Democrats Are Taking Claims of Anti-Trump Censorship on TikTok Seriously

National Democratic figures piled on TikTok as influencers and left-wing commentators accused it of censoring anti-Trump content in recent days.

On Sunday, the day after Alex Pretti was fatally shot during the Trump administration’s immigration offensive in Minnesota, TikTok users began reporting that videos mentioning the words “ICE,” “Epstein,” “Israel” and “Trump” from accounts with large followings were getting zero views hours after posting. They also reported that messages containing words such as “Epstein” would not reach their recipient. The social media giant blamed technical glitches, but by Monday, Democrats were threatening at least one investigation and renewing their calls for more regulation of social media platforms.

“It’s interesting to me that on the same weekend TikTok was taken over by a bunch of Trump-aligned billionaires, we saw some pretty massive censoring of anti-Trump content,” Sen. Chris Murphy told NOTUS. “I don’t know that those two things are connected, but I think it’s really important for us to be vigilant.”

Last year, lawmakers from both parties grew increasingly critical of the White House’s inability to close a deal on TikTok’s sale, as required by a 2024 law threatening to ban it in the U.S. if most of the platform wasn’t sold to ownership without ties to the Chinese government. But last week, President Donald Trump finalized a deal that would transfer TikTok’s ownership to a joint venture that includes the tech-infrastructure giant Oracle, whose chief executive is Larry Ellison, a longtime Trump ally.

A TikTok spokesperson did not immediately respond to NOTUS’ request for comment about Murphy’s concerns. But earlier Tuesday, a spokesperson told NOTUS that the platform’s moderation policies had not changed, and added that videos about immigration operations in Minnesota remained available. The lack of views on TikTok videos, the spokesperson said, was due to a power outage at one of its data centers.

TikTok told NPR on Tuesday it was investigating why some users can’t write “Epstein” in direct messages. NOTUS was able to send a direct message on TikTok containing the word “Epstein” on Tuesday. Videos from outlets like CNN and The New York Times appeared to reach normal viewership rates Tuesday.

Still, the allegations of censorship were fast to pique Democrats. On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California wrote on X that he planned to launch an investigation into “whether TikTok is violating state law by censoring Trump-critical content.”

Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for Newsom, told NOTUS in an email that the governor’s office is reviewing what happened.

Other Democrats also said they want more government oversight into how social media is regulated.

“These platforms have a tremendous amount of power. They are the ABC and CBS of this era, and we obviously need to closely track these platforms given the size of their audiences. I think this is a space that should be better regulated” Sen. Cory Booker told NOTUS.

Several congressional Republicans did not respond to inquiries from NOTUS. But at least one voiced concern.

“Big Tech has a long, troubled history of censorship, and Big Tech should not be engaged in censorship, because America is in the age of free speech,” Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican supporter of the law that forced TikTok’s developer, ByteDance, to sell most of the platform to avoid a ban in the U.S., told NOTUS when asked about censorship claims of anti-Trump content on TikTok through the weekend.

Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents parts of Silicon Valley, and who has long opposed the law that forced ByteDance to sell TikTok due to free speech concerns and the lack of privacy protections, said he’d like Congress to act to protect users against censorship.

“The bill to ban TikTok was a mistake,” Khanna wrote on X. “I led the effort to repeal it, and as the new ranking member of the Select Committee on China, I will make sure free speech is protected.”