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Last week, around 170 million 
Americans open TikTok on their 

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phones to find that the usual 
stream of teenagers explaining 

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how to flip real estate and 
influencers promoting the health

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benefits of sunlight charged 
water had been replaced by a 

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digital speed bump. 
A pop up message informed users 

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that if they wanted to keep 
scrolling, they had to agree to 

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new terms of service and an 
updated privacy policy. 

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The average user probably 
clicked the accept button and 

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kept going. 
For the platform, it marked the 

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official transition to a new 
corporate identity known as the 

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TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC 
Users reported that the digital 

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atmosphere changed almost 
immediately. 

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Within hours, reports began to 
surface that the platform had 

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developed a sudden sensitivity 
to certain terms. 

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Users were suddenly unable to 
send the word Epstein in direct 

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messages, a quirk confirmed by 
reporters at CNBC and NPR, who 

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encountered an error message 
stating that the text was 

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blocked to protect our 
community. 

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This will have made that morning
particularly tough for the 

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13,000 Americans with that 
surname. 

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While TikTok later characterized
this as a technical glitch in 

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its safety systems, the timing 
struck many as a rather 

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surprising coincidence. 
The apparent censorship wasn't 

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just limited to historical 
scandals in Minneapolis. 

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The fatal shooting of protesters
by federal agents had ignited a 

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wave of protests around the 
country and a parallel wave of 

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what felt like suppression on 
the app. 

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High profile creators reported 
that videos documenting the ICE 

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raids were being shadow banned 
or failing to upload altogether.

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The comedian Megan Stalter told 
The Rap that while one of her 

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posts on ICE raids had thrived 
on other platforms, it remained 

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invisible on TikTok, leading her
to delete her account in 

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protest. 
In a viral Twitter post, the 

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freelance journalist David 
Levard shared a screenshot that 

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his political videos were being 
flagged as ineligible for 

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recommendation, resulting in 
view counts that sat stubbornly 

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at 0, almost as bad as the box 
office performance of the new 

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Melania film. 
By the end of the weekend, the 

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#tik T.O.K censorship was 
trending across rival social 

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media platforms as users 
attempted to document what felt 

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like a coordinated purge of 
critical discourse, even 

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prompting California regulators 
to question whether the platform

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was violating state laws by 
suppressing content critical of 

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the current administration. 
As the first few days of 

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American majority ownership drew
to a close, it appeared that the

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new TikTok was off to a very 
rocky and for its critics, very 

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quiet start. 
The rocky roll out was the first

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public act of a corporate 
transformation that had been 

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finalized just days earlier. 
On January 22nd, TikTok had 

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announced that it had 
successfully established TikTok 

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USDS joint venture LLCA, new 
entity designed to satisfy the 

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federal mandate for the Chinese 
owned Byte Dance to divest it's 

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American operations. 
However, any expectation of a 

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clean break from Beijing was 
quickly dispelled by the details

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of the deal. 
Despite the divestment label, 

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Byte Dance remains significantly
involved in TikTok. 

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They retain a 19.9% ownership 
stake in the new structure, the 

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maximum allowed under the 2024 
law. 

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More importantly, the spin off 
is far from a total separation. 

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In a memo to employees, CEO 
Xiaozichu horrified that while 

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the joint venture would handle 
data security and content 

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moderation, Bytedance would 
continue to run Tik Tok's 

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primary money making engines in 
America, including its 

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advertising, marketing and the 
rapidly growing TikTok shop. 

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The deal consolidated control of
the platforms American 

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operations within a consortium 
of investors whose media 

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ambitions have become 
increasingly controversial. 

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Oracle Co, founded by Larry 
Ellison, and the private equity 

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firm Silverlake each took a 15% 
stake alongside the Emirati 

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backed MGX. 
The deal placed the apps most 

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sensitive functions, including 
the recommendation algorithm and

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content moderation, under the 
oversight of Oracle, according 

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to Donald Trump September 2025 
executive order. 

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Trusted security partners may 
also share information with 

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other U.S. government officials.
For the Trump aligned Ellison 

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family, this acquisition is one 
piece of a broader politically 

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charged expansion into the 
American media landscape 

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following the merger of Skydance
and Paramount Global. 

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David Ellison, Larry Ellison's 
son, installed conservative 

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figures at CBS News, a move that
coincided with a $16,000,000 

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settlement paid to President 
Trump over a 60 Minutes 

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interview added. 
This payment was made just 

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before the FCC approved the 
merger. 

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At present, the Ellisons are in 
the middle of a hostile bid to 

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buy Warner Brothers Discovery, 
the parent company of CNN. 

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Larry Ellison has reportedly 
discussed the network's future 

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direction and the potential 
firing of specific anchors with 

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White House officials, while 
David Ellison has allegedly 

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promised sweeping changes to the
network to appease the 

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administration, suggesting that 
the changes at TikTok might be 

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part of a much larger and more 
coordinated media strategy. 

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Financial analysts were quick to
point out that the consortium 

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got TikTok at a bargain price. 
The $14 billion deal was 

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announced by JD Vance rather 
than the corporate CEO, and 

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Trump gave Vance the credit for 
brokering the deal, which sat at

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a staggering discount from the 
previous estimates of 35 to $50 

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billion. 
In a final bit of theater, CNBC 

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reported that no representatives
from Bytedance were even present

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at the signing, and the deal was
reportedly made with President 

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Xi Jinping's direct approval. 
At $14 billion, TikTok US is 

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trading at a price to sales 
ratio of about 1.4 *, a 

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valuation usually reserved for 
mature industrial businesses 

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like ExxonMobil or General 
Mills. 

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As a reminder, Elon Musk paid 
$44 billion for Twitter, which 

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has about 1/4 of the daily users
of TikTok. 

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And users stay on TikTok much 
longer than they stay on 

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Twitter. 
To understand how TikTok went 

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from a national emergency to a 
sweetheart deal for politically 

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connected insiders, we have to 
go back to August 2020, when 

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Donald Trump issued an executive
order declaring Tik Tok's 

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Chinese ownership a threat to 
national security. 

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At the time, the administration 
argued that the APPS data 

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collection was a tool for the 
Chinese Communist Party to build

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dossiers on millions of 
Americans for the purposes of 

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blackmail and corporate 
espionage. 

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While that order was blocked by 
the courts, the underlying fear 

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of foreign influence and spying 
was one of the few things both 

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political parties could agree 
on. 

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In April 2024, Joe Biden signed 
a bipartisan law that gave Byte 

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Dance an ultimatum. 
Sell the APPS US operations 

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within a year or face a total 
nationwide ban. 

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For a moment, it looked like Tik
Tok's days in America were 

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numbered. 
However, as the 2024 election 

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cycle intensified, the political
calculations began to shift. 

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Trump, once the apps primary 
enemy, underwent A remarkable 

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change of heart. 
He began publicly defending 

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TikTok, arguing that a ban would
only benefit Mehta, the parent 

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company of Facebook, which he 
characterized as a greater 

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threat to the country. 
This sudden U-turn coincided 

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with a major American investor 
in Byte Dance emerging as one of

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the most prolific donors in US 
politics. 

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Reports indicate that Jeff Yass 
played a pivotal role in 

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reversing Trump's support for 
the ban while contributing over 

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$16,000,000 to the Trump aligned
MAGA Inc Super PAC. 

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On top of that, the Trump 
campaign realized that TikTok 

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had been extremely helpful in 
reaching Gen. 

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Z voters, who increasingly get 
their news from the platform's 

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passive feed. 
Trump himself credited the app 

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for his newfound popularity with
young voters, amassing over 

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16,000,000 followers on his 
personal account. 

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The new owners were quick to 
insist that the timing of these 

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issues was purely coincidental. 
In their first major 

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communication since the 
takeover, a series of statements

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posted on Twitter, the TikTok 
USDS joint venture blamed the 

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platform's erratic behavior on a
major infrastructure issue 

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caused by a power outage at one 
of Oracle's U.S. data centers. 

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It is, of course, quite funny 
for a massive social media app 

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to be forced to communicate with
its users on another, much 

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smaller social media app. 
Oracle spokespeople later 

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pointed to a severe winter storm
as the ultimate culprit for the 

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server timeouts. 
To be fair to the new 

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management, there was objective 
evidence of a broader system 

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failure. 
Site tracking services like Down

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Detector showed a massive spike 
in reports of outages, and even 

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the NFL found itself shouting 
into the void when several of 

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its posts were hit with the same
0 View bug. 

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Whether this was a genuine case 
of bad luck or a convenient 

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screen for a more targeted 
retraining of the algorithm is a

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question that would linger as 
users began to look more closely

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at the new rules they had just 
agreed to. 

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To understand why a $14 billion 
price tag and a few technical 

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glitches matter, we have to look
at how the architecture of the 

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Internet has changed over time. 
In the early days of the web, 

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and even the early days of 
YouTube, you had to search for 

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what you wanted to see. 
In this model, the user is the 

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driver. 
If you wanted to find out about 

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the Minneapolis protests or the 
contents of the Epstein files, 

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you had to actively go looking 
for them. 

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TikTok represents a change to a 
push model. 

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On TikTok, the search bar is an 
ornamental relic. 

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Users don't usually open the app
to search for something. 

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They open it instead to be shown
something. 

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It's a mostly passive 
entertainment experience, a 

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digital conveyor belt that uses 
a sophisticated black box 

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algorithm to work out exactly 
what will keep you engaged for 

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the next three hours. 
In this model, you're no longer 

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the driver, you're a passenger 
in a high tech self driving car.

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It's a comfortable ride and you 
can see out the windows just 

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fine, but you never actually 
selected a destination. 

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You're just going wherever the 
car's programmer thinks you 

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should go. 
For a politician or a corporate 

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owner, this is the ultimate 
prize. 

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If you control a search engine, 
you can only hide information 

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from people who are already 
looking for it. 

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But if you control a passive 
feed, you have a much more 

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subtle and powerful tool, the 
ability to set the ambient 

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reality of 170 million users. 
You don't have to ban a topic 

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outright to kill it. 
You just have to turn the dial 

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down by a few percentage points.
This is what researchers call 

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algorithmic nudging. 
If the algorithm decides to show

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you a bit more content that's 
favourable to one political side

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rather than the other, you've no
way of knowing. 

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There's no neutral feed to 
compare it to. 

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Every user's feed is different 
because the algorithm is 

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proprietary and hosted on 
private servers. 

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In this case, oracles, the thumb
on the scale, can be effectively

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invisible. 
In a world where people 

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increasingly get their news by 
simply opening an app and 

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waiting to be told what's 
happening, the person who writes

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the code for that discovery 
algorithm holds a level of 

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influence that would make a 20th
century media mogul blush. 

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For years, the American 
political establishment on both 

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the right and left has 
characterized Tiktok as a 

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digital Trojan horse, a 
sophisticated piece of spyware 

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that was allegedly funneling the
private habits of 170 million 

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Americans directly into the 
hands of the Chinese Communist 

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Party. 
While most users were content to

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treat this as a background 
noise, security researchers were

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becoming increasingly alarmed by
what they found under the app's 

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hood. 
Throughout 2022 and 2023, 

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experts documented technical 
behaviours that led many to 

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00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:59,360
recommend the app never be 
installed on any device used for

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sensitive communications. 
The creepy stuff wasn't just 

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theoretical, researchers 
discovered. 

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The Tik Tok's In App Browser was
designed to inject JavaScript 

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into every external website a 
user visited, giving the app the

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technical capability to log 
every keystroke typed while 

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visiting external websites, 
including passwords and credit 

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card numbers, The app was caught
poking at the phone's system 

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clipboard every few seconds, 
potentially capturing private 

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messages or any other data 
copied from other apps. 

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This was combined with 
aggressive device fingerprinting

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that collected everything from 
battery levels to Wi-Fi network 

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names, ensuring a user could be 
tracked even if they tried to 

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00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:52,280
remain anonymous. 
Despite these warnings, the 

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00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:54,440
average user remained 
indifferent. 

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Most were perfectly happy to 
trade their privacy for a more 

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efficient dopamine hit. 
The 2022 admission that Byte 

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Dance employees had used the app
to spy on Western reporters and 

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00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:11,360
monitor their physical locations
to work out who their sources 

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were should have been a breaking
point. 

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But for the millions of people 
scrolling through the For You 

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page, it was just another 
headline to be swiped away. 

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The irony of the 2026 American 
takeover is that the new 

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management hasn't removed this 
surveillance architecture, 

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they've simply made it more 
explicit. 

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While the permission to collect 
face prints and voice prints has

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been lurking in the US policy 
since 2021, the new ownership 

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00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:44,520
has shifted the context from 
marketing to compliance. 

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00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:49,440
According to a report by Secure 
Privacy, once a user grants 

241
00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:54,040
camera permission on TikTok, 
often for a simple filter or a 

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shopping feature, the A can use 
the front facing camera whenever

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it wants to monitor things like 
involuntary physical responses 

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in real time. 
This biometric harvest includes 

245
00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:11,240
the tracking of micro 
expressions, facial movements 

246
00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:15,400
lasting a fraction of a second, 
and even pupil dilation to 

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measure emotional engagement 
with a product in the shopping 

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app or a post. 
The goal is possibly to build an

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00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:27,920
emotional profile so detailed 
that the algorithm can predict a

250
00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:32,000
user's reaction before they've 
even consciously processed what 

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they're seeing. 
On top of that, the 2026 update 

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introduced several new red flags
that have privacy advocates 

253
00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:44,000
sounding the alarm. 
Most notably, the app has moved 

254
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:48,120
from tracking your approximate 
location via IP address to 

255
00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:52,680
precise GPS tracking. 
Experts at Epic warn that the 

256
00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:56,600
new policy allows TikTok to 
track your whereabouts down to 

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00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:59,280
the specific floor of an 
apartment building. 

258
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,680
Combined with this precise 
tracking is a more aggressive 

259
00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:06,640
disclosure regarding sensitive 
personal data. 

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00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:11,160
The new terms explicitly state 
the TikTok may collect and 

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00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:15,160
process information about your 
racial or ethnic origin, 

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00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:19,800
religious beliefs, sexual 
orientation and citizenship or 

263
00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:23,960
immigration status. 
In a political climate where ICE

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raids have become a daily 
headline and people who attend 

265
00:17:27,280 --> 00:17:31,360
protests are being described as 
domestic terrorists, the fact 

266
00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:35,320
that a private company with 
close ties to the administration

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00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:40,080
is building an inferred database
of immigration status is a 

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00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:43,920
staggering transformation. 
For a platform built on dance 

269
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trends, Even your unfinished 
thoughts aren't safe. 

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00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:51,960
As highlighted by the YouTube 
channel Top Music Attorney, the 

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00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:55,840
new terms include a massive 
intellectual property and AI 

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00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:59,480
grab. 
Unlike Meta or X, which offer at

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00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:03,520
least an opt out for AI 
training, the new TikTok terms 

274
00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:08,240
provide no such escape hatch. 
By clicking agree, you grant the

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00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:13,200
platform a worldwide royalty 
free, sub licensable permanent 

276
00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:16,760
license to use and remix your 
content. 

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00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:20,960
Your content, including your 
image and voice, can be used to 

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00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:24,280
train Tik Tok's generative AI 
models. 

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00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:27,760
This doesn't just include the 
videos you've uploaded on the 

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00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:32,400
platform, it includes pre 
uploaded content, the private 

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00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:35,880
drafts and clips that you 
recorded but decided not to 

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00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:39,120
post. 
We were originally told that the

283
00:18:39,120 --> 00:18:41,840
risk was foreign access to our 
data. 

284
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,920
The solution, it seems, was to 
build a domestic surveillance 

285
00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:50,360
and asset capture machine that's
more detailed, more biometric 

286
00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:53,960
and, thanks to its private 
ownership, largely beyond the 

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00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:59,080
reach of public oversight. 
The 2026 takeover of TikTok 

288
00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:03,400
completely inverted the roles in
the American debate over social 

289
00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:07,640
media censorship For years. 
The primary complaints came from

290
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:10,240
the right. 
Republican lawmakers and 

291
00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:14,520
conservative influencers were 
upset about shadow banning and 

292
00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,880
worried about collusion between 
the White House and social media

293
00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:21,120
companies. 
They viewed the recommendation 

294
00:19:21,120 --> 00:19:25,920
algorithm as a political weapon 
used to bury unapproved 

295
00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:28,680
narratives. 
But with the keys to TikTok now 

296
00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:32,720
held by a consortium of the 
president's closest allies, that

297
00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:36,160
script has been flipped. 
President Trump spent the 

298
00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:40,920
morning of the January 22nd 
launch on Truth Social, hailing 

299
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:45,320
the new venture as a victory for
Great American patriots and 

300
00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:48,520
investors. 
He specifically thanked Chinese 

301
00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:53,200
President Xi Jinping for a very 
dramatic, final, and beautiful 

302
00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:57,920
conclusion to the negotiations. 
It was a remarkable moment of 

303
00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:01,760
political theater. 
The man who originally declared 

304
00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:06,000
the app a national security 
emergency was now it's most 

305
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:10,240
enthusiastic salesman. 
During the earlier signing of 

306
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:14,440
the Saving TikTok executive 
order in September, Trump was 

307
00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:18,640
asked if the new domestic 
algorithm would prioritise pro 

308
00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:21,720
administration content. 
He replied. 

309
00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:26,240
I always like MAGA related. 
If I could, I'd make it 100% 

310
00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:28,920
MAGA related. 
It's actually a good question. 

311
00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,880
But I would, yeah, if, if I 
could make it 100% MAGA, I 

312
00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:34,400
would. 
But it's not going to work out 

313
00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:35,440
that way. 
Unfortunately. 

314
00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:37,240
No, Everyone's going to be 
treated fairly. 

315
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:41,720
While his allies laughed that 
off as a joke, the comments 

316
00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:45,680
signalled a clear awareness of 
the influence he had just helped

317
00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:49,920
consolidate. 
This role reversal has created a

318
00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:54,240
hall of mirrors in Washington. 
The same Republican lawmakers 

319
00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:58,440
who once rallied against Big 
Tech collusion now praise its 

320
00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:01,920
commitment to American values 
and national security. 

321
00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:06,560
Meanwhile, the anxiety over 
shadow banning has migrated to 

322
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,920
the left. 
Last week, California Governor 

323
00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:14,120
Gavin Newsom announced a formal 
investigation into the joint 

324
00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:17,760
venture following reports the 
content critical of the 

325
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:21,360
administration, specifically 
regarding labor strikes and 

326
00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:25,600
immigration protests, was being 
systematically suppressed. 

327
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:30,480
The fear with TikTok used to be 
that a foreign adversary was 

328
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:34,160
pulling the strings. 
Now the fear is purely domestic.

329
00:21:34,360 --> 00:21:37,840
The technical glitches and the 
blocking of terms like Epstein 

330
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:41,720
suggest that the thumb on the 
social media scale hasn't 

331
00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:45,320
necessarily been removed. 
It's just a different thumb. 

332
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:49,840
We didn't eliminate the threat 
of algorithmic manipulation, we 

333
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:53,440
just ensured that the people 
holding the remote control are 

334
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:55,680
the ones who helped broker the 
deal. 

335
00:21:56,240 --> 00:22:00,480
Reason magazine published A 
compelling case a few days ago 

336
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:04,480
that it's unlikely that TikTok 
has become a state controlled 

337
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:08,600
propaganda machine. 
Their logic follows the rational

338
00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:12,360
business actor theory. 
TikTok is a for profit 

339
00:22:12,360 --> 00:22:15,120
enterprise. 
The new investors paid $14 

340
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:19,720
billion for it, and it would be 
commercial suicide to engage in 

341
00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:23,320
open, obvious suppression of 
half of the country's political 

342
00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:26,640
views. 
They argued that a competent 

343
00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:29,920
super villain intent on 
brainwashing the masses would 

344
00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:34,240
presumably tweak the algorithm 
slowly and subtly, slowly 

345
00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:38,200
boiling the frog rather than 
alienating their users on day 

346
00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:41,520
one. 
From this perspective, the 0 

347
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,840
view videos and block search 
terms were exactly what the 

348
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:48,040
company claimed. 
Technical growing pains from 

349
00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:51,720
moving massive amounts of data 
onto Oracle servers. 

350
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:55,840
I hope that they're right and 
there is often a simple and 

351
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:58,080
innocent explanation for 
everything. 

352
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:01,440
It's easy to make the leap when 
you hear the TikTok users 

353
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:05,280
couldn't type the word Epstein 
into their direct messages that 

354
00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:08,840
something's being done to 
suppress conversations about the

355
00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:12,120
Epstein files. 
But I did some Googling and 

356
00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:17,040
found that between 2008 and 
2011, Oracle's chief financial 

357
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:19,680
officer was a man named Jeffrey 
Epstein. 

358
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:24,360
To be clear, this was a totally 
different Jeffrey Epstein, and 

359
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:28,600
he quite wisely asks people to 
call him Jeff and is bald, which

360
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:32,760
helps to avoid confusion. 
Now, it's quite possible that 

361
00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:36,120
Larry Ellison had a very 
difficult working relationship 

362
00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:40,000
with his former CFO, and maybe 
he spent the last 15 years 

363
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:43,360
trying to ensure that he never 
has to hear that name again. 

364
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:46,440
Now, I have no evidence that 
this is the case, but it is 

365
00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:50,040
possible that Ellison is petty 
enough to block the names of 

366
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:53,640
former employees. 
Maybe he flies into a rage 

367
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:57,360
whenever they're mentioned. 
On a side note, I bet that it's 

368
00:23:57,360 --> 00:24:01,280
a nightmare for bald Jeff 
Epstein to book a massage. 

369
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:05,080
There's probably also a lot of 
high profile people who have a 

370
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:08,080
panic attack whenever they see 
an e-mail from him in their 

371
00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:10,760
inbox. 
I'll tell you, that guy could 

372
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:14,720
have a lot of fun making 
political donations now. 

373
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:18,760
As good as Reason magazines 
rational business actor theory 

374
00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:22,960
is, it's taken quite a beating 
in recent years. 

375
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:27,720
If the new owners of TikTok just
made a ham fisted day one 

376
00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:31,480
adjustment to the algorithm, it 
wouldn't be the first time that 

377
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:34,880
a tech bro put his tongue a bit 
too firmly on the scales. 

378
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:38,440
We've seen this movie before on 
Twitter, where the technical 

379
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:42,160
glitch excuse has been used to 
explain everything from Grok's 

380
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:45,840
bizarre obsession with white 
South African farmers to the 

381
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:49,360
period when the AI would only 
provide gushingly positive 

382
00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:53,920
answers to questions about Elon 
Musk, at one point declaring him

383
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:58,280
smarter than Albert Einstein, 
fitter than LeBron James, and a 

384
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:02,440
world champion at drinking piss,
amongst other activities. 

385
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:06,640
When Grok was retrained to be 
less woke last summer, it 

386
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:10,520
promptly began calling itself 
Mecca Hitler and churning out 

387
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:13,880
racist remarks. 
The the problem might be that 

388
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:17,840
when you try to reengineer a 
culture machine to suit a 

389
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:21,680
specific worldview over a 
weekend, you don't always get a 

390
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,880
subtle nudge. 
Sometimes you get a robotic 

391
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:28,680
dictator. 
It is entirely possible that the

392
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:33,160
Minneapolis outages were just a 
technical glitch caused by a 

393
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,000
winter storm. 
The great thing about the glitch

394
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:39,720
defense, though, is that it's 
impossible to disprove from the 

395
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,400
outside. 
The public is forced to choose 

396
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:47,200
between believing in a highly 
specific technical failure or a 

397
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,760
highly coordinated political 
action. 

398
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:54,640
The national security label that
was used to force the sale now 

399
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:58,040
acts as a permanent shield 
against transparency. 

400
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:02,080
We're left with a platform 
that's been described as spyware

401
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:06,680
in the past, that's now American
owned and secure, yet somehow 

402
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:10,480
manages to fail in exactly the 
ways that benefit its new 

403
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:14,240
owners. 
The TikTok rescue makes one 

404
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:16,880
thing clear. 
Protecting the privacy of the 

405
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:19,360
American people was never the 
goal. 

406
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,600
If it were, the new owners 
wouldn't have doubled down on 

407
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:27,440
biometric tracking, precise GPS 
monitoring, and the harvesting 

408
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:29,920
of private drafts and keystroke 
logging. 

409
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:34,200
The data isn't less stolen just 
because it's now being stored in

410
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:38,600
a data center in Texas. 
Ultimately, the TikTok deal 

411
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:42,400
wasn't a victory for data 
privacy in the United States. 

412
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:45,040
It was instead a transfer of 
custody. 

413
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,840
We've traded the threat of a 
foreign adversary using an 

414
00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:52,400
algorithm to influence our 
behavior for the threat of a 

415
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:55,880
domestic consortium doing the 
exact same thing. 

416
00:26:56,360 --> 00:27:00,800
We were told the TikTok was a 
weapon of mass distraction that 

417
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,960
had to be neutralized. 
Instead, it was captured, 

418
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:09,000
rebranded, and pointed back at 
the same 170 million users. 

419
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:13,840
There are reports that American 
users are deleting TikTok since 

420
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,560
the new terms of service came 
out, with deletions jumping 

421
00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:21,720
nearly 150% in the five days 
after the deal. 

422
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,600
Well, this hasn't lead to a 
major loss of US users. 

423
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,880
The wave of uninstalls could be 
a sign of troubles to come for 

424
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:33,320
the new US TikTok venture. 
Thanks for tuning into the 

425
00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:36,840
podcast, and as always, a 
special thanks to my supporters 

426
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:40,640
on Patreon whose contributions 
make this whole thing happen. 

427
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:44,240
If you want to sign up on 
Patreon, I'll leave a link in 

428
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:46,920
the description. 
Have a great day and talk to you

429
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:48,120
again soon. 
Bye.