After a long ordeal that lasted for many years, Tiktok is finally being bought by an Amerian company. Since 2020, the federal government has been trying to either ban or buy Tiktok from ByteDance out of a fear that the Chinese company was using it to steal Americans’ data or spread propaganda. Back in January, the government succeeded in banning the app, but the ban only lasted for about fourteen hours before TikTok was up and running again. Now, an agreement has been made in which group of American investors will own 80% of TikTok, and Chinese shareholders will own the rest. This 80% includes the coveted TikTok algorithm. The list of investors are all powerful allies of President Trump. For example, Oracle (with co-founder Larry Ellison) and Fox Corporation (led by the Murdochs) are set to invest in TikTok.
Larry Ellison is a tech billionaire whose family owns many technology and media companies, and probably many more in the future. Currently, they have control over Oracle, CBS News, Paramount, now Tiktok, and have recently prepared a bid for CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. He is also a close confidant of President Trump, which gave him an advantage when it came to the TikTok deal. There are many who disagree with the Ellison family’s large hold on American media, because of the fear of how they could control what people are seeing across the country.
The Murdoch family, including Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, who is the executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corporation. Fox Corporation is the parent company of Fox News. This father-son pair is also very close to and highly appraised by President Trump.
Along with the new control over the TikTok algorithm comes the concern that the somewhat liberal agenda that has been pushed by the algorithm is going to switch to a more conservative side when President Trump’s allies will have authority over it. The Ellisons and Murdochs control the media that is broadcasted to both young and old people. Even though the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has a strict rule against monopolizing the media, it is fuzzy whether this ownership is legal. It is illegal to merge two of the four big broadcasting television networks: ABC, CBS, Fox News, and NBC. There was a change in the rules eight years ago when the FCC stated that one company could own both a broadcast station and a daily newspaper, which some say is similar to owning, for example, CBS and TikTok, since TikTok is not technically a broadcasting television network. But, this uncertainty over the legality of the deal does not have much sway in whether it will happen or not, since President Trump has taken over the FCC and can pressure networks that he doesn’t necessarily agree with. Especially since he seems to be bypassing the checks and balances supposed to be placed on the executive branch, it seems certain that this TikTok deal will be successful.
Sources:
https://mashable.com/article/who-bought-tiktok-us-buyers
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/16/tech/tiktok-ban-extension-trump
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/24/tiktok-trump-murdoch-ellison
