Governor Gavin Newsom of California has announced an investigation into TikTok following accusations that the platform censors content critical of the Trump administration. The investigation comes just days after the app's US operations were separated into a new entity, raising concerns among users about censorship and visibility issues related to their political posts.
Reports began surfacing last week, prompting thousands of users to claim they were experiencing problems such as seeing zero views on new posts and difficulties accessing political content, including discussions about incidents like the recent shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
TikTok has not directly addressed the allegations, attributing the user problems to a major infrastructure issue caused by a power outage at one of their data centers.
However, Newsom’s office has indicated it received confirmed instances of TikTok suppressing content criticizing former President Trump. In a public statement on X, Newsom's office announced plans to investigate further, with its findings potentially influencing ongoing discussions about the platform's operational practices.
Despite TikTok's claim that the outage is unrelated to the recent corporate changes, there are speculations among users that the new ownership, affiliated with Trump-aligned interests, could be impacting content accessibility. Reports from Downdetector revealed over 660,000 issues logged by American TikTok users during the service outage over the weekend.
While the controversy centers on censorship and user visibility, social media users continue to express their frustrations, with some opting to delete their accounts amidst concerns over increased monitoring and uninformed censorship practices.
In addition, celebrities have joined the conversation, echoing fears that TikTok's operational changes will compromise the platform’s integrity, as evidenced by actress Meg Stalter’s announcement on Instagram regarding her decision to leave TikTok due to perceived censorship.
