Fans of high-profile celebrities are accusing TikTok of suppressing content criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after multiple anti-ICE videos appeared to stall or fail entirely on the platform.
Comedian Meg Stalter and musician Finneas O'Connell both reported unusual issues, including videos showing “zero views” or being blocked from uploading entirely.
These developments amid outrage over another ICE killing renewed calls to ditch the app, especially considering the app's recent privacy policy updates.
Finneas' ICE video can't get views
Over the weekend, and after Saturday's shooting by an ICE agent that left intensive care nurse Alex Pretti dead, TikTokers began to sound the alarm over one of O'Connell's videos.
His Sunday post called out right-wing Second Amendment fans claiming Pretti deserved it for carrying a gun, but the view count wouldn't budge from zero for hours.
O'Connell, better known by his first name in all caps, has 3.7 million followers on the platform. Even after his fans watched the new video, they said it still sat at zero views, and the accusations soon flew.
"Finneas has almost 4 million followers and a video he posted 7 hours ago barely has 8,000 likes and it says it has 'zero views' which is obviously impossible," @laurenmahaffy pointed out on X, adding, "take a big guess as to what he was talking about."
User @mirrorbilllie wrote that "the fact that it says this video has 0 views and tiktok is completely silencing this is insane."
One fan, @rosesbloommm, claimed that the video was "not even available for me on tiktok they really are silencing him."
As of Monday, the @finneas video has a view count over zero, but still far fewer than normal. Considering the fact that the suppression accusations brought a ton of extra attention to this post, a count of under 70,000 when he routinely breaks into the hundreds of thousands certainly seems off.
O'Connell is the brother of pop star Billie Eilish, who also spent the weekend posting against ICE, asking in an Instagram Story, "hey my fellow celebrities u gonna speak up?"
Meg Stalter quits TikTok
Some celebrities are trying, but hitting a suspicious wall. Stalter declared her exit from TikTok after she found herself unable to upload an anti-ICE video.
"Hi so today I will be downloading my videos and deleting my tiktok page," she wrote in an Instagram post. "TT is under new ownership and we are being completely censored and monitored. I'm unable to upload anything about [ICE] even after I tried to trick the page by making it look like a comedy video."
The Hacks actress was able to get her video on Instagram. In the footage, she choked up as she called on fellow Christians to remember what the Bible says about welcoming immigrants.
"You can't argue that God doesn't want us to love our neighbors, and our neighbors are being hunted and kidnapped and attacked daily," she said. "Our government is killing people, and they are lying to us."
She later posted a video showing how to download your TikTok videos before deleting an account.
Creators point to recent TikTok ownership changes
While TikTokers have accused the platform of suppressing content in the past—including pro-Palestine videos that suffered similar problems soon after President Donald Trump struck his first deal with the company—there is always a chance that technical issues are to blame.
On Jan. 22, 2026, the "TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC" that formed to comply with the TikTok ban announced data and algorithm updates. The following weekend, the app suffered a major outage which impacted multiple features, including video uploads.
"Since yesterday we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate," the LLC tweeted on Monday. "We're working with our data center partner to stabilize our service."
Political commentator Jessica Burbank also had video issues over the weekend, showing in an X post how her two most recent videos both had zero views.
The one that remains was just a clip of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani telling people to watch Heated Rivalry during the winter storm.
Additionally, political videos sporting the disclaimer "ineligible for recommendation" instead of a view count, such as those posted by journalist David Leavitt, are fueling the calls to ditch TikTok.
Privacy updates renew calls to abandon TikTok
As the company fielded accusations of suppression, other users announced TikTok exits in response to the app's privacy updates.
Some said they couldn't find a way to turn off location tracking, though one Daily Dot writer did locate a toggle set to "off" by default.
Others raised alarms over the policy listing things like citizenship status and gender identity as "Information You Provide," though that appears to be from things like voluntary surveys as distinct from "Information We Collect."
Still, this looks pretty frightening alongside the legal disclaimers saying TikTok will hand subpoenaed information over to the government.
"TikTok is now under US ownership, and their new ToS reads like a guide to giving fascists everything they need to put you on a list," wrote @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s newsletter here.
