TikTok users are accusing the app’s new US owners of censoring videos about the fatal Minneapolis shooting of Alex Pretti and political content including mentions of “Epstein.”
The hashtag #TikTokCensorship took off on X on Sunday as creators claimed videos about political unrest in Minneapolis were getting far fewer views than usual and facing long delays uploading.
In a late Monday statement on X, TikTok US’ new owners wrote: “We’re continuing to resolve a major infrastructure issue triggered by a power outage at one of our US data center partner sites.”
“You may notice multiple bugs, slower load times, or timed-out requests, including when posting new content,” the new owners added. “Creators may temporarily see ‘0’ views or likes on videos …This is a display error.”
It was a rough start for the new US spin-off of TikTok, which announced last Thursday that it finally reached a deal to transfer operations to American ownership after staring down threats of a ban for years.
China-based ByteDance will retain a 19.9% ownership stake, while US and global investors – including Trump ally Larry Ellison’s Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, an Emirati state-owned investment firm that has been done a range of deals smiled on by the White House – each hold a 15% stake.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in a post late Monday that he is launching a state investigation into TikTok, alleging his office “independently confirmed instances” of the app censoring content critical of President Trump.
A White House spokesperson told The Post it “has no role in TikTok’s content moderation.”
In a viral post on X, David Leavitt, a freelance writer, shared a screenshot of his TikTok account that showed he regularly gained hundreds or thousands of views on his videos – but his recent political videos were flagged as “ineligible for recommendation.”
American singer Billie Eilish wrote on Instagram that TikTok “is silencing people” after her musician brother Finneas O’Connell posted a TikTok video about the shooting of Pretti – who was fatally shot by federal agents on Saturday – that gained fewer views than O’Connell’s usual content.
“Shut the f— up! You’ve spent 30 years straight telling us that children have to die so that we’re allowed to legally carry weapons everywhere in the US,” O’Connell said in the video, which has since racked up 2.4 million views.
“This guy was being beaten to a pulp on the ground, he didn’t draw his weapon.”
“Hacks” star Megan Stalter said in an Instagram post Sunday that she was deleting her TikTok account and urged others to do the same, writing that it’s “under new ownership, and we are being completely censored and monitored.”
“I’m unable to upload anything about [ICE] even after I tried to trick the page by making it look like a comedy video. Let’s delete the app. Love you!”
On Sunday, her recent TikTok videos showed zero views, while her previous videos had hundreds of thousands and even millions of views each.
Clashes between federal agents and demonstrators have heated up at protests in Minneapolis after immigration officers fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, on Jan. 7, and Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who cared for veterans, on Saturday.
A TikTok USDS Joint Venture spokesperson told The Post that there are videos of the Minneapolis shootings on the platform that have been available since that day.
Other TikTok users claimed the video-sharing app was censoring the word “Epstein” in direct messages to other users – sharing screenshots of an error message that claimed the messages violated TikTok Community Guidelines.
The joint venture’s spokesperson said some users experienced an issue sharing the name “Epstein” in direct messages, and the company is working to fix it.
The Department of Justice and House of Representatives have been releasing the so-called “Epstein files” by the thousands, though many documents are yet to be made public.
