Is TikTok blocking anti-ICE content? That’s what everyone’s arguing about after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, during the Minneapolis protests on January 24.
People flooded social media with “ICE kill nurse” and demands for answers.
TikTok Censorship Claims Explode After ICU Nurse Alex Pretti Killed in Minneapolis
Videos show agents pinning Pretti down on 26th Street, pepper spray everywhere, before gunshots break out—totally clashing with Border Patrol’s story that he pulled a gun in a “targeted operation” against an assault suspect.
Pretti’s parents, Michael and Susan, called the official account “sickening lies,” insisting their son was a “kind soul” with no criminal record.
TikTok Down as Protests Rage
The outrage only grew as protests against ICE exploded. Governor Tim Walz called it an “inflection point” and told Trump to get his agents out. Then, right as people tried to post video tributes to Pretti on TikTok, the app went down on January 25 feeds froze, videos sat at zero views, and DownDetector logged 35,000 complaints.
Emily Grindstaff, a regular on X, vented: “TIKTOK IS SUPPRESSING VIDEOS ABOUT ALEX PRETTI’S MURDER! I posted… 8 hours ago… ZERO views.” Another user, @jiyoonisms, said she couldn’t even repost videos about Minneapolis or Pretti. Rumors swirled that the outage was tied to TikTok’s new deal with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. So, is TikTok actually censoring anti-ICE content, or was it all just a tech glitch?
Conspiracy theories caught fire. Grindstaff’s post spread fast, her video about “ICE agents murdering a man in Minnesota” usually would’ve gotten hundreds of views, but this time? Nothing.
Some claimed TikTok was throttling anti-Trump and anti-ICE content, pointing at ByteDance’s Friday announcement about sidestepping a US ban with new American investors. Complaints on DownDetector spiked, especially in bigger cities, as people’s feeds froze up.
TikTok Accused of Silencing Anti-ICE Voices
TikTok didn’t say anything about what happened, and the outage came during a snowstorm, too, which just muddied things further. Witnesses pushed back against the official story.
One signed affidavit to the New York Times said Pretti was just filming and helping someone who was down, not armed or aggressive at all. Federal spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin insisted agents dealt with an “armed individual who aggressively resisted.” People held candlelight vigils at the spot, chanting Pretti’s name as the cold bit down.
No one’s got real proof linking the TikTok glitch to any deliberate censorship of anti-ICE videos. Times Now couldn’t independently confirm what users on X were saying, either.
Video footage from bystanders tells a messy story: agents pin Pretti down, pepper spray flies, then shots, all while he’s helping someone else.
