TikTok faces claims of censorship as users report the suppression of Trump-related criticism and mentions of Epstein.
Allegations of interference follow the forced sale of the platform to a group of investors aligned with the president.
American TikTok users are reporting that the term “Epstein” is being filtered out of messages, leading to concerns that the app is intentionally stifling content that reflects poorly on President Donald Trump.
These claims surfaced less than a week after the platform’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, was compelled to sell a majority stake in its US branch to a coalition of investors loyal to Trump, whose past association with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been widely documented.
Since the ownership shift, accounts have also emerged suggesting that videos documenting Minneapolis demonstrations and ICE enforcement operations are being systematically hidden from view.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has responded by announcing a formal investigation into whether the social media giant is breaching state regulations through its moderation practices.
“We need to investigate this,” Newsom posted on Monday evening, stating that he is launching an official review to determine if the platform is illegally censoring anti-Trump sentiment.
The Governor’s statement was prompted by a viral screenshot from an X user, which appeared to show TikTok blocking a message containing the name “Epstein” for allegedly violating “Community Guidelines.”
State Senator Scott Wiener, another California Democrat, echoed these concerns, noting that his own video regarding legal rights against ICE had been suppressed.
“TikTok has transformed into state-controlled media,” Senator Wiener claimed on Monday, pointing out that his video remained at zero views and noting that many others are experiencing identical issues.
TikTok has denied the censorship allegations, attributing the platform’s erratic behavior to a “major infrastructure” glitch caused by a power failure at a domestic data center.
A spokesperson for the company stated that while the primary network has been restored, the outage triggered a series of internal system failures that technicians are still working to rectify.
The company warned that users may experience various glitches, such as “zero” view counts, missing engagement metrics, or payment display errors, which they characterized as server-side “timeout” issues rather than manual removals.
The media has requested further clarification from TikTok regarding the specific filtering of terms like “Epstein” and how the new ownership structure will influence the platform’s long-term approach to content moderation.
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