Newsom investigates alleged suppression of anti-Trump TikTok content
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced he was investigating reports that TikTok was removing anti-Trump content days after the platform avoided a nationwide ban by finalizing a US ownership deal backed by the president.
“Following the sale of TikTok to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports – and independently confirmed instances – of content critical of President Trump being removed,” the governor’s press office said in a statement released Monday evening to X.
The announcement follows a wave of online complaints that videos critical of Trump, such as those condemning the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota or denouncing the killing of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti by federal agents, are getting no views or far fewer views than normal.
New US TikTok company USDS Joint Venture LLC has not publicly responded to the censorship allegations. However, the company said in a statement Monday that it was dealing with a power outage at a U.S. data center that was causing a “cascading system outage.”
Among the issues the platform advised creators to watch out for were no views or likes on videos, slower loading times, and expired requests. Thousands of user issues were reported throughout the day Monday, according to outage tracking system Downdetector.
Newsom’s press office said the governor was calling on the California Department of Justice to review whether the request violated state law by censoring content unfavorable to Trump.
The ministry said in a statement that it was unable to confirm or deny a possible investigation. The statement added that freedom of expression is the cornerstone of democracy and that “as a nation, we are stronger when we engage in robust and diverse public discourse.”
“It’s time to investigate,” Newsom wrote on The president drew bipartisan criticism last year for his efforts to prevent Justice Department investigative files related to Epstein from being made public.
The screenshot reads: “This post may be in violation of our community guidelines and was not sent to protect our community.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson told the Washington Post that the White House “is not involved in and has not made any requests related to TikTok’s content moderation.”
Internet personality Preston Stewart, who makes news videos on topics related to war and national security, said two videos he posted Monday simply disappeared while another video received no views despite having 1.3 million followers.
“I’ve seen people suggest this is targeted, but from what I see it’s hitting everyone on every platform,” Stewart wrote on X.
Nonetheless, frustration continued to spread online among creators, celebrities and elected officials who felt content was being deliberately removed.
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) claimed that TikTok is “now state-controlled media” in a statement Monday morning on
“TikTok is dead. Killed by the regime and the corrupt kleptocrats sucking its pacifier,” he wrote in an X post Monday evening, reposting another screenshot, this time showing extremely low view counts on videos recently shared by CNN.
TikTok finalized a deal on Thursday to spin off its U.S. operations into a new majority-American joint venture with investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX. The $14 billion deal puts Larry Ellison, Oracle co-founder and longtime Trump supporter and donor, in a position of power over the app’s operations in America.
