Summary
TikTok users reported that searches for anti-Trump content, such as “Donald Trump rigged election,” returned “No results found” messages in the U.S., while the same searches worked abroad.
Users demonstrated via VPNs that the restrictions seem specific to U.S. accounts, sparking accusations of censorship and claims TikTok is becoming “Trump’s propaganda arm.”
Some anti-Trump hashtags also appear blocked, while pro-Trump terms remain visible.
TikTok has not commented on the issue, fueling further concerns about free speech and potential political influence over the platform.
The real question is why did the same search show blocked results in the US, but unblocked results when on a VPN outside the US?
I installed TikTok specifically to look at this. I got “no results” in the US, but DID get search results when on a VPN to the UK.
The really interesting bit is that now, that it’s all gone public, I get “no results” both ways. Cleared cache and data between searches even.
Because there’s a conspiracy theory that Trump rigged the 2024 elections because Star Link. Which is nonsensical to anyone with a knowledge of networking.
The article also goes on to make broader claims though which my screenshot disproves are even happening.
Oh, I’m not even going to touch the conspiracy nonsense, I’m more interested in the search engine disparity and why it’s suddenly “fixed” after it went public.
IIRC there were similar issues with Google a few years ago, I’m fuzzy on the details. Search disparity between countries that was somehow “solved” after it was exposed. Or maybe it was search suggestions? Something like that.
I mean it was “fixed” because they got embarrassed.
Caught! :) I don’t know that it’s possible to embarrass them.
It is you’ll just make them cum.
Maybe it was. Isn’t he the one to issue EO against Government mandated censorship. So why censor any conspiracy theories now?
Because they decided to actually try responsibility?
Hahahahahahahahaha
I’ve never heard this and wouldn’t have believed it even if I did.
Like I said it’s nonsensical. Supposedly a special starlink satellite was used. Which makes as much sense as saying a special router was used.
Yeah, we all know it was manipulating the tabulators, not Starlink /s.
Point is, the censorship shouldn’t be exclusive by region. It’s not TikToks job to censor. It’s their job to spoonfeed content.
They absolutely should be helping to stop the spread of misinformation. We rag on Social Media for amplifying misinformation all the time and now suddenly it’s a bad thing to stop it?
Personally I’ve always been anti-censorship.
I think the “community notes” under posts are sufficient imo.
TikTok could do the same, but censoring is a lose-lose
Which is hilarious because that’s the exact system we’re watching fail so horribly on other platforms.
You have to look at where the motivation is. Trump just “unbanned” tiktok in the US. That means that if ByteDance wants to keep doing business in the US, and continue raking in all those profits from the US market, they are beholden to Trump. Trump effectively controls TikTok in the US via extortion.
TikTok can’t be trusted in the US because it’s very existence here relies on appeasing Trump. So no, TikTok doing any fact checking is terrible because it is now a propaganda arm of the US government.
That’s quite a leap. And in reality all social media is on the block with that law. It’s an executive declaration. No court, no hearing, no due process. Just a declaration and you have to sell or shut down. So is the entire Internet now a propaganda arm of the US government?
The law that banned tiktok was about national security concerns of foreign companies. It does not apply to US-based social media companies.
Trump used an executive order to delay the law by 90 days. This is coercive in nature. It makes Trump look like the good guy to millions of tiktok users in the US for “saving” tiktok. It also lets Trump extort ByteDance via manipulation of TikTok (pushing US propaganda) in exchange for staying in the US market.
You should really go read the law instead of the marketing they used. There is no requirement for fact finding. It’s an executive decision. That’s it. The President’s guy declares your company to be a foreign adversary controlled social media company and that’s it. Sell or shut down.
I read the law, and I disagree with you that the president can simply declare a social media company to be foreign-adversary controlled and shut it down with an EO. At the very least there is an appeals process that would go through DC court of appeals for any accused social media company. I am not a lawyer though, so I could be wrong. Either way, I think it gives the president too much power.
But this doesn’t change the fact that ByteDance is still being manipulated by the president for power and propaganda purposes; that seems pretty clear to me when searches critical of trump came up empty on accounts using US IP addresses, as opposed to non-US accounts or US accounts using a VPN.