Senator Bernie Sanders highlighted concerns about the growing influence of billionaires over major social media platforms, suggesting that such concentration of control contributes to broader risks of authoritarianism in the United States beyond any single political figure.

In a post Sanders wrote: “When we talk about authoritarianism, it’s not just Donald Trump. Musk owns X Bezos owns Twitch Zuckerberg owns Instagram and Facebook Larry Ellison controls TikTok Billionaires increasingly control what we see, hear and read.”

When we talk about authoritarianism, it’s not just Donald Trump.

Musk owns X
Bezos owns Twitch
Zuckerberg owns Instagram and Facebook
Larry Ellison controls TikTok

Billionaires increasingly control what we see, hear and read.

— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 3, 2026

The senator has consistently raised alarms about what he describes as a dangerous shift toward authoritarianism under the Trump administration, often pointing to the outsized role of wealthy individuals in shaping government, the economy, and information flows. He has framed these developments as part of a movement toward oligarchy, where a small group of ultra-wealthy people exert disproportionate power, including through ownership of key media and communication channels that influence public discourse.

Sanders’ post specifically names four prominent billionaires and ties their wealth to ownership or significant influence over prominent online platforms:

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, owns X, the social media platform, which he acquired in 2022. According to Forbes’ real-time billionaires list, Musk’s net worth stands at $852.5 billion, making him the world’s richest person by a wide margin. His fortune stems primarily from stakes in Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, and X itself, amid rapid growth in electric vehicles, space exploration, and artificial intelligence ventures.

Jeff Bezos, the founder and former chief executive of Amazon, owns Twitch, the live-streaming platform focused on gaming and entertainment that Amazon acquired in 2014. Forbes estimates Bezos’ net worth at $249.4 billion, largely derived from his ongoing substantial ownership in Amazon, the e-commerce and cloud computing giant.

Mark Zuckerberg, the cofounder and chief executive of Meta Platforms, owns both Instagram, acquired by Meta (then Facebook) in 2012, and Facebook itself, now the flagship of Meta’s family of apps. Forbes places Zuckerberg’s net worth at $237.1 billion, driven by Meta’s performance in social networking, advertising, and emerging technologies like virtual reality.

Larry Ellison, the cofounder and chief technology officer of Oracle, is linked to control over TikTok in the United States following a major ownership restructuring in early 2026. Under a deal to comply with U.S. national security requirements, ByteDance retained a minority stake while a U.S.-based joint venture—backed by investors including Oracle—took majority control of TikTok’s American operations. Oracle, where Ellison holds significant influence, plays a key role in this entity, including aspects of data management and algorithm oversight for U.S. users. Forbes lists Ellison’s net worth at $199.9 billion, based primarily on his stake in Oracle, the enterprise software company that has benefited from demand in cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

Sanders’ commentary arrives at a moment when these platforms serve as primary sources of news, entertainment, and political discussion for hundreds of millions of Americans. The senator’s longstanding critique emphasizes how billionaire ownership of such influential outlets can shape what information reaches the public, potentially amplifying concerns about concentrated power in an era of rapid technological change and political polarization. This focus aligns with his repeated calls for greater scrutiny of wealth concentration and its implications for democratic processes.