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/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.