TikTok blocks searches for anti-Trump words such as 'Trump election fraud' in the US

TikTok, which was temporarily spared a complete ban in the US thanks to President Donald Trump's clemency, has been found to have locked searches for topics negative about President Trump in some regions.

Anti-Trump Searches Appear Hidden on TikTok After App Comes Back Online: 'TikTok is Now Trump's Propaganda' | IBTimes
https://www.ibtimes.com/anti-trump-searches-appear-hidden-tiktok-after-app-comes-back-online-tiktok-now-trumps-3760257

According to reports from multiple users, as of January 21, 2025, when searching for information such as 'fascism' or 'Donald Trump fraudulent election' in the United States on TikTok, the results are not displayed. One user reported that 'the same search term cannot be searched in the United States, but can be searched in the UK.'

TikTok is now region locking Americans from looking up things like 'fascism' and 'Donald Trump rigged election'

on the left are results from a device in America, and on the right are results from one in the UK. pic.twitter.com/k8pTlkftZp

— Karl Max ??????? (@KarlMaxxed) January 20, 2025

Another user shared a video of him switching between a US and UK VPN, making it clear that he can no longer search for the phrase 'Donald Trump Election Fraud' in the US.

VPN from USA to UK confirms it. pic.twitter.com/I88JJwT8AB

— Emily Saxton (@ItsEmilySaxton) January 21, 2025

However, there are reports that if you search for rigged but misspelled as righed, the relevant information will come up correctly.

If you spell everything correctly, you get no results, if you make a spelling error it has thousands of results. It's censoring specific key words. pic.twitter.com/gi9AhED0DF

— Nick Wermuth (@DownyPlusUltra) January 20, 2025

There have also been reports of #fuckbiden showing up but #fucktrump not showing up.

Censorship on TikTok is at an all time high with accounts being deleted, posts going back years being flagged, people losing access to the creator fund for saying anything Anti Trump, MAGA, Elon, etc

But free speech and all that right? pic.twitter.com/2tPjCW9FRN

— Dustin Genereux (@DustinGenereux) January 20, 2025

In addition, there have been reports of users being warned that they had 'connection problems' when trying to repost a video criticizing President Trump's anti-transgender policies, even though they had no problems before. In response to TikTok's sudden censorship, some users have commented that 'the condition for TikTok to survive was to become a propaganda organ for President Trump.'

TikTok was deemed an 'adversarially controlled application' due to the influence of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary-Controlled Applications Act, enacted under the Joe Biden administration, because its parent company is Chinese-owned. The company was required to either sell its business or cease providing services in the United States by a deadline of January 19, 2025.

TikTok chose to suspend its service, and on the deadline, TikTok was no longer available in the United States, and it was no longer available for download from the App Store or Google Play. However, Trump, who took office the next day, signed an executive order granting a 75-day grace period for the enforcement of the law, and indicated his intention to continue efforts to keep TikTok alive.

President Trump signs executive order to suspend TikTok ban for 75 days - GIGAZINE