Newsom Launches Review After U.S. TikTok Outages and Censorship Claims
Governor Gavin Newsom opened a review into alleged suppression of Trump-critical content after outages tied to a U.S. data center power failure.
Overview
TikTok's U.S. service experienced widespread outages after a power outage at a U.S. data center that the company said triggered a cascading systems failure while users reported blocked political content, according to a TikTok U.S. statement and user reports.
The scrutiny follows a congressional- and presidential-brokered deal that placed U.S. operations under a joint venture in which Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX and other non-Chinese investors control about 80% of the new entity, records show.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday night he is launching a review and asked California Attorney General Rob Bonta to determine whether TikTok has violated state law, saying "It's time to investigate," his office said.
Downdetector logged more than 500,000 user reports between Sunday and Monday and Sensor Tower data cited by CNBC showed U.S. deletions of the app rose 150%, reflecting the scale of user disruption, according to published reports.
The new joint venture said it will retrain TikTok's algorithm on U.S. user data and secure systems on Oracle servers, and state officials' reviews could lead to legal or regulatory actions, officials warned.
Analysis
Center-leaning sources present the coverage with a cautious-skeptical framing that highlights allegations of politically motivated censorship tied to TikTok’s new U.S. owners. Editorial choices—leading with Newsom’s claim, foregrounding user reports and politicians’ alarmist lines, and placing TikTok’s outage explanation later—amplify suspicion while still including denials and technical context.
Sources (3)
FAQ
TikTok's USDS Joint Venture attributed the outages to a power outage at a U.S. data center, which triggered a cascading systems failure affecting feeds, uploads, and view counts.
It is a new entity created after a U.S. government-mandated deal where non-Chinese investors like Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX control about 80%, with ByteDance owning less than 20%, to manage U.S. operations and secure user data.
Users reported over 500,000 problems including app crashes, slower load times, zero views or likes on videos, old or irrelevant content in feeds, and difficulties searching for topics like Minneapolis ICE protests.
Newsom initiated a review by California Attorney General Rob Bonta into alleged suppression of Trump-critical content and blocked political content amid the outages, questioning potential violations of state law.
History
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