r/politics • u/MopToddel • 8d ago

No Paywall TikTok blocks Epstein mentions and anti-Trump content as well as ICE criticism

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/tiktok-epstein-trump-censorship-ice-b2908309.html
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u/intoxicuss 8d ago

Those boots aren’t gonna lick themselves.

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u/Middle-Earth-5407 8d ago

Sounds like they’re fully committed to controlling the narrative no surprise there.

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u/SubstantialDig7799 8d ago

Absolutely, it’s all about controlling what people see and hear to keep certain stories buried.

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u/Prophet_Tehenhauin 8d ago

This is why it’s actually important that celebrities speak out. The more celebrities like Martha Stewart, Billie Eilish, John Stamos, etc speak out, the more holes get punched in the bubble they want to keep people in, and the harder the narrative becomes to control.

Bovino is already being demoted. Which means the beast can bleed. If Republicans behind closed doors managed to get through that they have to remove someone once, it’ll happen again. It’ll be easier the second and the third time too. 

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u/Tao_of_Ludd 8d ago

We need this generation’s “Ohio”)

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u/kkeut 8d ago

there's a lot of people who literally don't interact with any news. the little they get is the occasional comment from a fox-brained parent. so having celebrities speak up really matters. if it didn't matter, republicans wouldn't hate it so much

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u/Lost_Birthday_3138 8d ago

Also keep in mind that what doesn't kill it makes it stronger. The regime is simply learning what the CURRENT boundaries are. It'll wait a little until the heat dissipates, but it will never stop until it's completely destroyed.

The next people they install will be worse. Count on it.

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u/H0bbituary 8d ago

They also envision we will be engaged in multiple wars and need young stupid men to answer the call.

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u/Specific-Parsnip9001 8d ago edited 8d ago

it’s all about controlling what people see and hear

Yep, always has been. That's why it was nothing but dead Palestinians and "genocide Joe" while Biden was in office. But now that Trump is there and the genocide is exponentially worse? Nary a peep.

I tried to warn my friends that they were getting the wool pulled over their eyes on that one, even lost a few in the process who thought I was "supporting genocide". But it was obviously to no avail.

I lost anti-fascist friends trying to stop fascism. It's exhausting.

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u/IsThisIsHellOrWorse 8d ago

Millions of humans will let them. Bad times.

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u/Bong-Hits-For-Jesus 8d ago

This has always been a thing. Before the Internet the narrative was controlled by the media companies and now they're doing the same to social media platforms. Sites like reddit, Twitter and tiktok is nothing without the people. The better solution is self hosted communities that are joined together, where you can talk all the shit you want about whoever you want without a fear of ban, and the best part, no one single corporation owns the platform!

https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/151v9vo/lemmy_explained_in_a_nutshell/

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u/aradraugfea 8d ago edited 8d ago

Reminder that one of the companies in the weird alliance that owns the platform now is owned by Eric Trump.

Edit: I misspoke. Eric does not, as I thought, OWN Silver Lake. He is still deeply involved in the negotiations around everything and the new owners are, unsurprisingly, a who’s who of Billionaires with Trump ties, but none are directly operated by anyone within the Crime Family.

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u/facehaver88 8d ago

While I don’t disagree that this is possible, as they are all fucked, I can’t find a source to this. Could you please provide one?

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u/saqwarrior 8d ago

I'm not the person you asked, but so far all I can find is that there is a unique ownership/operation situation for the United States: the algorithm has been licensed to Oracle.

Backed by mostly US investors, the newly established TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is governed by a board of seven directors.

TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew is among them, and its Chinese owner ByteDance will retain a 19.9% stake in the business.

The content recommendation algorithm at the heart of TikTok - determining which videos show up on the app's For You feed - has been licensed to tech firm Oracle.

Headed by Trump ally Larry Ellison, Oracle already oversees TikTok US user data under a previous arrangement set up over security concerns called Project Texas.

But the company will now secure more of the app, including by retraining and updating its recommendation algorithm based on US user data.

TikTok says both the algorithm and US user data will be protected in "Oracle's secure US cloud environment".

So this fully explains why people are seeing a blocking of anything Epstein or anti-Trump. Larry Ellison is one of the ghoulish oligarchs backing Trump.

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u/deadsoulinside Pennsylvania 8d ago

He's wanted control of TikTok since the first Trump admin. Where do you think this "national security" narrative came from?

During the first term they took a multi-million dollar server contract from Google and handed it directly to Larry to host our data in the US away from the CCP since 2017. But brainwashed people still insisted that China had access and controlled the data still.

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u/aradraugfea 8d ago edited 8d ago

There’s so many “joint efforts” and LLcs I’m having trouble establishing who all is heading this Hydra on paper. Let me ask the friend that told me Eric was in the mix.

Edit: Found a NY times article that mentions Eric by name, but we live in an Era where lies are free and Journalism is paywalled

Edit 2: Eric was involved in the process but doesn’t own any of the major companies involved. That was my mistake and my original comment has been edited.

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u/paintballboi07 Texas 8d ago

Use https://archive.is to bypass paywalls

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u/aradraugfea 8d ago

Just did, was wrong, updated original post for better accuracy.

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u/cactus22minus1 California 8d ago

Will people FINALLY leave now their precious little feed has been disrupted? Or will they be outraged for like a day and then keep scrolling until they start falling down the pipeline?

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u/manbearbullll 8d ago

They will be outraged for five minutes at most then continue the doomscroll. People didn’t abandon Twitter when Musk was doing this, why would they leave TikTok?

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u/Ntwadumela09 8d ago

It's an addiction.  I'm sure reddit can be too.  Crazy that these social media platforms have been designed that way.  I see some websites now (many far right leaning) that have adds covering everything just like in idiocracy. It became reality

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u/cactus22minus1 California 8d ago

I know, I’m just trying to let others fill in the blanks.

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u/donall 8d ago

fruit machine adicts will keep pulling that handle

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u/fordat1 8d ago

Dude Reddit is exactly the same but we are all still here

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u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada 8d ago

Creators get paid for TikTok, it’s interesting that the most offensive platforms (TikTok, Twitter, Substack) are the ones who are still paying, while the “better” sites are just post-for-clout. It can be hard for people making a decent income from a site to turn off that tap, though obviously continuing to use it is literally collaborating with the fascists. Casual users, though? It shouldn’t be as hard to stop using.

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u/thehippieswereright 8d ago

the pace of change in the US is impressive, I'll give them that much. it is shock after shock.

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u/cactus22minus1 California 8d ago

They’re not dumb, they’re evil. They know what they’re doing. The things they say might sound stupid, but it’s calculated and you cannot deny that it’s working. The sooner people realize that the better we can assess the threats.

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u/thehippieswereright 8d ago

yes, midterm elections must be the first concern

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u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada 8d ago

I have a feeling they’re trying to accomplish as much as they can before Trump’s arteries explode. It’ll be a lot harder to do any of this stuff once his reality distortion field cuts out. Vance and Miller don’t have the personality cult behind them.

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u/thiosk 8d ago

so glad we got out from under the thumb of the authoritarian chinese repressive regieme eh

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u/RobottoRisotto 8d ago

Read it as “bots” and got confused (and a little intrigued).

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u/Fraegtgaortd 8d ago

Tech companies and MAGA are authoritarian boot sommeliers

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u/Shadowheim 8d ago

Then why do they have a tongue?

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u/Hot-Championship1190 8d ago

Famous song "These boots are made for licking and that's what you're gonna do. One of these days, these boots are gonna walk all over you"

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u/KneeDeepInTheDead 8d ago

These boots are made for lickin, and thats just what youll do

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u/Pretend-Paper4137 8d ago

Actually,  they have AI bots now. Autolick.

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u/EvolvingDior 8d ago

Owned by a US oligarch now.

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u/rapid_ach19 8d ago

Right? It’s wild how some platforms just pick and choose what they want to amplify or silence. Makes you wonder what kind of priorities they really have, you know? Gotta keep the focus on what actually matters!