“Warms change over time, and social media is the most important thing,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told podcasters and Tiktok creators at Israeli New York Consulate on Friday, adding that Tiktok is the “most important purchase at the moment.”
The statements recorded and distributed online cleared a roughly $14 billion plan to shift Tiktok’s US operations to a group of Zionist American investors, following the actions of the White House a few days ago.
The consortium is led by co-founder Larry Ellison, Oracle’s co-founder of Netanyahu’s near ally, with an estimated net worth of around $393 billion. Ellison’s personal relationship with Netanyahu, a major donor to the Israeli military, has encouraged concerns that Tiktok’s US operations could be explicitly piloted by Israeli interests.
In X, many Americans responded with anger, warning meetings by pushing thinly veiled propaganda pushes and “weaponized” disinformation, with platforms falling under the private control of the Alliance, and others urging legal and transparency testing.
The timing amplified the backlash: Gaza health officials have reported about 66,000 deaths since October 2023, with many delegations leaving the UN address in Netanyahu.
“Look at this. Netanyahu speaks literally in first person, just like Tiktok was purchased for Israel,” Sean King posted.
Max Blumenthal wrote that Netanyahu’s remarks showed the naked intention to “buy Tiktok” to shape the message.
Other X users, such as Tony Michael, have accused the conference as evidence that platform controls are used to “promote” Americans and obscure atrocities.
As algorithms increasingly curate what billions see, critics warn that a combination of national strategy and private ownership risks turning citizen arguments into designed narratives, and that they will fill living victims behind curated feed.