Censorship concerns are back in the spotlight after TikTok users claim to be having trouble posting about Jeffrey Epstein and ICE raids.
Days after the company finalized a sale to a consortium of American investors who now control TikTok’s business in the US – which averted a national ban of the app over national security concerns – users report being unable to use the word “Epstein” in direct messages.
The company responded, telling NPR “We don’t have rules against sharing the name ‘Epstein’ in direct messages and are investigating why some users are experiencing issues.”
TikTok said none of its content moderation rules have changed.
Still, when some users tried to send direct messages containing the word “Epstein,” an automatic prompt appeared declaring that the message may be in violation of TikTok’s community guidelines. The messages were not sent, according to the prompt, “to protect our community.”
Tests by NPR, and other accounts on social media, show that it was happening inconsistently; Some users were able to send messages with “Epstein,” and some were not. The TikTok spokesman said that is consistent with the company’s own analysis so far, yet the exact cause is still under review.
TikTok users are also claiming that the platform is censoring information related to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions, as many users on the platform report being unable to upload videos on the topic.
The TikTok censorship this week is genuinely insane. It’s a very bad look to have more censorship under American management than under Chinese management. It almost goes without saying that if it doesn’t reverse course immediately, it deserves the scandal & exodus it’s getting.
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) January 28, 2026
Some are pointing a finger at TikTok’s new ownership – which includes lead investor Oracle, run by billionaire Larry Ellison, a close friend of President Trump. Users are now circulating the hashtag #TikTokCensorship on X.
It’s nice to see Democrats suddenly discovering free speech.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) says this is at the ‘top of the list’ when it comes to threats to democracy. We don’t remember him piping up when conservatives were being censored for a decade…
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. https://t.co/WjB05qeQPN
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 26, 2026
TikTok said in a statement that ‘glitches’ on the app were due to a power outage at a US data center, causing videos to take longer to be uploaded and recommended to other users, and are “unrelated to last week’s news” of the finalized sale.
Oracle, meanwhile, blamed the winter storm that has affected large swaths of central and eastern US, saying in a statement that an Oracle data center “experienced a temporary weather-related power outage,” triggering wide-spread “technical issues” for users of TikTok, said spox Michael Egbert, who added that the companies are working “quickly” to restore service and stabilize the app.
On Tuesday, TikTok US Joint Venture said it had made “significant progress” in restoring service to US users, but noted that many might still have trouble uploading new videos.
We’ve made significant progress in recovering our U.S. infrastructure with our U.S. data center partner. However, the U.S. user experience may still have some technical issues, including when posting new content. We’re committed to bringing TikTok back to its full capacity as…
— TikTok USDS Joint Venture (@tiktokusdsjv) January 27, 2026
Nurse Jen Hamilton, who has over 4.5 million TikTok followers, says that after she posted a still picture about Alex Pretti, a protester who was shot by one or more federal immigration agents on Saturday, her next four videos couldn’t be uploaded.
“Something has shifted in the way that content is getting put on the platform, or allowed to be on the platform,” she told CNN. “And I just find it very ironic that it’s the same day that it takes over that people are not being able to post their stuff.”
While it would be difficult to prove TikTok is censoring content about ICE due to its opaque algorithm, it would also be within their legal right to do so, says Jeffrey Blevins, a professor at the University of Cincinnati who studies media law and ethics.
“They’re a private platform. They have a First Amendment right to do that,” he said. “A lot of times it’s easy for us to think of social media as a public square, but it’s not public in a way that matters under the law.”
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