TikTok Users—From Academics To Billie Eilish—Complain Of Censorship Of Anti-ICE Videos

Topline

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and singer Billie Eilish are among the critics accusing TikTok of censoring videos that are critical of the Trump administration’s immigration raids, with some raising questions about whether TikTok’s new U.S. owners—which includes Trump ally Larry Ellison’s Oracle—are behind the alleged suppression.

TikTok said a power outage at a U.S. data center was to blame for videos not uploading. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

Murphy, in a post on X late Sunday, shared a post from a TikTok user who alleged his content critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are being censored, adding: “I know it’s hard to track all the threats to democracy out there right now, but this is at the top of the list.”

The user, David Leavitt, has 14,400 followers, but a screenshot he posted to X over the weekend shows one of his newest videos garnering just 276 views, while two other videos said, “Ineligible for recommendation.”

Leavitt’s allegations echo a growing chorus of voices who say their content that criticizes the recent killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota by Border Patrol or the Trump administration’s immigration policies are either taking a long time to post or are not being shown by the algorithm, leaving their videos with few views.

Democratic California State Sen. Scott Wiener called TikTok “state-controlled media” in a post on X Monday, stating he posted a video to TikTok about state legislation that would allow people to sue ICE agents, but showing a screengrab of his TikTok account showing it “sitting at zero views.”

Some critics have noted the alleged censorship has occurred days after TikTok spun off its U.S. operations into a new entity jointly owned by Ellison’s Oracle and other companies, with some users pointing out Ellison is a close Trump ally.

In response to a request for comment, TikTok referred Forbes to a statement on X that says TikTok has been “working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate,” and it is “working with our data center partner to stabilize our service,” noting the technical problems are making posts take longer to publish and be recommended.

What Other Creators Are Accusing Tiktok Of Censorship?

Eilish, in a post on her Instagram story early Monday, shared a TikTok video her brother Finneas O’Connell had made criticizing those who have justified the killing of Pretti, followed by another post that shows O’Connell’s video with only 114 likes, adding: “tiktok is silencing people btw…” Eighteen hours after posting, O’Connell’s video has 46,000 likes and 137,000 views on TikTok, which appears to be a lower total than his other recent videos, which have view counts in the upper hundreds of thousands or millions. O’Connell alleged in an Instagram story he is being “shadowbanned” by TikTok, while many of the comments on his video have accused TikTok of censoring the video and questioned why it did not show up in their For You pages. Steve Vladeck, a professor of law at Georgetown University, said in a post on Bluesky late Sunday a video he intended to post criticizing ICE officers for entering homes without warrants has been “under review” for nine hours. Vladeck said Monday morning the post was finally uploaded to TikTok. The post has 20 likes despite Vladeck having more than 13,000 followers, and he liked a comment that said his post has been “totally censored by the algorithm.” Megan Stalter, an actress on “Hacks,” said on Instagram she “tried for hours to upload the same video and it wouldn’t show it to one person” and announced she would delete her TikTok account, accusing it of censoring and monitoring users. “Same experience today,” O’Connell commented on Stalter’s Instagram post. The Tennessee Holler, a left-leaning TikTok account with nearly 400,000 followers, said in a post on X some of its videos “went from tens of thousands to 0,” also linking the alleged censorship to TikTok’s new ownership.

Tangent

In another post on Instagram early Monday, Eilish called out other celebrities for being silent on the shooting of Pretti and ICE raids. “hey my fellow celebrities u gonna speak up?” Eilish wrote in her post. She shared several other posts to her story, including one that called Pretti an American hero and others that criticized those who stay silent on politics.

What Do We Know About Tiktok’s New Ownership?

TikTok said on Thursday it finalized a deal to spin off the company’s American operations into a separate entity, complying with a 2024 law that was set to ban the app in the United States if it did not separate from Chinese company ByteDance. The app went dark for hours in January 2025 upon the deadline, but President Donald Trump delayed the app’s ban until TikTok struck a deal to sell its U.S. operations. Among the app’s new U.S. owners are Oracle, co-founded by Ellison, as well as Emirati investment company MGX and California-based investment company Silver Lake. ByteDance has a 19.9% stake in the new American TikTok. The deal has raised eyebrows among some TikTok users who have noted some of the new owners have strong ties to Trump, particularly Ellison. Ellison has dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, appeared at the White House last year as Trump announced investments into AI and reportedly took part in a phone call shortly after the 2020 election to discuss strategies about how to overturn Trump’s election loss. Some users have also slammed the app for its new terms of service and privacy policy, which it alerted users to in a pop-up message last week. Users have pointed to a new policy that may “collect precise location data, depending on your settings,” which is an opt-in setting and reportedly a change from prior language that said TikTok may collect “approximate” location data. Other users have criticized TikTok’s policy for stating it may collect sensitive information about users, like “sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status,” though TechCrunch reported this language was in a previous version of TikTok’s privacy policy.

Forbes Valuation

We estimate Ellison’s net worth at $233.7 billion, making him the fifth-wealthiest person in the world.