Is TikTok censoring ‘Trump-critical content material?’ – NBC Los Angeles
After TikTok customers started making claims that their content material about Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and the so-called Epstein filed was suppressed on the social media platform, Gov. Gavin Newsom mentioned Monday that California will examine whether or not TikTok violated state legislation.
Over the weekend, TikTok customers claimed that their posts and content material relating to the lethal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two individuals who have been shot and killed by federal brokers in Minneapolis, acquired zero views, main them to suspect the social media firm was suppressing movies which are vital of the Trump administration.
The corporate insisted that it’s not censoring any content material whereas blaming a technical outage for failing to publish some posts.
“We’ve been working to revive our companies following an influence outage,” TikTok mentioned on a X publish on Monday. “We’re sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it quickly.”
It’s time to research.
I’m launching a evaluation into whether or not TikTok is violating state legislation by censoring Trump-critical content material. https://t.co/AZ2mWW68xa
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) January 27, 2026
Though TikTok mentioned the outage was stabilized by Monday afternoon, Newsom shared a X person’s publish, which appeared to indicate when she typed the phrase “Epstein,” it did not undergo. The picture additionally indicated that the person’s “Epstein” message was not allowed as a result of it “could also be in violation of (its) Neighborhood Pointers.”
NBC Los Angeles was not in a position to independently confirm the authenticity of the X publish.
In response, Newsom mentioned it’s “time to research” the Culver Metropolis-headquartered firm.
“I’m launching a evaluation into whether or not TikTok is violating state legislation by censoring Trump-critical content material,” he mentioned on X.
Newsom didn’t say which legislation that TikTok might have violated, however the state mandates giant social media corporations to be extra clear about how they average or censor content material below AB 587, which was signed into legislation in 2022.
NBC Los Angeles reached out to Newsom’s workplace for clarification.
Suspicion round how content material might or might not be restricted on TikTok has grown in latest days since its U.S. enterprise was offered to a bunch of American buyers, together with Oracle headed by Larry Ellison, a Trump ally.
Some TikTok customers started claiming that they’re deleting the app on their telephones in response to the corporate’s up to date privateness coverage. They mentioned the revised settlement, which permits TikTok to gather extra detailed data, together with exact location knowledge, expanded interplay with AI instruments and broader use of non-public knowledge throughout promoting companions, didn’t sit properly with them.
Sean SVV, a tech client advocate, mentioned elements of the up to date privateness coverage raised issues for him, particularly for immigrant communities.
“They completely are legitimate to be involved about, like what sort of knowledge they’re amassing, how they will use it, and which enterprise companions they will share it with,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, NBC Information authorized analyst Angela Cenedella mentioned among the concern could also be misplaced.
“It seems there are amassing issues like immigration standing and racial and ethnic standing,” she mentioned. “They’ve possible all the time been doing this. This disclosure is one thing required to even have their algorithm.”
NBC Los Angeles reached out to TikTok concerning the allegations made by Gov. Newsom and different customers.
