U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#41

Post by volleyball » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 6:07 AM UTC

So Larry Ellison just took over Paramount group which is now looking to bid for Warner Brothers and CNN. And now Ellison is going to take over TikTok.

Paramount(being run by Larry Ellison's son) is looking to install the pro-israel-propagandist who has variously masqueraded as a liberal, a conservative and anti-woke free-speech champion, Bari Weiss[1] as CBS's editor-in-chief or co-president[2]. It also bears mentioning that Ellison is a life-long zionist, friend of the IDF and close personal friend of Netanyahu to whom he even offered a post at Oracle.[3]

This very much looks like a hostile take-over of the American mind by a tech billionaire who just overtook Elon Musk to become the world's richest man. People should be talking about whether they want to go through this all over again.

[1] - https://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/the-nyts-bari-weiss-fals...

[2] - https://archive.is/20250916040811/https://www.nytimes.com/20...

[3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Larry_Ellison&old...

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#42

Post by ulfw » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 6:24 AM UTC

Why would any company want to operate in America, sell to Americans or onboard American users anymore?

If you're not successful you just wasted a ton of time and money.

If you are successful the newUSA will force you to divest what you've build against your will.

Doesn't sound like a country worth investing in anymore.

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#43

Post by bl4kers » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 7:21 AM UTC

SilverElfin wrote: post #8

acheron wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The good news is, I can’t see “being owned by Oracle” as anything other than a death sentence.

I doubt it. Oracle has a booming datacenter and cloud business right now. Their role is to host the data in a US jurisdiction, which they can do. It won’t affect the success or failure of TikTok. And frankly it won’t give TikTok users privacy since the data can still be accessed by software written by Chinese employees.

> since the data can still be accessed by software written by Chinese employees.

Source?

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#44

Post by firesteelrain » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 7:44 AM UTC

tw04 wrote: post #32

I hope this is sounding alarm bells for everyone else as much as me. Larry's son buys Paramount (CBS) and promptly fires Stephen Colbert, a money making machine who was leading his timeslot as what was, in hindsight, a clear message to everyone that nobody is safe if they don't fall in line. Larry now gets TikTok, which like it or not is the most influential social media platform among today's youth. Both are Trump f…

Stephen Colbert shutting down was explained otherwise when it happened.

[1] https://www.natesilver.net/p/why-colbert-got-canceled

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#45

Post by metalman » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 8:00 AM UTC

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #21

slg wrote: post #16

Sometimes I'm truly baffled over the stories that the HN readership ends up mostly ignoring. When I heard about this news elsewhere, I came here fully expecting this to be high on the front page with hundreds of comments discussing it. For comparison's sake, the story about Tiktok shutting down[1] and then restoring service[2] in the US each had over 2500 comments. Meanwhile, 3 hours after this story was posted, this…

Not really news in this state. Because other than a few more details here it's not any different than the story from last week (which we knew Oracle was in the mix etc). The deal isn't final.

details, NO algorythm, Trumpy, China, Money, Twitteresque user base revolt....or worse so it's very much as you state, non final

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#46

Post by OKRainbowKid » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 8:16 AM UTC

adastra22 wrote: post #33

Justsignedup wrote: post #30

The most terrifying thing is there will be a trump-government representative in the governing body. We are truly looking at 1984 as a blueprint not a warning.

You can just not use TikTok.

That doesn't diminish the impact it has on the rest of humanity, and by proxy, on me.

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#47

Post by archerx » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 9:07 AM UTC

SilverElfin wrote: post #8

acheron wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The good news is, I can’t see “being owned by Oracle” as anything other than a death sentence.

I doubt it. Oracle has a booming datacenter and cloud business right now. Their role is to host the data in a US jurisdiction, which they can do. It won’t affect the success or failure of TikTok. And frankly it won’t give TikTok users privacy since the data can still be accessed by software written by Chinese employees.

Yea, I’m sure the sociopaths at oracle have the fingers on the pulse of the younger generations. They’re just going to up the censorship and enshittfy it resulting in its users moving on the next new thing.

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#48

Post by throwawayqqq11 » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 9:19 AM UTC

volleyball wrote: post #41

So Larry Ellison just took over Paramount group which is now looking to bid for Warner Brothers and CNN. And now Ellison is going to take over TikTok. Paramount(being run by Larry Ellison's son) is looking to install the pro-israel-propagandist who has variously masqueraded as a liberal, a conservative and anti-woke free-speech champion, Bari Weiss[1] as CBS's editor-in-chief or co-president[2]. It also bears mention…

Thank you for providing the media take over angle. I wish the people down voting you would explain why.

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#49

Post by camdroidw » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 10:04 AM UTC

sun_fresh wrote: post #28

So finally all that pesky people saying that their own government is funding a brutal genocide with their tax dollars will be banned. American media is one of the most thightly controlled and censored in the world. They need to carefully control the media to maintain the ilusion of "moral superiority" that is used to justify foreign interventions.

[dead]

Re: U.S. investors, Trump close in on TikTok deal with China

#50

Post by aurareturn » Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 10:10 AM UTC

I think it's bad news if the US government owns Tiktok data rather than the Chinese government.

Chinese government won't prosecute me. US government might.

  The State Department also said it would crack down on non-citizens who have made posts making light of the shooting.

  “In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country. I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau posted on Thursday. “Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the @StateDept can protect the American people.” [0]

Americans prefer that Tiktok data lives within the jurisdiction of the US government, why? If you don't think Palantir is putting together a centralized database to survey individual Americans for the US government, you are crazy. There will be real consequences where if they don't like what you're saying or doing, they will come after you some how. I'd much rather have my data based in China.

[0]https://time.com/7316628/charlie-kirk-death-celebrations-soc...