Oracle bought TikTok Jan. 22. After the purchase, suddenly everyone’s For You page changed and started censoring sensitive media that lets people know what’s going on in the world. Coincidentally, Oracle’s biggest shareholder is Larry Elison, meaning he has the biggest say in Oracle’s actions. Elison is an American with close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and significant donations to the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) during 2017.
TikTok has been taking down all anti-Zionist posts and labeling them as antisemitism. These posts are Al Jazeera posts directly from people in the Palestinian War notifying people that Israel is still striking their country with bombs and commiting acts of genocide for all to see.
“TikTok has been changing up a lot of stuff since. There’s also been a lot of rumors that Israel is also a part of the US government,” said sophomore Lucas Martins.
Censoring the media and free speech is one of the first signs of fascism, and anyone on this app that talks about things happening in the Middle East somehow manages to get shadow banned, and all of their videos suddenly stop popping up on the For You page.
“I have seen a little bit of changes, some things being censored,” said Martins. This censorship leads consumers to believe that TikTok is censoring one side and favoring the other side.
“I heard about that but I’m not sure and it doesn’t matter as long as I have TikTok,” said sophomore Becca Soto.
