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Is TikTok Censoring Jeffrey Epstein Related Content? · The Epstein Chronicles

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  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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  Epstein Chronicles. Over the past twenty four hours or so,
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  there have been reports on TikTok that when you punch
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  Epstein's name into the search function, you're instead met with
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  an error message, and according to users on TikTok, other
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  politically sensitive topics were also being censored. Now, according to CNBC,
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  they couldn't independently verify the broader claims of political censorship,
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  but they were able to confirm that there was an
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  error when searching for Epstein's name. Now, I don't use TikTok,
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  so I have no idea about the ecosystem over there
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  or what goes on, because I really have no desire
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  to watch thirty second clips. And that's because the topic
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  we're talking about is a topic that needs to be
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  long form, right. I don't think that this is a
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  topic that you're going to figure out in thirty second clips.
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  There's just way too much nuance and way too much
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  going on for clips to get the job done. But
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  obviously there's a lot of people that are into it,
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  and according to them, there has been some censorship over
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  at TikTok. Now, of course, TikTok says that it has
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  something to do with their data centers and it has
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  nothing to do with censorship. So let's dive into this
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  article from CNBC and let's see what the hell's going
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  on here headline TikTok blames data center outages for US
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  app problems, deny censorship claim. The author of this article
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  is Dylan Butts. TikTok's US app, now under majority American ownership,
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  set a recent wave of glitches and content disruption was
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  due to a power outage at one of its data centers,
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  pushing back against claims that the platform was censoring political speech,
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  which is ironic considering that's the whole reason that TikTok
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  had to be under a majority of American control in
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  the first place. Right again, the oh, the misinformation, and
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  what they really meant by that was that it wasn't
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  the right flavor, Right, it wasn't the right flavor of misinformation.
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  If it was something that was beneficial to the powers
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  that be, that shit would be getting amplified by people
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  like Elon Musk. Users have reported issues with their accounts
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  since the video sharing app began operating under a newly
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  formed US led venture following months of political pressure over
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  it's Chinese ownership. And I know that I'm going to
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  sound my age here, but I just don't understand TikTok.
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  I don't understand all the trends that come out of it.
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  I don't understand, you know, the people that are putting
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  their whole life out there on the Internet for other
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  people to look at. I just don't get it. And obviously,
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  like I just said, that has to do with when
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  I was born. I'm a product of gen X. I
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  grew up in the eighties and the nineties, and all
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  that shit seems bizarre to me. Put that phone down
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  for a little while, get outside and enjoy your life.
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  And the truth is, the vast majority of people outside
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  of the Internet are good people. You might have different opinions,
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  you might feel differently about politics or whatever, but for
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  the most part, people aren't at each other's throats. That's
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  something that's going on online. But for some people, that's
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  the only perspective they have because they never get outside
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  of their bubble. Against the backdrop of tense political environment
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  in the US, a growing number of viral complaints about
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  TikTok have accused the platform of censoring certain political positions
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  and even the word Epstein within direct messaging. CNBC confirmed
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  the messages containing the word Epstein triggered a error message,
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  but was unable to independently verify broader claims of political censorship.
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  And I don't care what anybody says or tells you.
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  The truth is the most damaging thing to the administration,
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  to the powers that be in general, is the Epstein story.
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  You notice how they've all all pivoted away. It's all
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  about other things, right, But it really comes back to this.
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  If the federal government's lying to you about Epstein, do
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  you really think they're telling you the truth about what's
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  going on with anything else? And if we can't have
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  accountability here, I promise you there is not going to
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  be accountability anywhere else. Asked about the issue, a spokesperson
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  for the TikTok joint venture told CNBC that the platform
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  does not prohibit sharing the name Epstein in messages, and
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  that it's investigating why some users are experiencing the problem.
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  Among others, the sensitivity surrounding the messaging issues related to
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  Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier, pedophile and convicted sex offender.
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  The Department of Justice has since December been releasing caches
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  of documents tied to investigations of Epstein, but has yet
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  to release the entirety of the so called Epstein files.
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  What does that even mean? The so called Epstein files.
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  Do you do not believe they exist? Do you not
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  believe they're a thing? What does that mean? The so
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  called Epstein files. They think they're slick with these little
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  subliminal messages like this so called Epstein Files nonsense, But
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  the truth is they just expose themselves as people who
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  really have no idea what they're talking about in the
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  first place. The recent complaints about TikTok have been amplified
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  by California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose press office said in
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  a Tuesday post on x that our office has received
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  reports and independently confirmed instances of suppressed content critical of
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  President Trump. Well I need to see some proof. I'm
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  not really a big fan of people like Gavin Newsom
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  because he's not somebody that really gives a shit, just
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  another camera hound who wants to advance his political career.
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  And look, I hate to be so cynical, but these
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  people have proven me right time and time again. Every
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  time they open their mouth, every time there's a disaster,
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  every time there's a moment when they should be trying
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  to bring the country together. What are they doing and
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  what you think that's good for the country or for them.
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  Newsom's office didn't provide evidence to support the claims, though
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  many users have posted videos allegedly showing the issue. In
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  a viral X post, freelance journalist David Levitt shared a
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  screenshot of videos on his profile that had been flagged
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  as ineligible for recommendation and claim TikTok had begun censoring
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  anti Trump and anti ICE content. Does that really sound
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  like a gigantic leap to anybody? I mean, these people
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  are out here just shooting people in the street on camera.
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  Do you think they care about any of this shit?
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  You think they care about censoring your freedom of speech
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  or what you see on the internet. Hell no, they don't.
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  They don't care about the constitution, straight up. And I'm
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  not going to sit here and pretend anything otherwise. ICE
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  refers to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, which
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  is currently engaged in politically charged operation in the city
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  of Minneapolis. The fatal shooting of two US citizens during
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  federal enforcement actions by ice have sparked outrage and political debate. Well, yeah,
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  usually when you know, you see somebody get executed on TV,
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  that's a moment when debate begins, right, And I don't
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  think there's any debate about what happened to mister, Pretty
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  zero debated at all in my opinion. Now, look, you
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  can talk about scuffling with the police. Not a good
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  idea ever, and you shouldn't do it. But is that
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  a death sentence? Five guys on top of you. You've
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  already been disarmed. I saw the video, and then you
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  get shot and killed. And we're in a country now
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  where people celebrate that. Sorry, bro, I'm not on that train.
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  I never will be. And this whole US versus them
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  mindset is really setting the whole ass country back. Just
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  hours before Newsom issued his threat, the new TikTok Joint
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  Venture posted an update on its X account saying the
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  company was continuing to resolve it's major infrastructure issue. It's
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  always something else, right, It's never oh shit, we got caught.
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  It's always a glitch. Oh I was hacked. Somebody else
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  did it. Never taken self responsibility, and that's the way
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  they're able to keep the confusion going, right, Well, you
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  think you're going to ever get a reason why this happened,
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  Of course you're not. While the network has been recovered,
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  the outage caused a cascading systems failure that we've been
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  working to resolve with our data center partner, it said,
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  adding that users may notice multiple bugs, slower load times,
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  and timed out requests when posting new content. Like I said,
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  I can't confirm it one way or the other. I
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  don't use TikTok, so I have no idea. But as
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  far as censorship goes, that's Internet wide. And all you
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  have to do is take a look at what happens
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  in the aftermath of somebody committing a Hanus crime. Look
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  how quickly they scrub their Internet profile. Now why should
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  they do that and why do they do that? Well,
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  it's to control the narrative, right. They don't want you
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  to know the real story. They don't want you to
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  know the truth, so they control the narrative. And what
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  better way to control the narrative than to not let
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  the information out in the first place. Separately, users reported
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  this week that direct messages containing the name Epstein failed
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  to send through TikTok's direct messaging feature, CNBC was able
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  to recreate this message when sending a message containing the
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  name Epstein. That message read this message may be in
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  violation of our community guidelines and has not been sent
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  to protect our community. Users were given the option to
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  report potential mistakes. Oh yeah, I'm sure it is an error.
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  Last thing they want is Epstein being blasted everywhere. And
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  if you're really somebody that's into conspiracies, take a look
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  at the new owners of TikTok, and if you dive
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  down that rabbit hole, there are many warrens to explore.
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  TikTok had faced a potential shutdown in the US last
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  year after the Supreme Court upheld a law requiring it
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  to exit the market unless its China based parent company
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  by Dance, divested the business among other national security related
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  to requirements. Trump later issued a series of executive orders
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  allowing the platform to remain online while negotiations over a
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  divestment continued. Last Thursday, TikTok announced it informed a joint
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  venture to keep the app operating in the US under
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  new leadership and under the deal, by Dance retains a
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  nineteen point nine percent ownership stake, while US and global
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  investors hold eighty point one percent. Key investors include Oracle,
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  silver Lake, and MGX, each with a fifteen percent stake.
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  Oracle's co founder, Larry Ellison, a prominent Trump supporter, was
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  previously floated by the US President as a potential TikTok
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  buyer as far back as January of last year. The
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  Trump administration and Trump back crypto firm I've previously been
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  involved in deals with MGX, an Amarati state owned investment
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  firm focused on artificial intelligence technologies. All right, So, any
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  of you guys out there that use TikTok, have you
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  ran into this issue? If so, shoot me some emails
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  and let me know as far as this one goes, well,
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  that's going to do it. All of the information that
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  goes with this episode can be found in the description box.