The formerly Chinese-owned app TikTok, has remained prominent in headlines since 2020, when the Trump administration first voiced concerns over the safety of American users’ data being in the hands of a foreign adversary, as well as the alleged spread of CCP-approved propaganda on the app. The Trump administration pushed the narrative that TikTok’s popularity in the States is a direct threat to national security, and thus should be banned.
In August of 2020, Trump utilized his emergency economic powers to initiate a ban, which was blocked by federal judges, that cited an overstep in executive powers, as no evidence of mishandled user data was found. However, in 2024 the Biden Administration reinvigorated efforts to ban the app, while Trump campaigned on “renegotiating” the app’s ownership to prevent the ban. In March of 2024, the House of Representatives bipartisanly approved legislation that would force TikTok to either divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or be banned on the American app store. In January of 2025, TikTok was temporarily banned as the legal deadline had passed, and users were faced with an error message that ended with thanking Trump for indicating working towards a solution. After the app was restored, a similar message credited the return to U.S. servers to Trump’s efforts. Again, the TikTok ban was extended, and after speculations of who would acquire the app, as of January 2026, the majority of the app’s ownership lies with three U.S based companies: Oracle, a computing giant owned by Republican mega-donor and longtime Trump ally, Larry Ellision, Silver Lake, a tech investment firm, and AI-focused investment firm, MGX.
The Ellison name made headlines in September of 2025, when the son of Oracle’s co-founder, David Ellison acquired CBS’s parent company Paramount, after the settlement of a lawsuit brought by Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President, Kamala Harris. After airing two different responses to a question in full, Trump accused the network of misleading the public with biased reporting and editing. Ellison’s acquisition of the network was followed by internal changes, namely hiring Kenneth Weinstein, former Hudson Institute president with prominent pro-Trump ideologies as the overseer for monitoring the presence of bias within CBS’s reporting. A stark change in reporting was notable after this, as Trump’s 60 Minutes interview was heavily edited to appeal to his demands, cutting out certain remarks as he requested, damaging the integrity of the newsroom, and prompting calls for an investigation into possible coercion. So, it seems the Ellisons are in Trump’s back pocket, as they mold their growing media empire to Trump’s liking. Moreover, Larry Ellison was beside Trump in supporting the deregulation of expanding AI infrastructure, voicing aspirations of developing a surveillance society where “citizens will be on their best behavior because [they’re] constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.” TikTok’s new privacy policy has also come under scrutiny, as it outlines that user data, like precise location and content characteristics can be collected, which leaves users unnerved as their data is in the hands of a company with dreams of managing a surveillance society.
In addition, Oracle has openly proclaimed maintaining strong ties with Israel, having a giant database center established in Jerusalem. Furthermore, a video from May of 2025 of the newly named CEO of TikTok, Adam Presser, has begun circulating where he outlines the app’s hate speech moderation system, stating the term “Zionist” was made into a proxy that would be flagged for hate speech, which prompted the mass banning of accounts that used the term in a perceived “derogatory” or critical way. Therefore, the app’s new ownership clearly has alliances that they are maintaining and has already implemented content moderating structures that adhere to broader agendas.
American user data is now in the hands of these Trump lobbyist billionaire companies, now conglomerated into TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, and so is the app’s algorithmic formula. Users immediately noticed abnormal glitches and a change in usual content after the app was transferred to U.S ownership. Specifically, users have accused the new algorithm of censoring videos about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) onslaught in Minneapolis, as well as content regarding Jeffery Epstein’s expansive sex-trafficking scheme. Political content creator, California State Senator Scott Weiner, experienced problems uploading a video where he announced advancing a bill that would allow for ICE agents to be sued for violating civilian rights. After many creators reported similar experiences, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom announced that he will be launching an investigation on possible censorship of Trump critical content on the app.
Moreover, TikTok serves as an expansive news network for one-fifth of U.S adults, and is significant in sharing on-the-ground reports of the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The platform has been home for many Palestinian civilian journalists, including Bisan Owda, whose account was recently banned after the U.S. venture took over. As Presser explained in 2025, TikTok’s content maintenance system is favorable towards pro-Israel narratives, so it is not surprising that content sharing the Palestinian perspective is suppressed or banned. Furthermore, just by looking up “TikTok censored” on the app, videos will appear of creators testing if they’re shadowbanned, and the comment section of political content is filled with users claiming to have the video glitch or mute at certain points.
In response to the glitches, the company attributed the errors to a major power outage at one of the U.S. data centers, and explained that users may experience bugs, slower loading times, and timed-out requests. So, what’s really going on? Is TikTok becoming purposefully censored to suppress content critical of Israel and Trump? With the conglomerates’ alliances in mind, as well as Trump’s influence in restructuring media companies and finding allies in social media company owners like X’s Elon Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, this could mean a larger goal of mass censorship and surveillance that suppresses the transportation network of information from the United States to the rest of the world, and vice versa. Now, this is not to scare, but it might be worth noting this possibility, as expansive communication networks like TikTok can quickly devolve into echo-chambers that confine and control the information that is shared, especially if the algorithm and data collection is in the hands of the cronies in this administration displaying autocratic behavior.