Summary

TikTok users reported that searches for anti-Trump content, such as “Donald Trump rigged election,” returned “No results found” messages in the U.S., while the same searches worked abroad.

Users demonstrated via VPNs that the restrictions seem specific to U.S. accounts, sparking accusations of censorship and claims TikTok is becoming “Trump’s propaganda arm.”

Some anti-Trump hashtags also appear blocked, while pro-Trump terms remain visible.

TikTok has not commented on the issue, fueling further concerns about free speech and potential political influence over the platform.

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    This is going to be an era where people will have to move around on social media. I hope some decent alternative can happen for people to dip out.

      • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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        16 hours ago

        Some kid literally burned down the office of his local representative because of a 14-hour unavailability of TikTok. If that is not cold turkey brain damage then I dunno what else is.

        • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          Stop clutching your pearls about that one. Dude is a teenager. We all know teenagers have never done stupid, impetuous things before TikTok… 🙄

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        Everyone has their vices. I replaced fb with reddit over a decade ago. Never bothered with the rest of sm because it was mostly acquaintances posting boring shit and I had group chats with friends.

        Now I’ve replaced 99% of my reddit usage with lemmy / hackernews, and lost half my friends due to the fascist propaganda sphere (anti-vaxer/sjw/trans dumb shit). It’d be really hard to abandon them entirely because I avoid most MSM (due to the overt corporate propaganda / censorship) and curating an rss feed is a-lot more effort. Dropping everything would result in becoming completely ignorant of the world.

    • Will they actually move? I sincerely doubt it. Getting people to change their social media is impossible if they stake any amount of their identity on its use and, sadly, most users do. Frankly, I’d have a hard time leaving lemmy for that reason. Love this little garbage heap among the endless poison wastes of the modern internet.

        • kamenLady.@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          Especially if the frying pan, you’re jumping out of, is surrounded by other frying pans, just waiting for you to jump in.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Except they won’t.

      Don’t you think it would’ve happened to Twitter already? And it’s certainly not happening to something “essential” like Facebook, where it’s (for instance) the only place your grandparents are on, or the only place that most people list local used stuff on.

      I don’t know about TikTok I guess, but it seems integral to the lives of younger people.

      • cheers_queers@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        texting and Craigslist exist. these are just excuses they use to stay comfy and not stir the pot with their relatives or friends