Send Link mailing list submissions to
[email protected]
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
[email protected]
You can reach the person managing the list at
[email protected]
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Link digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. TikTok (Stephen Loosley)
2. Who Hacks Wins (Tom Worthington)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:34:59 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] TikTok
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
TikTok Already Getting Shittier Under The Ownership Of Trump?s Billionaire
Buddies
Tue, Jan 27th 2026 01:44pm - By Karl Bode -
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/01/27/tiktok-already-getting-shittier-under-the-ownership-of-trumps-billionaire-buddies/
You might recall how Republicans (with help from Democrats) suffered a three
year embolism over the national security, privacy, and propaganda problems
inherent with TikTok ? only to turn around and let Trump sell the platform to
his technofascist billionaire friends. Who are now already hard at work
preparing to do all of the stuff they claimed the Chinese were doing. And
probably worse.
The deal, finalized last December, involves offloading a large chunk of TikTok
to billionaire right wing Trump ally Larry Ellison (fresh off his acquisition
of CBS), the private equity firm Silver Lake (which has broad global
investments in Chinese and Israeli hyper-surveillance), anti-democratic zealot
Mark Andreessen, and MGX (Abu Dhabi?s state investment firm).
With the paperwork on the ?new U.S. TikTok? barely even dry, the company is
already informing users that it will be collecting more location data than ever:
?Before this update, the app did not collect the precise, GPS-derived location
data of US users. Now, if you give TikTok permission to use your phone?s
location services, then the app may collect granular information about your
exact whereabouts.?
That?s not great in a country that?s too corrupt to pass even a baseline
privacy law, or to regulate dodgy data brokers that hoover up this sensitive
location data and then share it with pretty much any nitwit with two nickels to
rub together (including domestic and foreign intelligence agencies).
The ?new U.S. TikTok? is already seeing a bunch of weird technical problems.
And there are already influencers saying that their criticism of ICE is more
frequently running afoul of ?community standards guidelines,? though I?ve yet
to see a good report fleshing these claims out yet.
As we noted last December, this latest TikTok deal is kind of the worst of all
worlds. The Chinese still have an ownership stake in the app, and the companies
and individual investors who?ve taken over the app have a long, rich history of
supporting authoritarianism and widespread privacy violations.
These Trump-linked billionaires clearly didn?t buy TikTok to protect national
security, fix propaganda, or address consumer privacy. They clearly don?t
support the kind of policies it would take to actually address those issues,
like meaningful privacy laws, media consolidation limits, data broker
regulation, media literacy education funding, or kicking corrupt authoritarians
out of the White House.
And they didn?t just buy TikTok to make money or undermine a competitor they
repeatedly failed to out-innovate in the short-form video space (though that?s
certainly a lot of it).
They did it to expand surveillance. And, as Musk did with Twitter, to control
the modern information space in a way that will coddle their ideologies and
marginalize or censor opposition voices they disagree with.
As men like Larry Ellison and Marc Andreessen have made abundantly clear to
anyone paying attention, their ideologies are unchecked greed and far right
wing anti-democratic extremism. Billionaires attempting to dominate media to
confuse the public and protect their own, usually selfish best interests is a
tale as old as time. And that is, contrary to their claims, the play here as
well.
With a new board full of foundationally terrible people, it?s only a matter of
time before they, like Elon Musk before them, inevitably start fiddling with
the platform and its algorithms to shut down debate and ideology they don?t
like. Larry Ellison in particular is clearly attempting to buy up what?s left
of crumbling U.S. corporate media and turn it into a safe space for the
planet?s unpopular autocrats.
It?s worth reiterating that this was all built on the back of four years of
fear mongering about TikTok privacy, propaganda, and national security issues
by Republicans who couldn?t actually give the slightest shit about any of those
subjects.
And aided by the bumbling Keystone Cops in the Democratic party, who actively
helped Trump offload the platform to his billionaire buddies.
Then propped up by a lazy corporate press that?s increasingly incapable of
explaining to the public what?s actually happening, especially if it involves
rich right wingers trying to dominate media.
Most of the dim lawmakers who helped make this happen were kept completely in
the dark while this deal was being hashed out by billionaire extremists. And
bloviating weirdos like FCC boss Brendan Carr, who spent three years crying
like a toddler on cable news about TikTok privacy, will likely never mention
the app again now that it?s his extremist authoritarian zealot buddies calling
the shots.
I suspect the company will try very hard for a year or so to insist that
nothing whatsoever has changed to avoid a mass exodus of TikTok users.
Especially in the wake of the promise of new, performative hearings by
lawmakers who helped the whole mess happen in the first place.
But the ownership won?t be able to help themselves. Steadily and progressively
things will get worse, driving users to another new pesky social media upstart,
at which point the billionaire quest for total information control will start
all over again.
Leave a Comment
5 Comments
Comments on ?TikTok Already Getting Shittier Under The Ownership Of Trump?s
Billionaire Buddies?
Subscribe: RSS
Leave a comment
drew
(profile)
says:
January 27, 2026 at 2:23 pm
UpScroller is apparently the thing the kids are talking about now?
Collapse replies (3)
Reply
Anonymous Coward
says:
January 27, 2026 at 3:21 pm
Re: It?s called UpScrolled, some mix of all other social networks
functionalities (like short video, DM, timeline) without as much tracking as
others.
Pretty modest start but yes, many people seem to like it. No sure if it?s have
anything to do with privacy though, one thing is sure is that the privacy will
become Hell the day any company would buy it.
Threaded[3]
Anonymous Coward
says:
January 27, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Re: Re:
Out of curiosity, considering we are seeing billionaires being even more
deranged than someone on drugs, has there ever been a real case of a
billionaire or similar failson knowingly fund/support a terrorist group, like
say knowing decided to funnel their wealth to al-Qaeda so that AQ can commit
9/11?
Many of these billionaire failsons sound really similar to someone like James
Nolan Mason.
Threaded[4]
MrWilson
(profile)
says:
January 27, 2026 at 6:00 pm
Re: Re: Re:
I mean, Trump runs a terrorist national government and he?s gotten lots of
funding from tech bros and corporate donors?
Drew Wilson
(user link)
says:
January 27, 2026 at 4:05 pm
That is hilarious in a pretty sad way. The original moral panic about TikTok
was that it was collecting personal information (even though it wasn?t doing
anything that was very far removed from what Facebook, Instagram, and others
were doing). That and it somehow being a Chinese government mind controlling
device for reasons that only makes sense to people pushing that moral panic.
As the writers here have also stated, I?m also a strong advocate of broad
federal privacy reform because if you are concerned about TikTok collecting
personal information, the best place to start is to have a set of standards
that everyone must abide by. Then, you?d have standing to go after companies
that won?t abide by those laws. It?s a FAR stronger argument than ?[insert
platform here] must change the way they do things because I personally think
they should!?
Now that the US government is doing a big government takeover (you know, just
the kind of thing Republican supporters dream of), it?s now collecting even
more personal information. I?m betting there are some media outlets out there
that are somehow OK with that after freaking out about privacy on the platform
throughout 2024 and last year.
Reply
Add Your Comment ..
--
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2026 08:13:06 +1100
From: Tom Worthington <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Who Hacks Wins
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
The Australian Defense Tech Hackathon is being held 6 to 8 February
2026, at UNSW Canberra. https://luma.com/adth-2026
The usual hackathon format is used, with teams spending a few days
working on an idea & competing for prizes. But the point with a
hackerthon is that you are not there to invent something, but to learn.
This will be my fourth time mentoring at defence hackerthon. ANU is
using a similar format for teaching software construction:
https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/search/label/hackerthon
From the event web page:
"Goals
??1) Solve urgent defense and security challenges ...
??2) Launch new careers and companies...
??3) Strengthen Australia through defense innovation...
Focus Areas ...
?SIGINT & OSINT
?Computer Vision & Edge AI
?Unmanned & Autonomous Systems (UxS)
?Electronic Warfare (EW)
?Modular Sensors
?Drone & Counter-Drone Tech
?Battlefield Economics & Scaling Production
?Hypersonics and Missile Defence ...
--
Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 665 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL:
<https://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/attachments/20260129/a771370b/attachment-0001.sig>
------------------------------
Subject: Digest Footer
_______________________________________________
Link mailing list
[email protected]
https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
------------------------------
End of Link Digest, Vol 398, Issue 22
*************************************
