TikTok has permanently suspended the account of the three-hour, 52-minute Elon Musk documentary Musktold the film producers the action was due to the “level of severity with political-policy violations” the account allegedly committed, noting that “some violations trigger immediate suspension,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The documentary is unflattering towards Musk. It was released nationwide yesterday after a limited preview.
Late last month, the major social media companies seem to ban the promoters from Musk of placing advertisements on their platforms. Google/YouTube and Meta reversed this decision shortly after, but TikTok did not. X, which is a division of the Elon Musk-led company SpaceX, not only did not allow ads, but “refused to engage with it. [Musk distributer] Bleecker Street on the film or even accept advertising for one of her other films on her upcoming calendar,” according to a previous Hollywood Reporter story.
THR noted that the alleged violation of the rule was not explicitly stated, and that TikTok did not comment on this ban. Gizmodo also reached out to TikTok for clarification on this, but we didn’t get a response.
By any reasonable standard, politically slanted content is rampant on TikTok. Nevertheless, TikTok’s rules on civic and electoral integrity have special rules for “political TikTok accounts”, but these rules do not seem to apply to art, saying: “We classify eligible political TikTok accounts as government, politician, and political party accounts and apply a number of policies that prevent the use of certain functions.”
Paid political advertising is not allowed. Those Musk The film account apparently used TikTok to advertise. THR described some of Musk’s account’s TikTok content as, “a cheeky ad about what to do during hiatus,” but, again, it’s not yet clear if and how this violates TikTok’s stated rules.
In the rules section on harassment and bullying, TikTok says: “We allow comments about political figures that may be critical, but delete content that crosses into serious harm.”
15% of the consortium that owns TikTok’s US operation belongs to Oracle, a company largely controlled by co-founder, CTO, and executive chairman Larry Ellison, whose association with Musk is mentioned in the film. To make things more strange, HBO has a deal to distribute the film since 2023, and Larry Ellison’s son David is the president and CEO of Skydance, which officially owns HBO for less than two weeks. However, the younger Ellison promised that HBO will still show the film.