[1]Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress

There's another development, and I want to show you this.

Now, if you log on to TikTok, you'll see this:

[1]TikTok's new header thanks Donald Trump for restoring it's service in
the United States, even though he is not yet President.

“Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of
President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”

First of all, Donald Trump is not president right now.

He's a private citizen. He does not have access to presidential powers. He
does not have the ability to do any of that.

Please understand that TikTok's decision to name Trump in the notification
is a choice. They are signaling that they have agreed to privately
collaborate with Donald Trump and the Trump administration.

For all of those concerns that people were saying that TikTok is gonna be
used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese, understand they're using it as a
propaganda tool for the right.

Now, I want you all to put all the pieces together because what this
effectively means is that every mass social media platform in the United
States has been taken over by the right wing, with the exception of Blue
Sky (but Blue Sky is still very small, relatively).

So when I say put the pieces together:

Elon Musk took over Twitter, and there's open reporting that they have
artificially manipulated the algorithms to boost right-wing content on X
and to amplify harassment.

Then you have Meta. You have Mark Zuckerberg saying that they're basically
also bending the knee to Trump with their changes to fact checking,
regardless of how effective that was in the first place.

Now TikTok is now saying, “Hey, we are agreeing we will use our push
notification system for all 170 million American users to promote Donald
Trump.”

Just understand that government announcements like this with companies,
they never name politicians — they will usually name law or policy. TikTok
is making an explicit agreement to do this.

And if I were a betting person: they probably are making a deal with
Donald Trump to not just use these push notifications — they probably
would consider algorithmic changes. Which is ironic because at the time
when people voted for the TikTok ban, because there was a lot of
pro-Palestinian content, that argument was being used as being somehow
“anti-American,” which, you know — I guess supporting human rights is
somehow bad.

So what does this mean for us?

We are on the eve of an authoritarian administration. This is what 21st
century fascism is starting to look like. Republicans model themselves
after Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. You can look to Hungary to get a taste of
how they will try to control media and companies in the United States.
This is a kind of entrée to that.

As far as what we do:

This is a time of experimentation. A lot of people can and will still use
platforms, but I also look towards places where you have more ownership
and develop your audiences there — like Blue Sky.

More soon,

Alexandria

Unlike every social media platform in this country, our movement for a
better world takes no money from right-wing billionaires.

[ [link removed] ]Help us continue the fight with a grassroots contribution today.



[ [link removed] ]Contribute $5




 


This email was sent to [email protected]. Email is the most important way we keep in touch with people like you, so thank you for reading to the end. Small donors like you keep us going. To contribute via check, please address to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress, PO Box 680080, Corona, NY 11368.



You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]


PAID FOR BY ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ FOR CONGRESS