The acquisition of TikTok’s U.S. operations by a group of investors led by Oracle’s Larry Ellison has ignited a heated debate about potential content suppression on the platform. Users have accused TikTok of limiting the visibility of posts concerning sensitive topics such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, Jeffrey Epstein, and the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. These accusations have fueled a wave of criticism and online backlash.
As these claims spread across social media, the hashtag #TikTokCensorship gained significant momentum on X. Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom and lawmakers in the European Union have called for inquiries into these allegations.
However, a recent analysis by Good Authority suggests that a data center outage might be the culprit behind the disruption in content visibility. Conducted by eight academics, the study indicates that the outage affected a wide range of posts, not just political content. The analysis scrutinized over 100,000 videos, examining viewership metrics for topics like ICE, Pretti, Renee Good, Trump, and Epstein, and compared these with non-political content.
“Posts about all of these topics dropped to almost zero,” wrote Benjamin Guinaudeau, a professor at Université Laval in Québec, adding that “total views plummeted directly after the TikTok outage, and then began to rebound.”
Despite the findings, the researchers acknowledge the possibility of more subtle content moderation changes by TikTok’s new owners. “It could be that small numbers of posts were removed or shadowbanned in a way that is not visible in the overall trends,” they noted, while acknowledging the limitations in studying certain trends due to data inaccessibility.
The study highlights a critical challenge in analyzing TikTok’s content moderation practices, as the platform does not provide the necessary access for comprehensive evaluations. “Our position is that TikTok and other platforms should provide a way for third-party researchers to study their recommender systems and look for evidence of undue political influence,” the researchers stated.
The timing of the TikTok disruption has intensified concerns about potential biases, particularly given Larry Ellison’s known support of President Trump. “The new owners will have to earn the trust of Americans,” remarked Anupam Chander from Georgetown University. He suggested that TikTok could prove its political neutrality by welcoming academic researchers and hiring respected liberals within the company.
The consortium acquiring TikTok includes Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, with ByteDance retaining a minority stake and ownership of the app’s algorithm. The deal aimed to comply with a federal law addressing national security concerns.
While TikTok’s spokesperson assures no changes have been made to the algorithm, Guinaudeau expressed skepticism: “Right now, TikTok can say just about anything related to algorithm changes and we can’t verify it.” He emphasized the need for transparency to detect any nuanced changes in content recommendation.
Copyright 2026 NPR
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