Trump says Google is infiltrated by Chinese agents, he will "take a look" at investigating the company for treason.

[The Romulan Republic]

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-styl ... 06731.html

Donald Trump has said he will "take a look" at investigating Google for treason.

The president approvingly quoted an accusation by billionaire investor and Trump supporter Peter Thiel that the company had been infiltrated by Chinese agents and was working with its government.

Mr Trump said that Mr Thiel was "a great and brilliant guy who knows this subject better than anyone!"

He then wrote: "The Trump Administration will take a look!"

Mr Thiel – who helped found PayPal and serves on Facebook's board – had suggested that Google had been infiltrated by Chinese engineers and had made the "seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military", according to a report from Axios over the weekend.

Speaking at a conference focused on nationalism, Mr Thiel said that three questions need to be asked of Google, according to the same Axios report. He said that the company should be asked how many foreign intelligence agencies had infiltrated its work on AI, whether the company's senior management thinks it has "been thoroughly infiltrated by Chinese intelligence", and why it was working "with the Chinese military and not with the US military".

He suggested those questions should be asked "by the FBI, by the CIA, and I'm not sure quite how to put this, I would like them to be asked in a not excessively gentle manner."

In the same speech, Mr Thiel had railed against other problems he claimed blight US society. He said that Americans were too fat and addicted to drugs, but that "the biggest problem in our society is the problem of political correctness".

Mr Trump appears to have seen reports of Mr Thiel's remarks on Fox & Friends, the news show he is widely reported to watch faithfully each morning.

He gave no details on what form any investigation could take, who would lead it, or how it would actually be launched. He also gave no indication of whether he had any information to show that Mr Thiel's claims are true.

There are no public reports that Google has been infiltrated by Chinese intelligence.

The president has a long-running feud with Google, which he has in the past accused of failing to show enough positive results about him. It is just one of the variety of technology companies that have been attacked by the president.

Mr Trump's message came amid his continued defence of racist remarks in which he attacked four Congresswomen of colour. He continued the attacks on those politicians in posts either side of the tweet about Google

Just your daily reminder that the PotUS is a despot.

[LaCroix]

I am more worried that Google is infiltrated vy CIA and FBI agents than anything else.
After all, we all know that US laws demand all encryption being weaker outside the US, loopholes be present, etc.
With Google being on their soil, they had their claws in it from the start, and who knows what data they are collecting from them...

Seems fitting to post what just popped up in my newsfeeds...

[The Romulan Republic]

China's ahead of the US, and Russia is next in line.

And somewhere, Putin is smiling.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

Am I overthinking this? Or is Trump in the process of making a very bad enemy? Google is not exactly poor, or without friends (depending on your definition).

[LaCroix]

China's ahead of the US, and Russia is next in line.

And somewhere, Putin is smiling.

That's from 2017... The US did not even have a good track record back then, Obama barely stopping the downward trend Bush has started, and I'm pretty sure it has gotten worse with Trumps efforts. Right after the Bush era, I heard a lot of people wishing for Russia or China to pick up the slack and start opposing the US to dampen the bullying it did. Obama only barely convinced us that the US was not going to go 'Hail Hydra' any moment, but then the 2016 elections taught us that he was the exception from the norm, not Bush...

[Zaune]

The good news is, he'll have forgotten about it long before he gets as far as doing anything proactive.

[Solauren]

Whenever Trump says something about a company, it's stock either goes up (if positive), or down (if negative).

Google is one of the most valuable companies in the world. This is just an attempt by Trump to lower the stocks cost. Possibly so friends of his, or people on his behalf, can buy it. Nothing more.

[The Romulan Republic]

Whenever Trump says something about a company, it's stock either goes up (if positive), or down (if negative).

Google is one of the most valuable companies in the world. This is just an attempt by Trump to lower the stocks cost. Possibly so friends of his, or people on his behalf, can buy it. Nothing more.

I find there's usually multiple levels to Trump's evil. Stock manipulation could certainly be a factor, but there's also the continuation of his general reach toward authoritarian powers/labeling his critics and anyone who displeases him as treasonous, and there's the false equivalency/"both sides"/Whataboutism to deflect from his own behaviour which is, if not treason by law, certainly treasonous in spirit. Then there's the chance of dangling a shiny distraction to keep attention off of something potentially more damaging to him, like, say, Epstein or the upcoming Mueller testimony.