- TikTok appears to be censoring all anti-Trump and anti-ICE content, says California Governor Gavin Newsom
- Newsom’s press office received reports that TikTok removed content critical of Trump and is launching an official review.
- More and more users are reporting similar occurrences, which have increased since the recent deal with TikTok was closed in the US just a few days ago.
TikTok has found itself in the middle of yet another controversy, and this time the platform is coming under fire for allegedly censoring content critical of President Donald Trump, California Governor Gavin Newsom says.
Newsom has been outspoken about TikTok’s potential violations after his office received “independently confirmed reports and cases” revealing that TikTok had potentially been suppressing or reviewing anti-Trump and anti-ICE content, coming just days after the platform finalized a new $14 billion deal that was backed by Trump.
The governor shared a post with What evidence does Newsom’s office have that TikTok is allegedly censoring this anti-Trump content?
It’s time to investigate. I’m launching a review to determine whether TikTok is violating state law by censoring content critical of Trump. https://t.co/AZ2mWW68xaJanuary 27, 2026
On Governor Newsom’s Since this was shared online, more users have come forward reporting similar occurrences, like the Reddit user below.
We are being censored from r/TikTok
Although the White House and TikTok have not yet issued a statement on the possible increase in censorship, the Politico media outlet detected an X post from the TikTok account USDS Joint Venture drawing attention to recent errors in the application. According to the statement, TikTok has been experiencing “significant infrastructure issues” as a result of a power outage at the data center.
An update on our work to restore and stabilize TikTok. pic.twitter.com/PZzsuFeZmjJanuary 26, 2026
Although this has been fixed, TikTok says users are still likely to encounter temporary issues such as slower loading times and even seeing 0 likes and views on certain videos, but many are unconvinced by this.
“I’m done with the app”
TikTok can blame bugs and outages all it wants, and while 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 that once again extended TikTok’s lifespan in the US, some find it difficult to attribute their suspicions of censorship to mistakes.
The biggest and most influential name behind the $14 billion deal is Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who, in addition to being a billionaire, is a longtime Trump supporter. This alone attracted a lot of attention, and now the apparent rise in anti-Trump censorship is being attributed to TikTok’s new investors. However, it’s worth remembering that this isn’t the first time Ellison has contributed to a major social media investment.
In 2022, when Elon Musk purchased what is now known as X, Ellison contributed a generous amount of financing to ensure Musk’s acquisition went through. Since then, Ellison’s son has even dipped his toe into media, acquiring Paramount Global and its subsidiaries, including Paramount+, Comedy Central and CBS Network.
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