People who use TikTok are angry and say that the site is censoring anti-ICE content since it changed hands in the US. The company says a power outage at a data center caused the problem, but people are suspicious because videos criticizing ICE actions keep having problems.
Influencers like nurse Jen Hamilton and comedian Megan Stalter said that their videos about ICE enforcement in Minneapolis, including the deadly shooting of nurse Alex Pretti, didn’t upload. Casey Fiesler, an academic, had trouble getting media literacy videos that mentioned ICE, which made people worry that the new US joint venture might be politically biased. Celebrities and creators like Billie Eilish and political analysts saw no views or account suspensions on ICE-related posts, according to CNN.
TikTok says that problems are due to a US data center going down, which caused upload delays and recommendation problems. They deny any censorship. Jamie Favazza, a spokesperson, said that services are coming back, but new posts may take some time to show up. There is no set time for full recovery. The platform says that even “Epstein” in DMs caused errors, which points to bigger technical problems.
The timing is right because TikTok’s US ownership will change hands after Trump’s reelection in 2024, which makes progressive users less trusting. Sen. Chris Murphy made claims about the platform stronger on X after California Gov. Gavin Newsom started a review of it.
People are moving to other apps like UpScrolled (the ninth most popular app on the App Store), and Reddit threads are calling for mass deletion.
