Students call Oracle’s TikTok deal a threat to free speech
Tech giant Oracle is set to take on a crucial, high-profile role in the future of TikTok U.S operations, a deal that is raising both national security hopes and renewed privacy concerns across the country. The move positions Oracle as a gatekeeper for one of the world’s most popular social media platforms.
For many high schoolers, the new American oversight feels less like protection and more like an impending threat to their digital spaces.
Angelina Montenegro, a junior, expressed immediate alarm about the surveillance rhetoric. “That’s a huge invasion of privacy,” she stated. She believes the motivation is simple: government control. Montenegro added, “I mean, it’s definitely impeding on free speech in general. I’m going to be withholding opinions more often because we’re going to be under surveillance.”
Another Trojan, Warren Onstad, a junior, shared a similar view, seeing the move as an attempt to project power and control political speech. He feels the intent is to show the world that the U.S. wants is powerful and to “make sure their country is ‘in check’ or talking good about them, which would limit free speech, which is wrong.”
Some students went further, directly linking the new oversight to authoritarianism, arguing it strips away the freedom the platform once provided.
Andrea Ramirez, a senior, rejected the official narrative. When asked about Ellison’s idea of constant surveillance, she likened it to a totalitarian state: “It’s very much like North Korea with Kim Jong-un.” She described the situation as a picture of upcoming fascism in America and argued that if the government really cared about us, “they would create a platform where we could openly talk.”
The proposed deal, facilitated by an executive order from President Donald Trump, involves American investors, including Oracle, purchasing the U.S business from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Oracle’s primary task will be to spearhead U.S. oversight of Tik Tok’s algorithm and ensure user data security is under American control.
Adding to the complexity of Oracle’s new role are the past comments made by the company’s co-founder and chairman, Larry Ellison. Ellison has long envisioned a future of pervasive, AI-enabled surveillance where daily life is constantly documented.
His goal for the future is that artificial intelligence will process massive amounts of footage from various cameras, including those on car dashboards, front doors, security systems, and those used by police officers.
Most significantly, Ellison believes that constant recording and reporting would cause citizens to “be on their best behavior.” These past comments are gaining fresh relevance as Oracle is potentially taking on a big role in managing the TikTok app, according to Trump.
For students relying on the app for news, community, and personal expression, the deal simply trades one form of corporate and government influence for another. As Oracle begins its new role, high school users are left to wonder if their digital freedom has been saved or simply rebranded.