By skyforbes 
America has decided the greatest threat to its republic is not corruption, inequality, fascism, or the rapidly accelerating slow burn of climate collapse, but video of teens dancing on an app. After years of thundering about Chinese spyware and foreign meddling; with nary a skerrick of evidence; Washington now insists it must save its people by taking TikTok out of Beijing’s hands. But rescue, in this case, means only one thing: placing the algorithm at the feet of America’s own oligarch brotherhood, that fraternity of swollen egos and accumulated power who collect empires the way children once collected baseball cards.
The irony is hard to miss. A “national security threat” has become nothing more than a cleverly staged asset strip, a digital gold rush masquerading as patriotism. Today’s robber barons don’t build railroads or refineries; they lay claim to our nervous systems. Why outsource the dopamine drip to China when our homegrown oligarchs are so perfectly positioned to mainline it directly into American veins?
The Ringmaster’s Gambit
Leading this circus with commanding authority sits Larry Ellison, Oracle’s 81-year-old founder, who has orchestrated what may be the most audacious display of crony capitalism in recent memory. TikTok’s U.S. business will have 45% of control in the hands of a group of investors that includes Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX. But Ellison’s influence extends far beyond mere percentages; under the agreement, the app’s algorithm will be operated in the United States and overseen by Oracle.
This is not merely an acquisition; it’s a masterclass in oligarchic manoeuvering. Oracle, where Ellison retains more than 40 percent ownership and serves as chief technology officer, has positioned itself as the algorithmic gatekeeper for America’s most addictive social platform. The man who recently made $100 billion in just one day, surpassing Elon Musk to become the richest person in the world, now controls the digital nervous system of American youth.
The timing is no coincidence. Ellison’s company already has a relationship with TikTok: Oracle in 2020 began hosting TikTok’s US data, and it briefly reached a deal with the first Trump administration that year to buy TikTok, before its deal was ultimately blocked. Four years on, with Trump back in power and Ellison having served as a major Republican donor, the stars have aligned for the ultimate insider deal.
The Netanyahu Connection: Surveillance State Synergy
But Ellison’s ambitions extend far beyond American shores. Larry Ellison, the largest private funder of the Israel Defence Forces, is deeply tied to the Israeli national security state. He counts PM Benjamin Netanyahu among his closest friends. The Oracle founder has given over $26 million to the IDF and the illegal settlements in Palestine, while maintaining intimate business relationships with Israeli leadership.
The surveillance implications are staggering. The American-Jewish billionaire Larry Ellison has asked former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to join the board of directors of the company, while Oracle has become deeply embedded in Israel’s tech infrastructure. Oracle also has a presence there. Offering its tech services in the country, it has software centres and reportedly employs over 500 people.
This creates a troubling nexus between American social media surveillance, Israeli intelligence capabilities, and Trump’s political machinery. When the same billionaire who bankrolls Israel’s military while offering Netanyahu corporate board positions, suddenly gains control over the algorithmic diet of American teenagers, we’re witnessing something far more sinister than market competition; we’re seeing the architecture of digital authoritarianism being assembled in real time.
Putin’s Playbook, American Style
This TikTok manoeuvre follows the Putin model with surgical precision: manufacture a crisis, demonize foreign competition, then award the spoils to loyal oligarchs. Trump’s inner circle reads like a directory of Russia’s oligarch system, transplanted to Silicon Valley boardrooms. The difference is that Putin’s oligarchs made their fortunes in oil and steel; Trump’s oligarchs traffic in attention and data.
Both Katz and Ellison have close ties to Netanyahu. Katz met Netanyahu a few months before the Gaza war began to discuss expanding Oracle’s operations in Israel. The synchronicity is breathtaking: the same power brokers positioning themselves to control American information flows while deepening ties with foreign intelligence operations. If this were happening in reverse; Chinese billionaires with deep CCP connections buying American social media platforms; Congress would declare it an act of war.
The consortium backing this deal reads like a who’s who of Trump’s donor class. Trump’s comments are a change from the consortium of investors previously named in the TikTok deal. The Trump administration had said that the group of investors would include Ellison’s company, Oracle, alongside other Trump allies and donors. This isn’t capitalism; it’s a carefully choreographed transfer of democratic infrastructure to authoritarian-friendly oligarchs.
The Crony Capitalism Crescendo
The Murdoch family’s involvement adds another layer to this oligarchic symphony. According to Trump, Fox Corp. chief executive Lachlan Murdoch will also be involved in the consortium, bringing the propaganda apparatus full circle. From Oracle’s algorithmic control to Fox’s narrative framing, the same power brokers who shaped Trump’s first presidency now position themselves to shape the information diet of the next generation.
This is crony capitalism in its purest form; government power weaponized to destroy competition and reward political loyalty. The national security justification crumbles under scrutiny when the “solution” involves handing control to a surveillance-enthusiast billionaire with deep ties to foreign intelligence operations. Ellison has spoken of how mass AI surveillance will ensure “Citizens will be on their best behaviour”; a chilling vision that makes Beijing’s social credit system look quaint.
The Manufactured Crisis Unveiled
Let us not forget: the bugbear of Chinese surveillance was puffed into a monster by those who stood to profit most from its slaying. Never was there compelling proof that TikTok harvested data with any darker intent than Silicon Valley already does by default. Yet the theatre was irresistible. What better way to usher American teenagers into the protective custody of Trump-allied oligarchs than to cast their current digital guardian as a fire-breathing dragon?
The White House solemnly calls these moguls “patriots,” draping them in flags red, white, and blue, but their true allegiance is to the lurid green of capital accumulation and the dark arts of population control. They don’t speak in civic duty; they speak in surveillance metrics and behavioural modification algorithms.
Abraham Lincoln promised “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” What America is now witnessing is “a platform of the oligarch, by the oligarch, for the oligarch’s political and financial interests.”
Digital Authoritarianism as Democracy’s Pacifier
So why not formalise it? Assign each newborn an algorithmic guardian at birth, selected from Trump’s donor rolls. Forget civics class; just outsource political education to the influencers vetted by Oracle’s content moderation teams. Why wrestle with taxes and tariffs in policy briefings when the algorithm can deliver pre-approved political messaging between dance videos and lip-balm product placements?
The system is elegant in its cruelty: the young get their dances; the oligarchs get their data harvest and behavioural control; the politicians get their plausible deniability and campaign contributions. Everyone wins, except those quaint few who still believe a citizenry should govern itself rather than be governed by algorithmic manipulation.
Because this is the true conquest. It isn’t that America takes control of TikTok; oligarchic surveillance capitalism takes control of America. An endless, relentless, amoral scrolling does what no foreign power ever managed: it pacifies dissent, anesthetizes anger, and translates politics into dopamine hits. Swipe up for outrage, swipe down for despair, double-tap to like your own disenfranchisement; all while Oracle’s servers quietly compile behavioural profiles for the highest bidder.
The Oligarch’s Endgame
With some hyperbole, the New York Post says that a $40 billion-plus deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery would be “a rounding error on the Oracle co-founder’s balance sheet.” Ellison isn’t just buying TikTok; he’s assembling a media empire that spans social media, traditional broadcasting, and news. Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison is building a media empire, with stakes in TikTok, CBS, CNN and more.
This represents something far more dangerous than monopolistic business practices; it’s the systematic capture of America’s information infrastructure by oligarchs with explicit authoritarian sympathies and foreign intelligence connections. When the same billionaire who funds Israeli settlements and offers corporate positions to Netanyahu suddenly controls the algorithmic experience of American teenagers, we’re witnessing the construction of a digital authoritarianism that makes Orwell’s telescreens look positively antiquated.
Groucho Marx observed that politics is the art of finding trouble, misdiagnosing it, and applying the wrong remedy. This oligarch auction represents the wrong remedy cubed: a freedom crusade that dissolves freedom into surveillance capitalism, a national security operation that hands control to foreign-connected billionaires, and a market solution that eliminates actual market competition.
So bon appétit, America. A billion-dollar pacifier has been hand-crafted for you by Trump’s donor class. Your “For You” Page is served; oligarchically curated, surveilled by Israeli-connected algorithms, optimized for behavioural modification, soothing as a lullaby, addictive as fentanyl. Self-rule was messy anyway. Why not let your betters-and their foreign intelligence partners-swipe on your behalf?
The TikTok deal isn’t just crony capitalism; it’s the beta test for digital oligarchy, American-style.
Putin would be proud.
Originally published at http://urbanwronski.com on September 27, 2025.