Following a significant ownership change for its U.S. operations, TikTok experienced widespread technical malfunctions and faced allegations of content censorship, prompting an investigation by California's Governor. Concurrently, the platform updated its privacy policy, detailing the potential collection of sensitive personal information. While academic research later found no evidence of systemic political censorship, attributing immediate issues to a data center outage, calls for greater data transparency persist.
U.S. Operations Transition and Technical Disruptions
TikTok finalized a sale granting a consortium of primarily American investors control of its U.S. operations. This transaction was undertaken to comply with a federal law aimed at addressing national security concerns related to TikTok's Chinese parent company, thereby preventing a nationwide ban of the application. The investing consortium includes the tech firm Oracle, led by CEO Larry Ellison, a political ally of President Trump. Other investors include Silver Lake and Emerati-based MGX, while ByteDance retains a minority stake in the U.S. entity and ownership of the core algorithm.
Days after the deal's finalization, TikTok users across the U.S. reported widespread technical issues. These disruptions affected many of the app's approximately 200 million U.S. users.
Problems reported included:
- New videos receiving zero views
- Main feeds not updating
- Slow application performance
- The appearance of old videos in feeds
- Malfunctions in search functions
- Problems with creator monetization tools
Platform outage monitor Downdetector recorded 663,061 reports of issues from U.S. TikTok users between Saturday and Monday following the ownership change.
TikTok attributed these service disruptions to a "major infrastructure issue" caused by an outage at one of its data centers.
A TikTok spokeswoman stated that no changes have been made to its algorithm since the new investors assumed control of its U.S. business.
Allegations of Content Censorship and Official Inquiries
In the wake of the technical issues, concerns about content censorship emerged among users and public figures. Online discussions, notably under the hashtag #TikTokCensorship, attributed the reported problems to the new ownership.
Users specifically reported:
- An inability to access certain political content, including criticism related to events in Minneapolis (such as the shooting of Alex Pretti) and immigration raids.
- Difficulties sending messages containing the word "Epstein" in direct messages. Users attempting to send such messages reported receiving an automatic prompt indicating a potential violation of TikTok's community guidelines, preventing message delivery.
Tests conducted by NPR and various social media accounts indicated inconsistent experiences, with some users able to send the word "Epstein" while others could not. TikTok stated it does not have rules prohibiting the name "Epstein" in direct messages, and its spokesman confirmed this aligns with the company's initial analysis, with the exact cause remaining under review.
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an inquiry into the "Epstein" messaging situation. He also initiated an investigation into broader allegations that TikTok had censored content critical of the Trump administration.
Governor Newsom's office stated it received confirmed reports and independently verified instances of TikTok suppressing content critical of President Trump, indicating an intent to review this content for potential violations of state laws.
Academic Research Findings
A new analysis conducted by researchers from eight academic institutions, published in Good Authority, found no evidence of systemic political censorship on TikTok following the ownership transition.
Researchers examined viewership metrics across more than 100,000 videos, including those related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and keywords such as "Trump" and "Epstein," alongside non-political content.
The study concluded that viewership for all these topics, both political and non-political, dropped significantly during the data center outage and subsequently began to rebound. This finding suggested the outage was the cause of the viewership decline rather than targeted censorship.
The research acknowledged that more subtle forms of content removal or 'shadowbanning' might not be detectable in overall trends. The study also could not examine claims of specific word blocking in private messages due to data inaccessibility.
Privacy Policy Updates
Concurrently with the technical disruptions, TikTok updated its privacy policy, which generated user concerns. The revised policy states that TikTok may process information from users’ content or surveys that includes details about their “sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status.”
Other listed categories for potential collection include racial or ethnic origin, national origin, religious beliefs, mental or physical health diagnosis, and financial information.
TikTok clarified that this disclosure is not new, with similar language present in its privacy policy before the recent ownership change. The company stated that the inclusion of specific categories for sensitive information is primarily to comply with state privacy laws, such as California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which require companies to inform consumers when they collect such data.
Additionally, the platform's privacy terms were updated to include the collection of precise location information from users, a practice also observed on other social media applications such as Snap, Instagram, and X.
Calls for Greater Transparency
Despite the academic findings attributing the widespread viewership drops to a data center outage, researchers and public figures continue to advocate for greater transparency from TikTok.
Academics emphasized that without greater data availability, verifying platform statements or detecting subtle algorithmic changes remains challenging.
They advocate for TikTok and other platforms to offer third-party access to their recommender systems to enable independent investigation into potential political influence.