When Congress overwhelmingly passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, it was billed as a decisive move to safeguard U.S. national security from the perceived threat of Chinese surveillance and covert content manipulation through TikTok. But as the dust settles, the battle over TikTok has become far more than a question of who controls an app. It’s a story of political maneuvering, global propaganda, and the struggle for control over the stories Americans see—especially for Black communities who have long relied on social media to bypass traditional gatekeepers.
On January 19, 2025, the TikTok ban officially went into effect, threatening civil penalties of up to $5,000 per U.S. user for violations—a potentially astronomical sum, given TikTok’s 170 million American monthly users, as detailed by The National Interest. Yet, despite the law’s teeth, TikTok has remained available in app stores, its videos still streaming into millions of American homes. Why? President Donald Trump, on his first day back in office, refused to enforce the ban, instead issuing a series of executive orders that delayed enforcement, a move widely criticized as unlawful by legal experts and commentators alike.
This presidential defiance left Congress in a bind. Although more than 80 percent of lawmakers had voted for the ban, they declined to challenge Trump’s faithless execution of the law. The Supreme Court, in the case of TikTok v. Garland, unanimously upheld the Act, with Justice Gorsuch drawing a sharp distinction: “Speaking with and in favor of a foreign adversary is one thing. Allowing a foreign adversary to spy on Americans is another.” The legal line was clear, but the political will to enforce it was not.
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration announced that the enforcement delay would finally end in January 2026—if a “qualified divestiture” of TikTok’s U.S. operations could be secured. Such a divestiture, as required by law, would have to remove hostile Chinese control and sever any operational ties to Beijing, especially concerning TikTok’s powerful content recommendation algorithm. But as The National Interest pointed out, the ultimate certification of this deal rests with the President alone, leaving the public in the dark about the true nature of any agreement.
Amid these legal and political gymnastics, a deeper story has emerged—one about the power to shape what Americans see and believe. As reported by Black Westchester Magazine on October 2, 2025, critics like Jimmy Dore and Max Blumenthal argue that the forced takeover of TikTok by U.S. investors—particularly those aligned with pro-Israel interests—is less about national security and more about controlling the narrative, especially regarding sensitive issues like the Gaza conflict and Black American activism.
At the heart of this new TikTok deal is Oracle, the tech giant led by billionaire Larry Ellison, a staunch supporter of Israel and close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Black Westchester Magazine, Ellison’s influence now extends to TikTok’s algorithm—the secret sauce that determines which videos go viral and which voices are amplified or suppressed. Ellison’s ties to Israel run deep: he has hosted Netanyahu at tech events, praised Israeli innovation, and funded pro-IDF charities. His son, David Ellison, has been linked to projects that promote Israel’s narrative abroad. With Oracle at the helm, critics fear that TikTok’s algorithm could become a tool for shaping public opinion in ways that serve specific political interests.
These concerns are not merely theoretical. Documents uncovered by Press TV reveal that Israel has paid social media influencers up to $7,000 per post as part of the “Esther Project”—a campaign managed by the American firm Bridge Partners, which spent $900,000 over six months to flood TikTok and Instagram with pro-Israel content. At the same time, Netanyahu’s office signed a $45 million ad contract with Google to spread narratives denying famine in Gaza, according to Press TV and The Jerusalem Post. This is part of a broader media strategy, including attempts to influence major outlets like Paramount and CBS News, as well as the recruitment of pro-Israel editors.
Why does this matter? Because since the escalation of the Gaza conflict on October 7, 2025, the Israeli military campaign has killed thousands of civilians and devastated entire neighborhoods, triggering a severe humanitarian crisis. Young Americans, particularly on TikTok, have used the platform to share raw footage from Gaza, challenging the sanitized narratives of mainstream media. Polls show that Americans under 30 are increasingly skeptical of Israel’s actions, a trend that crosses racial and party lines. For many, TikTok became a vital channel for unfiltered news and dissenting views—until the platform’s new ownership and algorithm changes threatened to silence those voices.
This is especially significant for Black America. Alternative platforms like TikTok have played a crucial role in amplifying issues such as police brutality, housing injustice, and the fight for reparations. But with algorithms now potentially retrained by Oracle and paid influencers flooding the feed with pro-Israel and anti-reparations rhetoric, dissenting voices risk being drowned out. As Black Westchester Magazine noted, some Black influencers now echo talking points that frame reparations as “divisive” or “unrealistic”—even as Washington sends $8.3 billion annually to Israel without debate.
The stakes are high. As Jimmy Dore and Max Blumenthal argue, the TikTok deal represents more than a business transaction; it’s a digital coup that hands one of the world’s most influential platforms to political allies of Netanyahu at a moment when global outrage over Gaza is at a fever pitch. For Black America, the implications extend beyond foreign policy. The ability to freely discuss reparations, police violence, and economic injustice is now at risk in an information ecosystem increasingly engineered to serve someone else’s agenda.
This battle is not just about freedom of speech—it’s about freedom of thought. As Dore and Blumenthal warn, “If they can silence Palestinian voices and distort Gaza’s reality, they can just as easily engineer what the nation sees and hears about Black America.” The TikTok saga is a reminder that the fight for open platforms and authentic voices is, at its core, a fight for civil rights and democratic integrity.
As the U.S. awaits the outcome of the latest divestiture plan and the possible end of TikTok’s Chinese ties, the real question lingers: Who will control the stories that shape America’s future, and whose voices will be heard?
