Donald Trump has successfully used xenophobia and fake concerns about propaganda and national security to get what he’s long wanted: TikTok (and its fat ad revenues) are poised to be sold off to his right wing billionaire buddies and, inevitably, slowly converted into a right wing propaganda safe space.
After endless delays, Trump insiders claim to be zeroing in on a deal that would sell 80% of TikTok’s U.S. assets to Andreessen Horowitz (owned by Marc Andreessen, an increasingly incoherent right wing billionaire and close Trump ally), Oracle (owned by Larry Ellison, a rabidly right wing billionaire and close Trump ally), and Silver Lake (a hedge fund with a history of… predatory and dodgy behaviors).
Andreessen and Ellison are, to be clear, technofascists who don’t believe in democracy, regulatory oversight, or basic privacy protections for consumers. The remaining 20 percent would remain in the hands of Chinese ownership and the Chinese government, which still has to finalize the deal. This is not, contrary to what you’ll read in the pages of WAPO or CNN, a net improvement.
Oh, and Donald Trump will get to appoint a board member. Remember when Republicans were against government interference in private businesses?
If you recall, selling TikTok to Trump’s buddies was always his goal (remember he originally wanted it split between Walmart and Oracle). It just got temporarily disrupted by his 2020 election loss.
Trump still didn’t truly get what he really wanted: reporting in the Financial Times suggests that China will still technically own and control the algorithm used to power TikTok, something Trump had previously said was essential to any deal. Early reporting by the Wall Street Journal also indicates that existing TikTok users will have to migrate to a new app.
“Come join an app majority owned by Donald Trump’s unhinged right wing billionaire friends where there’s no competent hate speech and right wing propaganda safeguards” is going to be a tricky selling point that could ultimately throw sand in the gears, and create the potential for another (hopefully better?) company to disrupt their plans.
Now is the time for Silicon Valley to engage in that boundless innovation we’ve all heard so much about.
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