California Governor Gavin Newsom has raised concerns about TikTok’s content moderation practices following the platform’s new ownership structure. Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX are the controlling investors in this joint venture. American and global investors can now collectively only own 80.1% of the company, while ByteDance, the parent company, retains a 19.9% stake. This agreement comes after years of fruitless lawsuits. These battles were waged in TikTok’s broader contentious relationship with the United States government on national security and privacy issues.
Newsom’s allegations focus on allegations that TikTok is hiding anti-President Donald Trump content. Accounts from creators indicate challenges in uploading videos that address issues like federal immigration policy. The governor recently announced a new investigation into TikTok’s practices to find out if they breach California law.
The Joint Venture structure is a big deal TikTok’s new ownership structure makes for a dramatic change for TikTok. Each of the three managing investors is a 15% partner in the venture. Their intention appears to be to mitigate the risks identified by both the American and Chinese governments regarding how the platform is run.
In response, TikTok has pointed to technical failures in content moderation as the cause. A representative stated, “It would be inaccurate to report that this is anything but the technical issues we’ve transparently confirmed.” The platform later admitted that a network outage resulted in a “cascading systems failure.” They’re aggressively trying to get that fixed.
Worries over censorship quickly rose to the forefront when Georgetown University law professor Steve Vladeck had his video put “under review.” His material highlighted the new rule that allows federal immigration enforcement officials to enter homes without a warrant. This is a topic that has generated tons of public interest and scrutiny.
In fact, Governor Newsom’s office has recently acknowledged receiving reports of people having their content suppressed. “Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports, and independently confirmed instances, of suppressed content critical of President Trump,” the office noted.
Casey Fiesler, an expert in technology ethics, said TikTok’s ownership being under American control is unlikely to soothe fears. “It’s not surprising that there’s a significant lack of trust in TikTok’s new ownership,” she remarked. This sentiment reflects larger fears surrounding the platform’s transparency and accountability—or lack thereof—especially as it relates to their content moderation practices.
As of this writing, former President Trump has more than 16 million followers on his personal TikTok account. He still publicly credits the app with helping him win re-election in 2024, even with the app’s controversies continuing to roil. The platform has recently been under increasing fire for its content moderation policies and the integrity of its operations.