California Investigates TikTok Over Allegations of Censorship Against Anti-Trump Content

Wed Feb 04 2026 06:56:26 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

California Governor Gavin Newsom launches an investigation into TikTok amid claims that the platform is suppressing posts critical of President Trump, coinciding with a recent restructuring of the app’s US operations.

Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, has initiated an investigation against TikTok, alleging that the app censors content critical of President Trump. This follows user reports of significant issues with the app, including the visibility of political posts. TikTok attributes the issues to infrastructure problems rather than censorship, but the state insists on reviewing the platform's practices under its new ownership.

The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has announced an investigation into claims TikTok has censored content critical of the Trump administration.

A deal was concluded last Thursday to split off the US operation of the app - three days later, thousands of American users began reporting problems, including seeing zero views on new posts.

Many users also reported being unable to see political posts, such as content criticizing the shooting by federal agents of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday.

TikTok has not commented on accusations of censorship, blaming user problems on a major infrastructure issue related to a data center power outage.

However, Newsom's office stated that it has received confirmed reports of TikTok suppressing content critical of President Trump. Following TikTok's sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports - and independently confirmed instances - of suppressed content critical of President Trump, wrote the California governor's office on X.

Newsom has initiated a review of this content to determine if the company violated state laws. The BBC has reached out to TikTok's new parent company, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, for a comment.

Concerns have escalated on social media, with users expressing frustrations over TikTok's functionality and claiming possible censorship by the app's new owners.

Users continue to report a host of issues affecting the app, which the platform attributes to a severe infrastructure issue. Downdetector recorded over 663,061 user-reported problems from Saturday to Monday, further fueling speculation about censorship practices on the platform.

The scrutiny of TikTok comes amid broader debates surrounding the influence of social media platforms on political discussions and user engagement, especially as it pertains to controlling access to information critical of political figures.