Anti-Trump Searches Appear Hidden on TikTok After App Comes Back Online: ‘TikTok is Now Trump’s Propaganda’

Searches for anti-Trump content are now appearing hidden on TikTok for many users after the app came back online in the U.S.

TikTok users have taken to X to share that when they search for topics negatively related to President Donald Trump, a message pops up saying “No results found” and that the phrases may violate the app’s guidelines.

One user said that when they tried to search “Donald Trump rigged election” on a U.S. account, they were met with blocked results. Meanwhile, the same phrase searched from a U.K. account prompted results.

Another user shared video of them switching between a U.S. and U.K. VPN to back up the user’s viral claims, which has since amassed more than 187,000 likes.

“Apparently this is a bit inconsistent depending on the phrasing used, but remains something that is (as far as i can tell) exclusive to Americans, and IS still part of a blatant effort to censor progressive discussion,” the user added in a comment under the viral post.

Other users shared that searches for the same content that contained spelling errors would result in the content being shared with U.S. users. In one video of a user sharing searches for different hashtags, #f***biden was allowed but #f***trump did not pop up.

“Just tried and basically they’re censoring certain words.. so if you make typos they’re going to show up… TikTok is now Trump’s propaganda arm,” one user commented.

“So I guess the stipulation for TikTok to stay was to turn into a Trump propaganda machine,” another user wrote.

Some users added that they received warnings from the app while trying to repost political videos. One user explained that they were told they had connectivity issues despite no previous issues scrolling through the app.

“I’m trying to repost a video criticizing Trump for his anti-trans political agenda and it’s claiming I am not connected to the internet even though I’m clearly connected and can scroll with no issues…” the user wrote on X.

While American users shared that they had no issues with the app, others suggested that the blocked terms could be related to restricted searches following the 2020 election.

However, many users expressed dismay at the situation. “We are in a bad place,” one user commented. “‘The land of the free’ my ass,” another user wrote.

TikTok is not the only platform that users have expressed problems searching for political content on. Several users reported that #Democrats was being restricted on Instagram or was not available for them.

Meta said in a statement to the BBC that the “error affecting hashtags across the political spectrum” was being addressed.

TikTok has not yet publicly commented on users’ claims of restricted political searches.

Originally published by Latin Times.