Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) desires Individuals to “stay focused” on an important problems with our time and has warned a few burgeoning oligarchy after the three richest males on Earth watched President Donald Trump get sworn into the very best workplace Monday.
Sanders famous Tuesday on CNN’s “The Source” {that a} handful of billionaires have already acquired main information publications and social media platforms, and he rang the alarm after being requested about Elon Musk, who owns X (previously known as Twitter), probably shopping for TikTok.
“This is what oligarchy is about,” Sanders informed anchor Kaitlan Collins. “You have Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, Mr. Musk already owns Twitter, you have other billionaires owning the major media outlets in this country, CNN, other companies.”
“If you look at who owns them, you’re looking at large Wall Street firms,” the progressive senator continued. “So you already have a major serious problem in terms of ownership of the media. If Musk ends up owning TikTok, it’ll only make a bad situation much worse.”
Trump confirmed Tuesday that he’s open to the thought of Musk shopping for TikTok.
That possibility is feasible because of former President Joe Biden signing a $95 billion overseas support invoice for Israel and Ukraine in April final 12 months, which additionally included a measure forcing TikTok to divest from ByteDance, its Chinese language-owned mother or father firm, or be banned within the U.S.
Supporters of the invoice imagine TikTok is a nationwide safety menace. Nonetheless, Sanders, who voted in opposition to it due to its funding for Israel, mentioned final week on X that he “feared Congress getting into the business of shutting down media platforms.”
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Pool/Getty Photos
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“We need media who are fearless in speaking out on the issues of the day, and you’re not going to have that when you have a small number of very wealthy people controlling what we see, hear and read,” the 83-year-old former Democrat mentioned on CNN, noting that these folks have lately “kind of caved in to Trump.”
These fears have been lengthy warranted however grew to become obtrusive at Trump’s inauguration, which was attended by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner, Bezos and Musk — a few of whom beforehand criticized Trump publicly.
