*California plans to examine whether TikTok violated state regulations following numerous complaints from platform users. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state’s intention to investigate after creators claimed their material about Immigration Customs and Enforcement and Epstein-related topics was being restricted.
NBC News reports that content creators noticed their videos about the Minneapolis deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both killed by federal agents, showed no viewer engagement whatsoever. These users believed the company was intentionally limiting posts that criticized the Trump administration.
The social media company strongly denied any censorship practices, pointing instead to technical problems. “We’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage,” TikTok said on an X post on Monday. “We are sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon.” Jamie Favazza, who leads communications for TikTok’s American division, explained to NBC News that concerns about suppression were baseless and resulted from problems at a data center. TikTok acknowledged working to fix a “major infrastructure issue” that caused certain videos to incorrectly display no engagement metrics.
Even after TikTok announced stability had returned Monday afternoon, Newsom drew attention to an X user’s screenshot seemingly showing that entering “Epstein” produced an error suggesting a violation of the platform’s Community Guidelines.
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Responding to these developments, Newsom stated the investigation was necessary. “I am launching a review into whether TikTok is violating state law by censoring Trump-critical content,” he said on X. Though Newsom didn’t identify the specific regulation involved, California passed AB 587 in 2022, requiring large social platforms to provide transparency about their content moderation decisions.
Doubts about TikTok’s handling of posts have grown since American investors, including Larry Ellison’s Oracle, purchased the platform’s U.S. division. Ellison maintains connections to Trump. Many users are also abandoning the application over revised privacy terms allowing expanded information gathering, such as exact location tracking, increased artificial intelligence interactions, and broader distribution of user details to marketing companies.
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