"TikTok will soon have new American oligarch overlords. If Donald Trump is to be believed, Lachlan Murdoch, Michael Dell, and Larry Ellison are potential investors in a deal to keep the social-media giant in the United States. Trump has been actively thwarting legislation, signed into law under Joe Biden with bipartisan majorities, to force a sale to the U.S. because TikTok is currently owned by ByteDance, which has close ties to the Chinese government."
"the outcome of American TikTok ownership could mean censorship of a different kind - against pro-Palestine content, which has proliferated on the platform. For the Israel hawks in the MAGA orbit - and those in general who want Trump-aligned forces to wield as much power over what we see and hear as possible - it will be a great day when TikTok is sold."
"As much as this is a story of the president's authoritarian id, it's also far more an outgrowth of the consolidation of business in American life and the terrifying clout corporations now wield. The Murdoch family may soon have a social-media behemoth to add to its News Corp and Fox empire. This should chill us all. And then there's Ellison's Oracle, which has drawn close to Trump as it has clamped down on pro-Palestine activism within its own company."
"Oracle itself collaborates closely with the Israeli government on technology and military infrastructure. Ellison once offered Benjamin Netanyahu a place on Oracle's board of directors and invited him to visit his private Hawaiian island. In 2021, Oracle became the first multinational tech company to offer cloud services in the country, establishing a $319 million data center in Jerusalem."
Potential investors including Lachlan Murdoch, Michael Dell, and Larry Ellison are positioned to acquire TikTok after Donald Trump impeded bipartisan legislation aimed at forcing a sale from ByteDance over Chinese-government ties. A U.S. sale could replace concerns about foreign influence with domestic content suppression, particularly targeting pro-Palestine material that has proliferated on the platform. The deal could strengthen MAGA-aligned and Israel-hawk influence over what Americans see, reflecting broader corporate consolidation and political favoritism. Oracle’s close ties to Trump and Israel, past overtures to Netanyahu, and a Jerusalem data center illustrate entangled corporate-government relationships and potential content influence.
Read at Intelligencer
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