Merunas UAB U.S. Principal2 

TikTok and algorithm control, the latest step toward ending the right to information

6 min read PASCUAL SERRANO 0 comments

PASCUAL SERRANO

First, journalists had the power of communication, then the media (the journalist had the power of the medium in which he or she broadcast), and later the owners of the communication companies (the owner of the printing press). Then came the Internet, and social networks, which are the means of reaching citizens and the mediators between them and the media, took over (as MacLuhan said, "the medium is the message”). And now it's the algorithm that decides what you'll see on social media, which decides what you'll see in the media.

The key power of the algorithm has been evident in the conflict between the United States and TikTok. As you may recall, US authorities have been raising the need for months to change TikTok's Chinese ownership, especially the majority stake. ByteDance, because, according to them, it allowed Chinese authorities to access information about American users, which compromised the country's security.

Now we have learned that Trump signed on Thursday, an executive order approving a proposed agreement that would allow TikTok to operate in the United States and suspend plans to ban it. And it's also revealed that the US government's intentions to displace Chinese shareholder presence weren't a matter of security or protecting users' privacy. It was about controlling the algorithm—that is, deciding what you'll see on TikTok and what you won't. This was one of the decisive factors in the US Congress's decision to ban TikTok. These were the complaints of some congressmen, who denounced that the pro-Palestinian videos had a greater reach than those favorable to Israel.

As we know, TikTok views are heavily determined by its algorithm. Even the most modest user knows that, without any logical explanation, some of their videos reach a thousand views in the first few minutes and others never reach fifty, no matter how much time passes. As with social media, there's a bit of everything, but then they express what they want.

Returning to trade negotiations, according to the financial news channel CNBC, It is a transaction valued by Vice President JD Vance at $14.000 billion.

The deal meets the requirements of a national security law requiring Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. operations to avoid a ban in the country. Under the terms, which have not yet been approved by China, the technology giant will be the main investors in TikTok's U.S. business, controlling a roughly 45% stake in the entity. Oracle infrastructures , the Silver Lake investment fund and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX investment fund.

Meanwhile, ByteDance investors will retain less than 20% of the business.

Trump said over the weekend that conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch could also be involved in the TikTok deal in addition to Dell Technologies.

Oracle was already inside TikTok, hosting the app's user data in the US. Now, one of Oracle's powers and missions, in the words of the BBC, will be to remain “in charge of retraining the algorithm that generates what we see.”

The point is that all of these shareholders who would seize power and aim to control the algorithm are close to Donald Trump. Particularly notable is the case of tech billionaire Larry Ellison, owner of 40% of Oracle, and his son, Hollywood producer David Ellison.

Ellison Sr.'s fortune has doubled in the past 12 months to nearly $370.000 billion thanks to the company's growing role in developing artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Known as a Republican mega-donor, he hosted a fundraising event for Trump in 2020, though it has been noted that he did not attend and federal records show no public contributions to the president.

For his part, Ellison Junior leads a vast operation with more than 18.000 employees and new challenges, including overseeing one of the most important media outlets in the United States: CBS.

The Ellisons are also said to be preparing a bid to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, home of Looney Tunes, Harry Potter, and Superman, as well as HBO and CNN, a combination that would create one of the largest media giants in the United States.

This way, father and son Ellison would have media control of CBS, CNN, and TikTok.

If we add to this what Trump's other friend, Murdoch, controls, the Fox network and media such as The Sun y The Times, we can imagine where Donald Trump's influence reaches in the American communications landscape.

There's just one loose end to the TikTok deal. No ByteDance representative was present at the signing, and the company hasn't acknowledged that a transaction is underway. No purchase price was mentioned, and there's no indication that the Chinese government has made the necessary legal changes to make the deal happen.

President Trump claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping greenlit the deal, but we already know that Trump's claims about other leaders' positions don't carry much credibility.

It would be odd if the United States' news plurality had to depend on Chinese authorities, whether or not they authorize TikTok's shareholder change to be controlled by Trump's friends.

Pascual Serrano He is a journalist and writer. His last book is "Forbidden to doubt. The ten weeks in which Ukraine changed the world”
PASCUAL SERRANO
Contributor

Posts

The Belt and Road Initiative diversifies the paths of cooperation with CELAC

Juan Enrique Serrano Moreno 0

Juan Enrique Serrano Moreno
During the fourth ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC Forum, held on May 13, 2025, in Beijing, Latin American governments articulated a new vision for engagement with China. The future of the BRI in the region will depend not only on Chinese financing and technical expertise, but also on the capacity of Latin American countries to design inclusive development strategies and build effective institutional frameworks. The challenge now is to move from diplomatic declarations to transformative action, and turn the partnership into shared prosperity.

A “new reactionary international”: how Elon Musk is spreading his fascist ideals in Europe

MARIUS THIRION ROSZYK

MARIUS THIRION ROSZYK
If Donald Trump began his second term as President of the United States on January 20, he owes it in part to his new friend Elon Musk. With little rancor, the American billionaire has offered the new Ministry of “Government Efficiency” to the man who, in 2022, considered him “too old to be President of anything, let alone the United States of America.”

It is worth remembering that Musk used his considerable influence to help the Republican candidate win, occupying the public space like never before.

Fifteen reasons why media employees act like propagandists

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
If you look at the Western media with a critical eye, you end up noticing how their reporting consistently aligns with the interests of the US centralized empire, much as you would expect if they were government-run propaganda outlets. That this extreme bias occurs is obvious and indisputable to anyone paying attention, but why and how it occurs is harder to see.

The two receptions of the BRI

XULIO RIOS

XULIO RIOS
The Belt and Road Initiative (IFR) celebrates its first decade of implementation in 2023. The time elapsed supports it as a long-term project. Two attitudes have marked the global reaction to it. On the one hand, developing countries have celebrated being able to have an alternative proposal that focuses on their most pressing needs, especially in terms of infrastructure.

China's plan provides specific support in areas poorly served by traditional available financing, filling a gap of singular importance. On the other hand, developed countries have evolved from initial ambiguity and reservation to a certain competitive hostility.

OLEKSANDER RATUSHNIAK

The Ukrainian tragedy

RAFAEL POCH-DE-FELIU

RAFAEL POCH-DE-FELIU
One of the problems with the war in Ukraine is that we are not facing one war, but several. There is a reactionary war of Russia against Ukraine, open since the invasion of February 2022. There are elements of civil war between Ukrainians since the spring of 2014, caused by the non-recognition of the valuable internal diversity of Ukrainians in their different regions, without which the Russian invasion would have been very difficult, if not impossible. There is a war of hegemonism between NATO and Russia, without which the two previous ones surely would not have come to fruition, sponsored by the United States with its expansionist pressure towards the East since the false closing of the cold war thirty years ago. And there is a warming up of a great global war with China to neutralize its rise as leader of a non-Western pole in the world and of which the war in Ukraine is the prolegomenon.

The role of the US in the origin of the drama of Afghan women

DAVID BOLLERO

DAVID BOLLERO
The official story presents the US as the power that tried to liberate the Afghan people; however, the balance of these 20 years shows a clear failure. The question that arises is whether at some point the Afghan people were really better off thanks to the US and, more specifically, women, who is the group on which they wanted to focus.

The answer to this question is offered to us by Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad in The Withdrawal, a book that compiles many of the conversations that the American philosopher and the Indian historian and journalist have had for more than three decades.

Leave your comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *