Trump says TikTok should be tweaked to become “100% MAGA”

Fresh off Jimmy Kimmel returning to TV to warn that Donald Trump’s attacks on free speech would not end with censoring comedians critical of his administration, Trump signed an executive order to “save” TikTok, while supposedly joking that he’d like to censor influencers by tweaking the algorithm so that content is “100 percent MAGA.” “Everyone is going to be treated fairly,” the president added—seemingly covering his tracks as critics warn that TikTok under US ownership could soon carry a right-wing bias, perhaps going the way of Twitter after Elon Musk took over and rebranded it as X. On Sunday, Trump told Fox News that media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, the CEO of Fox Corporation, would likely be part of the investor group taking over TikTok’s US operations. That deal—which Trump claimed Thursday was tentatively approved by Chinese President Xi Jinping—was set up to ensure that TikTok complies with a law banning majority ownership of the app by a foreign adversary in order to protect Americans from spying or foreign influence on the algorithm. Trump’s executive order confirmed that Oracle would be charged with securing American TikTokers’ data. It also laid out how the new US venture would be managed by a new board of directors, on which ByteDance—TikTok’s owner, which has remained silent on the sale and did not respond to Ars’ request to comment—would retain one seat. The other six seats would go to US investors to ensure the app was US-controlled, Trump said, with Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison likely filling one, while his son David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, could possibly fill another, The Guardian reported. Whether Xi will actually approve the deal has yet to be seen, as Chinese media has not confirmed Trump’s claim that he had a “good talk” with Xi in which the Chinese president gave him the “go ahead” to move forward with the sale to US owners.