and $126 million worth of stock in competing tech companies, according to data from Quiver Quantitative, a company that tracks congressional investments. Among the 352 members of the House of Representatives who voted “yes” on the bill, 44 reported they own shares of companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snap—all corporations that could stand to benefit if TikTok is forced into a sale or a full-on ban. Because Congress scuttled an effort to make their financial disclosures easily searchable, the details on these investments are hard to come by. Quiver Quantitative can only parse online filings. Some members file their financial disclosures by hand, and that information isn’t present in the data set. There are several other caveats to consider. Members of Congress have to report stock transactions within 45 days and disclose their overall stock holdings annually. Because there’s a grace period in both cases, the most recent information dates back to earlier this year, before the TikTok vote. Officials also don’t have to report the exact value of these investments, but instead have to disclose a range ($15,001 to $50,000 of Microsoft stock, for example). The value of the stocks has also changed since reports were filed. Still, the data gives a useful indication of Congress’s finances. “Even if members of Congress are able to make completely unbiased decisions without any consideration of their personal stake, I think that even just the possibility of conflict of interest is harmful enough,” said Christopher Kardatzke, co-founder of Quiver Quantitative. ... https://gizmodo.com/politicians-who-voted-to-ban-tiktok-may-own-as-much-as-1851356203 Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I feel this is a case in point, having these swamp creatures almost all be Ivy League club members moving freely between government and the corporate world and Wall Street, and of course owning as much stock as they please in the same companies they directly affect with their work in Congress. Where are the checks and balances here? There are none. It is naked plutocracy and corruption, and a blatant conflict of interests.
While I have no doubt that some or many politicians enact laws that personally benefit them, when it comes to TikTok there is the option of the platform being allowed to stick around if it's sold to an entity not controlled by Chinese communists.
The bottom line is that the bill to ban TikTok or to force their sale are also being pushed by several of the large tech folks, including both Facebook and Google, which leads one to wonder why. Why would these corporations want to destabilize TikTok? It certainly isn't because they are being patriotic. The bill in question could have simply said, Corps in the US are not authorized to transfer data to the Chinese. Simple, sweet, And yet, this isn't what is being legislated. Instead, for some unknown reason, the congress is being led by the nose to remove the world's largest competitor to Instagram. Who does that benefit? Hard questions. And yet, the legislation proffered doesn't actually produce or provide the necessary mechanism here. Where is the "thou shalt not transfer US data to China"? It simply isn't contained in the legislation. Because it would then be attributable to all US business. Like AirBNB. Why aren't we concerned, it seems, by them? There are LOTS of examples in the space.
And you know who is looking to buy it from the ChiComms? None other than Steve Mnuchin. But more to my original point, members of Congress could easily benefit from stock gains as a result of their own legislative efforts, and that creates such a conflict of interest. It's bound to be a corrupting influence when they can enrich themselves through legislative action. I would propose that they should not be allowed to hold equities while in office.
Politician, lmao.. Lemme get this strait, Russian propagand bad, China propaganda good ALL HAIL XI and the motherland China.. Politician profiting, corruption and this a surprise..
