Why is there a TikTok censorship debate? | The Global Story Podcast

TikTok users in the US have claimed that the social media platform has been censoring content critical of the Trump administration. Following the fatal shooting of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, in Minnesota, users reported that they couldn’t upload or view videos related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE. The Department of Homeland Security says federal agents fired in self-defence. TikTok disputes that functionality issues were political, attributing them instead to data centre outages. The controversy has exposed how a divided America is reacting to the shooting. Asma Khalid speaks to BBC Social Media Investigations Senior Correspondent Marianna Spring. New episodes of The Global Story are released daily. If you’re in the UK, listen on BBC Sounds. If you live outside the UK, listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. https://app.magellan.ai/listen_links/the-global-story-ytl Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news #BBCNews #tiktok #minneapolis #minnesota #trump Chapters: 00:00 The censorship debate explained 01:20 The sale of TikTok 04:20 What is the new entity of TikTok? 05:50 Was it a Trump backed deal? 07:13 When did users start noticing a problem? 08:50 TikTok's response 10:50 What happened to Alex Pretti? 12:03 Celebrities delete TikTok 13:30 How is Gavin Newsom involved? 17:00 Is this criticism coming from the left? 21:37 Closing thoughts