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Celebrities say they are being censored by TikTok after speaking out against ICE
- deanc 9mo agoPoor celebrities. Having their voice stifled by foreign governments on a platform they helped promote.
- saubeidl 9mo agoIt's being stifled by their own government. US TikTok has been taken over by a government-linked oligarch.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- MrGilbert 9mo agoIt's their own government, at least for US citizens since TikTok was forced to sell their business in the US.
- BoredPositron 9mo agoFirst, they’re screaming OH, THE HUMANITY! over censorship before their favorite puppets take the wheel. Then, they’re the first ones ridiculing anyone else for complaining about the exact same thing.
- libertine 9mo agoYou're missing the point, celebrities just happen to have a huge reach and noticed the reach being cut. This probably means everyone else is also getting their reach crippled. Remember that even with clear video evidence, the administration lies about the events and tries to spin it as domestic terrorism. So imagine what they are doing, and will do, without video evidence. This is probably one of the darkest times in America... You have an administration that normalizes lying and violence, and a tens of millions of Americans that are choosing to close their eyes and suspend their morals because they're scared and confused.
- sorbusherra 9mo agovoice stifled by oracle inc you mean?
- rvnx 9mo agoHappening because TikTok is under US laws. Use https://www.douyin.com/ https://www.douyin.com/ then. And if they wouldn’t, they would be blocked or prevented of doing business in the US.
- SanjayMehta 9mo agoLaws? Rules based order.
- throwaway2056 9mo agoRules of DJT, SV, FAANG.
- saubeidl 9mo agoUS laws, hmm. Wasn't there something about an amendment to their constitution? I believe it might've even been the first? Something about freedom of speech? Maybe I'm just misremembering, but I could've sworn conservatives kept harping on about it.
- pavlov 9mo agoEllison’s Murdoch killer flexing its muscles for a mild warmup. They got Paramount and CBS and TikTok, are allied with Twitter, and still have a chance of grabbing Warner. I don’t think American billionaires ever particularly liked Murdoch, an Australian, controlling so much of the media environment in their country. Maybe they’ll make an offer for Fox News that the Murdoch heirs can’t refuse.
- sbsnjsks 9mo ago[dead]
- gadders 9mo agoMaybe no-one is interested in celebrities virtual signalling any more?
- jesseendahl 9mo agoFinneas (Billie Eilish's brother) isn't one for virtue signaling from what I've seen over the years from his posts. He keeps it very real and down to earth as far as celebrities go.
- callamdelaney 9mo ago[flagged]
- SideburnsOfDoom 9mo agoWhen the person's Wikipedia page says that they "have won 10 Grammy Awards" then yes, I think it's fair to say that they are a public figure. I mean, both are signals of celebrity - the presence of a Wikipedia page, and the awards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finneas_O%27Connell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finneas_O%27Connell
- gambiting 9mo agoSince when is speaking out against fascism virtue signalling? Like, how bad does it have to get before it's just speaking out against the attrocities happening around us and not virtue signalling? Or are celebrities just flat out not allowed to do it?
- joe_mamba 9mo ago[flagged]
- callamdelaney 9mo ago[flagged]
- 9mo ago
- oefrha 9mo agoThis is quite out of character for a lawn mower; lawn mowers shouldn't care.
- ilogik 9mo agofor those curious about the lawn mower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc&t=2312s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc&t=2312s
- tanganik 9mo agoMore context: the video speaks about Oracle and TikTok has been bought by an investor group headed by Oracle's Larry Ellison (which the article also references).
- Maken 9mo agoIs the lawn mower already in control of TikTok?
- johneth 9mo agoAs of a few days ago, yes: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/announcement-from-the-new-tiktok-usds-joint-venture-llc https://newsroom.tiktok.com/announcement-from-the-new-tiktok... Only TikTok in the U.S., though; everywhere else it's Bytedance still.
- Maken 9mo agoI guess ICE's videos are going to be much harder to find from now on.
- xinuc 9mo agoit does not care. it just want to make more money.
- rasz 9mo agoNot if censoring was part of the deal, then its just a payment.
- jauntywundrkind 9mo agopretty impressive how quickly Ellisons managed to make this whole situation suck and reek badly. they'll turn down the heat & stuff the frog back in the pot, then crank the heat up a bit slower this time, but there is just going to be such endless utterly preposterous censorship and algorithmic biasing for the right wing & ultra capitalist agenda, on and on now. incredible beyond words that this was a unanimous decision by the supreme court. letting the us government set up whatever arraigned marriage it felt like for buying a social network is some wild meddling with businesses. and here we are, with the ultra capitalists doing exactly what they want to with one of the most popular social networks. excellent write up for this absolute madness of a court decision, TikTok v. Garland and the First Amendment Anticanon by Evelyn Douek, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6118706 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6118706
- 0x3f 9mo agoCapitalism is when bad things happen. And the more badder they are the more capitalism it is!
- keybored 9mo agoThis was the logic the West used throughout the life of the Soviet Union but for [Cc]ommunism.
- 0x3f 9mo agoArguably people still do this with 'socialism'. Calling everything communism is now a bit _too_ cliche.
- muwtyhg 9mo agoNo, calling things/people/ideas communist is still 100% in play by the Republican party. McCarthy-ism is in full swing, and they've even added "antisemite" as another hot label they can throw on people to tarnish them. They have called the people protesting "raging commies" and other, similar phrases. Trump has called judges that act against him communist as well [1] [1] https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/featured/calling-communists-trump-attacks-enemies-label-loaded-historical-baggage/ https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/featured/calling-commun...
- iinnPP 9mo agoThis isn't very compelling. It's 2 anecdotes and a pretty damning final paragraph. Is there any more reliable data?
- junofan 9mo agoI believe the headline is missing a “mistakenly”. Very strange article given the headline.
- SilverElfin 9mo agoData? No. None of these companies are making their data freely available for analysis or being transparent about how their algorithms work. People have complained for a while that Twitter / X seems to suppress the visibility and reach of profiles or posts that disagree with Musk’s views. The recent open sourcing of their algorithm is meaningless since there’s no evidence of what they actually have in production or what data / configuration is used with it. So the best we can do is anecdotal examples. And it’s also obvious that Trump avoided banning TikTok for months, illegally, because he wanted to have another platform serve as a mouthpiece. He now has that by forcing a sale of TikTok to his friend, Larry Ellison.
- ethbr1 9mo agoThe fact that social media companies aren't mandated by law to provide transparency into reach / visibility is a travesty. It should be fucking table stakes for being able to run a business with that much power and influence.
- computerthings 9mo ago[dead]
- theshrike79 9mo agoAnecdata is strong, I have multiple cases myself just from browsing this morning. But I'm leaning towards incompetence. Some US generated stuff was most likely moved to Oracle shitboxes, causing encoding issues and unreliable streaming. ...or it's malice and they're scanning the data and intentionally throttling traffic for unwanted content.
- bjourne 9mo agoThe whole point of the forced sale of TikTok was for the American-Israeli hegemony to exert control over the narrative of the platform. And now it is doing exactly that. Color me surprised.
- krapp 9mo agoNo no no no no, it was because TikTok was owned by the CCP and was literally and directly controlling the minds of millions of people and indoctrinating them with communist propaganda, turning them against the United States. You may have gone onto the platform and seen nothing but the same sort of vapid memes as anywhere else, but you see that's just how insidious and clever those Chinese are. We're not exerting control over the narrative, we're protecting the truth from foreign influence. There is no genocide in ba sing se.
- Alifatisk 9mo agoIs the country falling apart? So many extreme events is happening over there.
- hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 9mo ago[flagged]
- Alifatisk 9mo agoDoesn’t more and more countries fall into the enemies category as Trump is ruining international relationships?
- hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 9mo ago[flagged]
- awesome_dude 9mo agoWait, everything ELSE was a "performance" but a (claimed) standing ovation was the real deal...?
- hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 9mo agoYou can just watch the event. Edit: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm24vjvy3n1o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm24vjvy3n1o "I was in the room when President Donald Trump entered and it's fair to say he got a good welcome from the crowd, certainly at the beginning. A standing ovation."
- piva00 9mo agoBecause everyone knows how easy it is to play Trump, do a standing ovation and his ego is satisfied so it's easier to deal with him. Exactly like you'd do with a toddler :)
- misja111 9mo ago> according to TechCrunch, this language has been included in the privacy policy since Aug. 2024, and wasn’t changed in response to the Trump administration’s latest escalation of immigration enforcement, and is “primarily there to comply with state privacy laws like California’s Consumer Privacy Act.” This is the problem with any kind of censoring media. The initial intentions of those policies might have been good, but these kind of policies can so easily be abused for malign intentions.
- wormpilled 9mo agoMakes sense since Oracle now has complete control of it.
- baxtr 9mo agoI have a bit of experience with video platforms. It’s really hard to say which video will work or not. What people react to and what not. All I’m saying is that this could also potentially be explained by "The Algorithm" per se.
- scotty79 9mo agoSupport for ICE is in minority (although a large one). I don't think algorithm would suppress negative opinions on it, especially among viewership of celebrities that don't appeal to the right side of political spectrum.
- ap99 9mo agoYou should qualify your statement with "amongst the few people I talk to and the narrow spectrum of media I consume." Also, do you mean minority of the total US population or minority of the voting population? For one reference point I fully support ICE. And I think it's wild you have local and state politicians encouraging actions against federal agents who are enforcing federal law.
- saubeidl 9mo agoMore Americans support than oppose abolishing ICE. The Gestapo, too, was federal agents enforcing federal law. https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53939-more-americans-support-than-oppose-abolishing-ice-immigration-minneapolis-shooting-poll https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53939-more-americ...
- ap99 9mo agoIn this case can you honestly say federal law is wrong?
- 113 9mo agoPolling seems to suggest you're wrong.
- 9mo ago
- krautburglar 9mo agoThat a handful of private companies (of which, Ellison has big investments in several) have cornered the market on NAND and DRAM -- with some sources saying that these reservations extend into 2029 -- should be far more concerning. They're sprinting toward super-intelligence, while potential competitors can't even buy equipment. Both pro-immigrant and anti-immigrant arguments will seem fatuous when we are all slaves.
- docdeek 9mo agoThat’s not a very convincing article. One person leaving TikTok claiming she was silenced, and another where a claim of silencing is made but, within 24 hours, the ‘silenced’ video "has more than 220,000 views and over 70,000 likes”. Perhaps there is some silencing going on, but it doesn’t appear that there is much evidence of it in this particular article.
- b65e8bee43c2ed0 9mo agothose who were OK with malinformation being suppressed by every platform for two years (from 2020-02 to 2022-02) should be OK with this as well.
- rsynnott 9mo agoCelebrities should consider maybe not using social media things controlled by the regime? Like, other social media is available.
- vanviegen 9mo ago> Like, other social media is available. Social media that actually have a large audience and that cannot be easily pressured by the US government?
- Maken 9mo agoThis specific social media was not controlled by the regime, and they are taking every step necessary to correct that.
- filoeleven 9mo agoThey will follow wherever the network effect goes, the same way that more influencers are posting to Bluesky in addition to Twitter now, and some of them are making the move entirely.
- tremon 9mo agoThey're celebrities. The network will follow where they go.
- niemandhier 9mo agoIn transparency will do this. No one can know what TikTok censors or penalizes in its algorithms. All other social media platforms are equally intransparent, what is new is that TikTok is not American.
- SiempreViernes 9mo agoIn this particular case the censoring of anti-ICE post is most likely because TikTok is getting American (read: Trump allied) handlers. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cp374n3ggngt https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cp374n3ggngt
- filoeleven 9mo agoTikTok is now owned by an American company. As soon as that change happened, the censorship began. https://www.theverge.com/news/867625/tiktok-down-weekend-broke-fyp-video-uploads-review https://www.theverge.com/news/867625/tiktok-down-weekend-bro...
- stanislavb 9mo agoGet used to it. Both TikTok and X(twitter) have been used and will be used to manipulate the public opinion in favour of Trump. I'm aware that I can't prove it; however, this explains how Trump won, and how he will win again - manipulating the zombies.
- ozlikethewizard 9mo agoThere are studies on it but the conclusions are pretty thin right now because data collection is hard, but I'd say youre right https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00104140241306955 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00104140241306955
- dudefeliciano 9mo agohasn't this been pretty clear since Cambridge Analytica?
- ozlikethewizard 9mo agoI'd agree clear, verifiable much harder. As long as the issue remains hard to prove Im not sure what we can do to fix it.
- blell 9mo agoWait until you try to criticise Israel.
- self_awareness 9mo agoThis is so American. They raise alarms because they have low TikTok view counters. But mass killings of Iranian protesters is Iran's own business.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- macshaggy 9mo agoCelebrities need to stop giving their sht to these SM companies and used Federated social media. So they can own their product and not have to worry about being censored for being anti-government. Which is hilarious sentence now because this government so pro free speech!!! sarcasm* But seriously this is something that if my main gig was to create music or some art form, I wouldn't want to be on a corp run platform. I would want to own it myself and the all that data.
- OrangeMusic 9mo agoYou expect Billie Eilish fans to be on Mastodon?
- akagusu 9mo agoWhy does everything ICE related gets flagged on HN?
- saubeidl 9mo agoPro-Regime enforcers exist in the digital world as well. 21st century brownshirts, if you will.
- tessierashpool9 9mo agoSeems like there's a pattern: https://www.npr.org/2026/01/27/nx-s1-5689104/tiktok-epstein-direct-messages https://www.npr.org/2026/01/27/nx-s1-5689104/tiktok-epstein-...
- iceflinger 9mo agoNot sure why this is flagged? One of the largest social media platforms in the industry changed ownership, its user base is noticing an unexplained change in functionality? Surely that warrants a discussion among tech people?
- saubeidl 9mo agoThere is a certain proto-fascist contingent here that sees it to their duty to stifle all discussion critical of the regime.
- Schmerika 9mo agoAnd there are people who own and run this website with extremely aligned interests. Altman and Thiel have long had YC connections (obv); and for the last year or so Garry Tan and PG have been full-throatedly cheerleading Musk and DOGE on their Twitter pages. Then there's the many connections between YC and the 'defense' industry; you know, the one making billions of dollars from wars that people speak out about on social media. It's very easy to explain why posts get flagged here. It's a lot harder to digest why they don't get unflagged. Especially when all the posts about it are quickly removed, every single one.
- progbits 9mo agoCue the usual dang copypasta how there is no evidence of flag brigading, and how they "moderate less", and so on.
- Schmerika 9mo agoYep. Followed by the usual sycophantic support: "You're doing a great job dang, we all love you so don't worry about these cranks", and "Well I'VE never noticed any censorship so it obviously doesn't exist" (Yeah dude that's how it works lol).
- ryandrake 9mo agoTo be fair, dang's position has consistently been (and he posted as such yesterday[1]) that the flag brigading comes from two distinct groups: 1. Users who don't want to see "politics" and 2. Users who are partisan and want to hide politics they don't like. My view is that these are essentially the same group. "Not wanting to see politics" is itself just a partisan view in favor of whatever the Status Quo currently is. So if you're going through and flagging articles describing wrongdoing or calling for change, because they are "political," then you're just operating in the service of whoever is currently in power. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46771917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46771917
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- JohnTHaller 9mo ago[flagged]
- esalman 9mo agoCurrent administration have plenty of time, 3 years to be exact, to turn USA into another Iran.
- GeorgeOldfield 9mo agoit's almost like it's better to have an external owner of social media companies