California Governor To Probe TikTok Over Alleged Censorship Of Anti-Trump Videos

California Governor Gavin Newsom is “launching a review” of TikTok over potential censorship after users reported problems posting videos that were critical of the Trump administration and Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE).

“It’s time to investigate,” Newsom tweeted on Monday, pointing to one TikTok user who found the app’s messaging function refused to post the name “Epstein,” a reference to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier charged with child sex trafficking who had ties to President Trump.

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TikTok blames this week’s glitches on a power outage at a US data center, which resulted in some users being unable to sign in, view new videos, or post new content. Still, the incident has sparked censorship concerns given that it comes days after a majority stake in the social media app’s US business was transferred from China’s ByteDance to a US joint venture that includes Oracle, a company co-founded by Larry Ellison, a Trump supporter.

TikTok users soon found themselves unable to post and view videos about protests in Minnesota and Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who was shot and killed by an ICE officer over the weekend.

“TikTok is now state-controlled media,” claimed California state Sen. Scott Wiener. “This morning I posted a TikTok about my legislation allowing people to sue ICE agents. It’s sitting at zero views, and I’m not the only person this is happening to.”

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Not helping the matter is that TikTok is still having trouble. “We’ve made significant progress in recovering our US infrastructure with our US data center partner,” TikTok said this morning. “However, the US user experience may still have some technical issues, including when posting new content. We’re committed to bringing TikTok back to its full capacity as soon as possible. We’ll continue to provide updates.”

The TikTok USDS Joint Venture dismissed the censorship allegations, telling PCMag that videos about Pretti’s death in Minnesota have been available since Saturday when the shooting occurred. The company also said it had no rules against sharing the name “Epstein” in direct messages and is investigating why some users are experiencing the problem.

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Nonetheless, the controversy threatens to undermine trust in TikTok. The number of TikTok users deleting the app increased 150% over the past five days, according to CNBC, citing third-party data from Sensor Tower.

In the meantime, Newsom’s office noted that it “received reports—and independently confirmed instances—of suppressed content critical of President Trump.” The governor is also calling on that state’s attorney general to determine whether TikTok’s conduct violated state law.

Some critics on social media are rolling their eyes. “Investigating a data outage. Come on bro,” wrote one user on X.