Hacks cast member Megan Stalter has announced that she has quit TikTok, saying she feels the platform has heavily censored posts about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) topics.
“We are being completely censored and monitored,” the HBO actress said on Instagram. “I’m unable to upload anything about ICE even after I tried to trick the page by making it look like a comedy video.”
Other TikTok creators have also warned fans about an increase in censorship, including Aaron Parnas and Under the Desk News, both of which are left-wing creators.
TikTok has been in the midst of a deal to be sold to American owners to escape ownership by China and a threatened ban in the U.S. by the Trump administration. And this month the online social media video platform announced that it had finalized a deal to be purchased by a group of tech companies.
This joint venture distributes stakes in TikTok among several major entities. Technology corporation Oracle will hold a 15 percent ownership share in the venture. UAE-based investment firm MGX will also acquire a 15 percent stake, while technology investment company Silver Lake will obtain its own stake of 15 percent. ByteDance, the Chinese parent company that originally owned TikTok, will keep a minority stake of 19.9 percent in the new arrangement.
The new owners have pledged to rewrite the social media outlet’s algorithms to excise the Chinese data collection features and replace them with new practices to satisfy American needs.
But some are wary of the new deal because the leadership of principal owner Oracle includes Trump ally Larry Ellison. There is also the concern that the Chinese government has not made any statements about agreeing to the acquisition.
Also, some national security experts have raised concerns that the final structure of the deal may not completely address the dangerous control China has over the security issues outlined in legislation passed by Congress. The 2024 law explicitly requires that ByteDance maintain no operational relationship with TikTok’s American entity. This legislation received validation from the Supreme Court.
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