Oracle has reportedly emerged as the front-runner to take over TikTok’s operations, not just in the U.S. but globally as well.

When TikTok first faced prospects of a ban under the first Trump administration, Oracle emerged as the likely candidate to take over the platform, along with Walmart. The ban went nowhere and was eventually abandoned, only to be successfully implemented by the Biden administration. TikTok appealed the ban, unsuccessfully fighting its case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Despite originally supporting a ban, President Trump did an about-face, vowing to help save the company from a ban. Shortly after taking office for the second time, Trump issued a 75-day hold, ordering the Attorney General not to enforce the ban during the 75-day reprieve.

According to an NPR exclusive, Oracle is once again taking the lead in a potential takeover of TikTok’s operations. Interestingly, NPR reports that Oracle, along with a group of investors, is in talks to “effectively take control of the app’s global operations.”

“The goal is for Oracle to effectively monitor and provide oversight with what is going on with TikTok,” a person directly involved in the talks told the outlet. “ByteDance wouldn’t completely go away, but it would minimize Chinese ownership.”

Interestingly, the reported talks are a substantial change from what Trump initially proposed. In a Truth Social the day before his inauguration, Trump spoke of a 50-50 ownership solution.

I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up. Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.

Therefore, my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose.

If NPR’s source is correct, the current talks could be a much tougher sell since China has made clear in the past that it will not allow TikTok to come under U.S. control. While Beijing may conceivably be open to a joint ownership scenario, it’s hard to believe it will be OK with the terms currently being discussed.

Why Oracle Is a Terrifying Option

National security and concerns over Beijing’s access to Americans’ data are the driving issues behind the ongoing TikTok ban efforts. Unfortunately, privacy advocates should be as concerned, if not more so, at the thought of Oracle being involved.

While Oracle is a well-respected U.S. company, a leading cloud and database provider, and is playing a significant roll in powering AI infrastructure, founder Larry Ellison has endorsed ideas that can only be described as 1984-style mass surveillance.

In a company financial meeting in late 2024, Ellison described his vision, using police body cameras as an example. He describes scenarios where an office would need to turn off the camera, such as when using the restroom, saying the cameras would continue to record and simply be labeled ‘private.’

“The police will be on their best behavior because we’re constantly recording and watching everything that’s going on,” Ellison said. “Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording everything that is going on. And it’s unimpeachable. The cars have cameras on them. We’re using AI to monitor the video.

“It’s not people that are looking at those cameras; it’s AI that’s looking at the cameras.”

Unfortunately, Ellison is not an outlier within Oracle, in terms of his views on surveillance. The company has a history of being accused of mass surveillance, facing a class action lawsuit in 2022. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs say the company worked to surveil people, with no regard for whether they were Oracle customers or not.

According to Ellison, the purpose of Oracle ID Graph is to predict and influence the future behavior of billions of people. He explained Oracle could achieve this goal by looking at social activity and locations in real time, including “micro location[s].” For example, Ellison has represented that companies will be able to know how much time someone spends in a specific aisle of a specific store and what is in the aisle of the store. “By collecting this data and marrying it to things like micro location information, Internet users’ search histories, websites visits and product comparisons along with their demographic data, and past purchase data, Oracle will be able to predict purchase intent better than anyone.”

Oracle and TikTok Is a Match Made In Privacy Hell

If Oracle is allowed to gain control over TikTok and its data, it could put the company in a terrifying position to move forward with additional surveillance.

TikTok, like all mainstream social media platforms, offers a goldmine of user data. If the lawsuit against Oracle is accurate, and the company is working to surveil even those who are not customers, having control over a major social media platform would help the company do just that. As a result, there are few companies that pose a more terrifying scenario for TikTok ownership than Oracle.

Ultimately, the controversy surrounding TikTok underscores the importance of BlueSky, Mastodon, and other open social media networks.