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Reposted

Rhuta Bhayga

@rhutabhayga.bsky.social

#TikTok is now owned by the U.S. in a forced sale.

The consortium is led by Larry Ellison, executive chairman of Oracle, which helped the Heritage Foundation create a database of loyalists for Project 2025.

And they now control what 150MM Americans can or can't see. Or post.

January 28, 2026 (Wednesday)
If they were going to build state-sponsored media in America, they wouldn’t announce it.
For months, the warnings spread like rumor. Delete it. Get your kids off it. The Chinese are watching. The algorithm is feeding them propaganda, depression, rage. A hundred and fifty million Americans on a single app, scrolling ninety-five minutes a day, and the servers sat in Beijing. Lawmakers called it a national security threat. Parents called it digital fentanyl. TikTok is spying on your children, they said. TikTok is brainwashing a generation.
The dread was real. The danger may have been real. So they forced a sale.
And five days ago, the app that terrified them changed hands. Now the dread has a different shape.
Yesterday, a woman in a Chicago salon, still in her smock between clients, propped her iPhone against the mirror and recorded a video about ICE. Thirty seconds. Posted it. Went back to work.
An hour later: zero views.
She deleted it. Recorded again, this time using emojis. 🧊 instead of ICE, thinking maybe the algorithm flags certain words. Posted it. Checked again before bed, the screen bright in her hand.
Still zero.
The next morning, she posted a video of her latte. Three thousand views by noon.
Across the country, similar reports. A father in Minneapolis, 400,000 followers, posting about Palestine: zero views. A physical therapist in New Jersey typing “Epstein” into a direct message, watching the app freeze, a warning appearing: This message may be in violation of our Community Guidelines. CNBC reporters reproduced the error on camera, typing the same name, getting the same block.
TikTok blamed a power outage at a data center.

Users described an outage that seemed to know the difference between British users and American users. An outage that triggered when you typed a name. An outage that affected political content but not dance videos, ICE but not coffee, Gaza but not lipstick tutorials.
This was the app that showed Minneapolis burning when the networks cut away.
For ten minutes on May 25, 2020, a seventeen-year-old named Darnella Frazier held her phone steady and recorded a police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. She posted it. It spread. The world saw what the official story would have buried: that he called for his mother, that bystanders begged the officer to stop, that it took eight minutes and forty-six seconds for a man to die on a sidewalk in America.
TikTok didn’t break that story. But TikTok became the place where stories like it couldn’t be contained. Gaza, when the networks looked away. ICE raids filmed in real time. Protests before the press arrived. For five years, it was the camera that couldn’t be managed, the signal that couldn’t be jammed, the place where ordinary people could make power visible without asking permission.
A hundred and fifty million Americans opened it every day. A third of teenagers said it was their primary news source. Not CNN. Not the Times. The algorithm.
And now the algorithm answers to someone new.
On January 22, 2026, a pop-up appeared on a hundred and fifty million American phones. A new privacy policy. Most people clicked through without reading. But the language had changed. TikTok now lists what it collects: racial or ethnic origin, national origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, citizenship, immigration status. That data existed before. But before, it flowed to ByteDance, a Chinese company with no stake in American deportation policy.
Now it flows to a different owner.
The consortium is led by Larry Ellison, executive chairman of Oracle, host to Trump at his Rancho Mirage estate.
In September 2024, Ellison told investors wh…

Within seventy-two hours of the ownership transfer, creators reported anti-Trump content throttled, videos about ICE stuck at zero, the word “Epstein” blocked in DMs. The same name the Justice Department was legally required to release files about forty days ago—and hasn’t. BBC and Guardian videos appeared visible in London, invisible in Los Angeles.
Uninstalls spiked, if only by anecdote: screenshots, goodbye posts, friends telling friends to delete it. On social media, people began describing the same sensation in different words: the feed felt newly policed. “I got rid of it,” one user wrote. “Nice side effect is a calmer brain.”
In an interview that fall, Netanyahu had been blunt: “The most important purchase that is going on right now is TikTok. I hope it goes through because it can be consequential.”
It went through.
People didn’t need proof of intent. They only needed the sensation: that the room had gained a guard.
Orwell didn’t imagine censorship as a bonfire. He imagined it as clerical work.
In 1984, when a man named Withers falls out of favor, he isn’t arrested in the square. He becomes an “unperson.” The records are edited. The photographs altered. “Withers, then, did not exist: he had never existed.” The newspaper still prints. The world still turns. But the public record has been silently revised, and no one can prove it was ever different.
State-sponsored media doesn’t announce itself. It looks like the app you already use, doing what apps already do: sorting content, recommending videos, deciding what spreads and what disappears. The difference is whose hand is on the dial. State-sponsored media is when the algorithm answers to power, when the content that vanishes is the content power wants vanished, when the glitch is always the explanation.
The woman in Chicago can watch her video on her own phone. It exists. But zero views means zero reach means zero presence in the public reality.
She wasn’t banned. She was just never there.
How would you know i…

The algorithm has always been opaque. Content has always risen and fallen for reasons no one could explain. That opacity is the camouflage. Beneath it, suppression becomes indistinguishable from bad luck. It cannot be named, cannot be fought, cannot be proven.
The most effective censorship doesn’t delete. It throttles. It shadowbans. It lets your voice exist while ensuring no one hears it. And eventually, you stop posting what doesn’t spread. You learn which words the algorithm won’t carry. You try emojis. You try euphemisms. You watch what works for other people and start to mimic it. You censor yourself before anyone has to do it for you.
The woman in Chicago has started noticing patterns. Her videos about rent do fine. Her videos about traffic do fine. Anything about policy, about power, about the government doing something to someone: zero views. She doesn’t know if it’s real. She doesn’t know if she’s paranoid. She just knows what happens when she posts, and what doesn’t.
The threat was China. That’s what they said for years. A foreign adversary controlling the algorithm, manipulating what Americans see, collecting data on a hundred and fifty million citizens. A national security risk so severe it justified forcing a sale.
So they forced a sale.
And the platform that documented Minneapolis, that broadcast Gaza, that showed ICE raids in real time—now belongs to a man who dreams of constant surveillance, backed by a president who calls his consortium “Great American Patriots,” financed in part by twenty billion dollars from the United Arab Emirates.
The data collection hasn’t stopped. The algorithm still runs. Only now it’s American.
So it’s safe.
TikTok says the glitch has been resolved. The servers are stable.
The woman in Chicago checked her phone again this morning. The screen was bright in her hand. The video about ICE: still zero views. The video about her latte: twelve thousand.
She typed a caption about a raid in her neighborhood. Stopped. Deleted it. Typ…

January 29, 2026 at 1:24 AM

Reposted

Robert Reich

@rbreich.bsky.social

And yet Elon Musk just got a pay package worth $1 trillion.

Still don't think American capitalism is off the rails?

Faiz Siddiqui @faizsays.bsky.social · 9h

New: Tesla 4th quarter profit plunges 61% year-over-year; annual profit down 46%

the brand damage:
-1 million lost vehicle sales, per study
-Declining revenue, profits, deliveries in 1st half of '25
-Lower total production/deliveries than '24
-Lost crown as world's leading EV seller
wapo.st/3LYTef1

Tesla bet big on Elon Musk. His politics continue to haunt it.

Tesla struggles to regain its footing in the electric vehicle market, hindered by Elon Musk’s political activity, impacting its stock price and performance.

wapo.st

January 28, 2026 at 10:53 PM

Reposted

Hannah BW

@hbwhbwhbw.bsky.social

my grandmother, an Auschwitz survivor, was Anne Frank’s neighbor in Amsterdam, and Oma thinks this comparison is perfectly apt

USA TODAY @usatoday.com · 1d

The Minnesota governor is getting widespread criticism for comparing children dealing with immigration enforcement to Holocaust victim Anne Frank.

Tim Walz condemned for comparing Minnesota children to Anne Frank

The Minnesota governor is getting widespread criticism for comparing children dealing with immigration enforcement to Holocaust victim Anne Frank.

bit.ly

January 28, 2026 at 2:37 AM

Reposted

Wajahat Ali

@wajali.bsky.social

Just a reminder that both Ilhan Omar and Maxwell Frost have been attacked this week.

No outrage by right-wing media or even corporate media.

Now imagine if this were done to Republicans.

The entire system is rigged in favor of conservatives, folks. The double standards are just wild.

January 28, 2026 at 6:19 AM

Reposted

Kara Swisher

@karaswisher.bsky.social

What he said

Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · 1d

Just a reminder that both Ilhan Omar and Maxwell Frost have been attacked this week.

No outrage by right-wing media or even corporate media.

Now imagine if this were done to Republicans.

The entire system is rigged in favor of conservatives, folks. The double standards are just wild.

January 28, 2026 at 6:55 AM

Reposted

Wajahat Ali

@wajali.bsky.social

Chickens for Colonel Sanders
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u...

‘Latinas for Trump’ Co-Founder Warns Immigration Will Cost G.O.P. the Midterms

www.nytimes.com

January 28, 2026 at 7:02 AM

Reposted

AnyPort

@anyport.bsky.social

Also, here’s her brother‘s history:

Nicki Minaj's brother, Jelani Maraj, was charged with and convicted of predatory sexual assault against a child and endangering the welfare of a child.

January 28, 2026 at 5:04 PM

Reposted

Reuters

@reuters.com

Meta CEO Zuckerberg blocked curbs on sex-talking chatbots for minors, court filing alleges reut.rs/4t4nmX0

Meta CEO Zuckerberg blocked curbs on sex-talking chatbots for minors, court filing alleges

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to access AI chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions, according to internal Meta documents filed in a New Mexico state court case and made public Monday.

reut.rs

January 28, 2026 at 12:01 AM

Reposted

Harry Litman

@harrylitman.bsky.social

In all seriousness, how can it be that the official now in charge in Minnesota was caught by the FBI on video taking $50,000 to steer government business, and walking out with the money, which we still haven't seen. How is he still working in Administration, not to mention not behind bars?

January 27, 2026 at 4:42 PM

Reposted

Grumpy Zeus

@grumpyzeus.bsky.social

Dems should file a new Assault Weapons Ban TODAY.

Watch these hypocritical Republicans twist themselves into pretzels.

January 27, 2026 at 6:02 PM

Reposted

Robert Reich

@rbreich.bsky.social

Your reminder that Amazon...

-Provides cloud services that help fuel ICE's deportation machine
-Donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund
-Scrapped plans to display tariff costs after pressure from Trump
-Shelled out $40M for a documentary about Melania Trump

January 27, 2026 at 6:15 PM

Reposted

mike taddow

@miketaddow.bsky.social

my guy was back out there doin Good Work with a broken rib from his previous encounter.
name a fucking high school after him.

daviss @daviss.org · 1d

CNN reporting that a week before Alex Pretti was killed, 5 agents tackled him and he suffered a broken rib. CNN says he stopped his car after he saw ICE agents interacting with a family on foot and began to blow his whistle. Source tells CNN Pretti believed “That day he thought he was going to die”

January 27, 2026 at 5:29 PM

Reposted

Asha Rangappa

@asharangappa.bsky.social

I continue to believe that the fastest way to get Stephen Miller fired is to convince Trump that Miller's ICE operations are what cost him the Nobel Peace Prize.

January 27, 2026 at 4:54 AM

Reposted

God

@thegodpodcast.com

Today he forgot the word for “Alzheimer’s” as he claimed not to have it.

January 26, 2026 at 10:26 PM

Reposted

Drop Site

@dropsitenews.com

🔴 In the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported 2 killed & 20 injured arriving at hospitals.

▪️Since the ceasefire on Oct. 11, 2025:
- Total killed: 486
- Total injured: 1,341
- Bodies recovered from the rubble: 714

This brings the recorded death toll from the Israeli genocide in Gaza to...

🔴 In the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported 2 killed and 20 injured arriving at hospitals.

▪️Since the ceasefire on October 11, 2025:
- Total killed: 486
- Total injured: 1,341
- Bodies recovered from the rubble: 714

This brings the recorded death toll from the Israeli genocide in Gaza to 71,660 and 171,419 injuries (likely 3-5x higher, including indirect deaths)

🎥 A Palestinian killed by Israeli forces in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City yesterday.

January 26, 2026 at 9:07 PM

Reposted

CODEPINK

@codepink.bsky.social

January 26, 2026 at 2:30 AM

Reposted

Keyah 🦬

@sapphic-film-nerd.bsky.social

ICE has kidnapped another Indigenous person in Minneapolis. This is the fifth member of the Očhéthi Šakówinnto be taken this month.

Statement from Standing Rock:

STATEMENT REGARDING DETENTION OF STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE MEMBER IN MINNESOTA

JANUARY 24, 2026

I was notified today, January 24, 2026, that a Standing Rock Sioux Tribe member has been detained by the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the state of Minnesota. Tribal leadership is actively working to locate the individual, gather accurate information, and coordinate with the appropriate authorities to secure their release.

At this time, details surrounding the detention remain limited. I urge the public to refrain from spreading unverified information while this matter is being reviewed.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will continue to advocate for the protection of our citizen's rights and will provide updates as appropriate.

January 25, 2026 at 9:03 PM

Reposted

Molly Ploofkins

@mollyploofkins.bsky.social

Trump's America

January 25, 2026 at 7:09 PM

Reposted

Amanda Mull

@amandamull.bsky.social

Really hard to look at this and all the other examples of bravery and kindness from ordinary people in this moment not think also of the tremendous cowardice exhibited over the past year by some of the richest, most well-protected people in business, media and politics

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 4d

Let us all have the courage displayed by the residents of Minneapolis.

Woman on the right was using her walker to advance into the tear gas

January 25, 2026 at 2:24 PM

Reposted

Jen Bendery

@jbendery.bsky.social

A restaurant manager in Minneapolis said people here used to talk about how white supremacist agitators were coming to the city in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder.

"Now they're coming in uniforms."

January 25, 2026 at 3:17 PM