Today, Explained Trouble at TikTok
111 snips
Feb 4, 2026 
Naomi Nix, reporter covering social media at The Washington Post, and David Pierce, technology journalist at The Verge, break down TikTok’s rocky reboot. They dig into ownership and Oracle’s control of data and algorithms. They discuss reports of outages and alleged censorship. They also look at lawsuits claiming addictive platform design and what evidence may surface at trial.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Censorship Claims vs. Technical Outages
- Reports of TikTok 'censorship' after the US ownership change largely reflected technical outages, not deliberate suppression.
- David Pierce argues Oracle's data center outage and migration issues explain many immediate problems users saw.
Oracle Controls The Algorithm
- Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX now control TikTok US, with Oracle responsible for algorithm and security.
- David Pierce highlights Larry Ellison's central role because Oracle handles algorithm, privacy, and data security.
Political Stakes Of New Ownership
- New US owners have political ties and could steer the platform's information flow over time.
- David Pierce warns that ownership aligned with Trump-era allies raises clear risks of political influence.