TikTok Denies Trump-Criticism Censorship Amid U.S. Glitches (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Is TikTok in the U.S. censoring criticism of Trump? Last Thursday, a deal was agreed to for a U.S.-only version of the app. But three days later, thousands of American users started reporting problems, like this, posts getting zero views. TikTok has blamed it on a, quote, major infrastructure issue relating to a data center power outage. But many users are accusing the app of censorship, including California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who announced an investigation into reports that TikTok is now suppressing content critical of President Trump. TikTok has denied claims that its new U.S. operations are heavily controlling what users post after thousands of people reported glitches, such as issues loading comments and feeds filled with old videos. Some users claim they can't see political posts either, things like criticism of the shooting of Alex Pretty by federal agents, or that they can't write the word Epstein in messages. TikTok said there are no rules against sharing the name Epstein in direct messages. Some U.S. users are downloading alternative apps like Upscrolled. New terms and conditions introduced last week have also raised concerns with TikTok now expanding the type of location data the company can collect. In a response to the BBC, a spokesperson for TikTok's new U.S. joint venture reiterated an earlier statement pointing to technical issues being the reason for problems since it became a separate American entity.