TikTok is suppressing content critical of President Trump in the US,
California governor claims as investigation looks into whether it 'violates' state law

Date:
Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:11:41 +0000

Description:
California Governor Gavin Newsom is launching a review of TikTok's potential violations after more users are reporting anti-Trump censorship.

FULL STORY

TikTok has found itself in the middle of yet another controversy, and this time the platform is coming under fire for allegedly censoring content thats critical of President Donald Trump, California Governor Gavin Newsom claims.

Newsom has been outspoken over TikToks possible violations after his office received reports and independently confirmed instances revealing TikTok has potentially been suppressing or reviewing anti-Trump and anti-ICE content, which comes just days after the platform finalized a new $14 billion deal
that was backed by Trump .

The governor shared a post to X, saying its time to investigate, followed by
a post from the Governor Newsom Press Office announcing hes officially launching a review of this conduct and will be calling on the California Department of Justice to determine whether it violates California law".

What evidence does Newsom's office have that TikTok is allegedly censoring
this anti-Trump content?

On Governor Newsoms X account, he reposted an image shared by the
user @intelligentpawg showing a private TikTok DM message featuring the word Epstein which failed to send due to what TikTok says was a violation of community guidelines, the Newsom Press Office claims. Since this was shared online, more users have come forward reporting similar occurrences.

Although the White House and TikTok have yet to issue a statement about the possible rise of censorship, the outlet Politico spotted an X post from the TikTok USDS Joint Venture account drawing attention to recent in-app bugs. According to the statement, TikTok has been experiencing major infrastructure issues as a result of a data center power outage.

Though this has been fixed, TikTok says that users are still likely to run
into temporary issues such as slower loading times, and even seeing 0 likes
and views on certain videos but many arent convinced by this. Im done with
the app

TikTok can blame bugs and outages all it wants, and although Newsom's claims have yet to be proven correct, TikTok is failing to convince frustrated users otherwise. And given the people behind the latest deal thats extended TikToks US lifespan once again, some are finding it hard to pin their censorship suspicions on bugs.

The biggest and most influential name behind the $14 billion deal is Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who, aside from being a billionaire, is a long-time supporter of Trump. This alone raised a lot of eyebrows, and now the apparent rise of anti-Trump censorship is being pinned on TikToks new investors. It's worth remembering, though, that this isnt the first time Ellison has contributed to a major social media investment.

In 2022, when Elon Musk bought what is now known as X, Ellison contributed a generous amount of funding to ensure Musks acquisition would go through.
Since then, Ellisons son has even dipped his toe into the media waters, acquiring Paramount Global and its subsidiaries, including Paramount+ ,
Comedy Central, and the CBS Network.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/tiktok/tiktok-is-suppressing-content-criti cal-of-president-trump-in-the-us-california-governor-claims-as-investigation-l ooks-into-whether-it-violates-state-law

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