Khaberni - A report by the Washington Post revealed a widespread wave of accusations by users of the TikTok platform, claiming that the app deliberately restricted or curbed the spread of video clips discussing the killing of a man in Minneapolis by federal police officers.
The newspaper reported that posts related to the incident received only a few views or remained stuck without being published, amid broader technical issues experienced by the app.
In the same context, Reuters attributed to California Governor Gavin Newsom an accusation against TikTok of censoring criticisms directed at U.S. President Donald Trump, clarifying that he is "independently verifying" instances of content deletion that criticized the American president, but the platform justified this by a "technical glitch".
Federal officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had fired shots at a 37-year-old man and killed him in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last Saturday, and local authorities confirmed that he was an American citizen named Alex Pretty.
The shooting occurred amidst widespread daily protests in the city since a shooting incident on January 7, which claimed the life of American Renee Good (37 years old), when an immigration officer fired at her car. Pretty was killed about a mile away from where Good was killed.
Democratic State Governor Tim Walz called on U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw thousands of federal immigration officers, whom he described as violent and untrained. However, Trump claimed that the victim was carrying a loaded gun, ready to use, with two additional magazines.
This incident comes at a very sensitive time, as the Chinese company ByteDance, owner of the TikTok app, announced last Thursday that it had completed a deal to establish a new joint venture, which is majority-owned by American partners, thereby ending a political and legal dispute that lasted for years about the future of the app in the United States, averting an imminent ban in the American market.
Washington Post, in its report, noted widespread complaints from users - including celebrities like singer Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell - stating that video clips criticizing the actions of the federal authorities achieved very few views compared to normal rates, or they were "under review" for long hours.
In response, TikTok stated in a statement on Monday that this defect was due to a "sequential system collapse" resulting from a power outage at one of the American data centers, asserting that it was merely a technical glitch that affected general publishing and viewing functions, and was not targeting specific content.
However, this technical explanation, according to the newspaper, did not reassure the critics, especially since the platform's ownership had moved to a consortium of companies close to certain political circles, such as Oracle.
The report pointed out that this confusion represents the greatest challenge that TikTok will face in its new American guise, which is how to deal with controversial political content without losing the trust of the young fan base.
The newspaper also reviewed precedents of major tech companies like Meta and YouTube that faced similar accusations, reflecting a deeper crisis related to transparency in digital content management during political crises.
Washington Post concluded the report by noting that if the censorship hypothesis holds true, it signifies a replacement of greater local politicized censorship concerns with worries about foreign interference.
