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California’s Newsom accuses TikTok of suppressing Trump criticism

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California Governor Gavin Newsom has accused TikTok of suppressing content critical of President Donald Trump, launching a review to determine whether the platform’s moderation practices violate California law. Newsom’s office said it had received and independently confirmed reports that posts criticizing Trump were being limited following recent structural changes at TikTok.

The allegations emerged shortly after TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, finalized a deal to create a majority U.S.-owned joint venture designed to secure American user data and avoid a nationwide ban. The arrangement, which was praised by Trump, places U.S. and global investors in control of more than 80% of the venture, with ByteDance retaining a minority stake.

TikTok rejected the accusations, saying the issues stemmed from a technical failure caused by a data center power outage that led to broader system disruptions. The company said the outage resulted in bugs, slower performance and delayed posting for some users, and denied any intentional suppression of political content.

The dispute adds to long-standing political tensions surrounding TikTok in the United States, where the app has faced years of scrutiny over national security, data privacy and influence concerns. Newsom, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, have frequently clashed, underscoring the political sensitivity of the platform’s role in public discourse.

California AG Orders Musk’s xAI to Stop Generating Sexual Deepfake Images

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sent a cease-and-desist letter to xAI, demanding the immediate halt of the creation and distribution of non-consensual sexual images generated by its AI chatbot Grok.

“I fully expect xAI to immediately comply,” Bonta said in a statement on Friday.

The action follows a growing global backlash against Grok, which has allowed users to create and share sexualized images of women and minors. Authorities in multiple countries have moved to investigate or restrict the tool over concerns about illegal and harmful content.

Bonta’s office said it opened a formal investigation on Wednesday into the creation and spread of non-consensual, sexually explicit material produced using Grok. The probe adds regulatory pressure on xAI, which is owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

xAI said late on Wednesday that it had introduced new restrictions limiting image-editing capabilities for all Grok users, though regulators say concerns remain. The company did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the cease-and-desist letter.

International scrutiny has intensified in parallel. Authorities in Japan, Canada and Britain have opened probes into Grok, while Malaysia and Indonesia have temporarily blocked access to the chatbot over the generation of explicit images.

California’s move underscores a broader shift by regulators toward holding AI developers accountable for how generative tools are used—and misused—particularly when it comes to non-consensual and sexualized content. The case could set an important precedent for how aggressively governments intervene as generative AI systems become more powerful and widely deployed.

Google Ordered to Pay $314 Million in California Cellular Data Class Action Verdict

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A jury in San Jose, California, has ruled that Google misused Android smartphone users’ cellular data without their permission, awarding over $314.6 million in damages to an estimated 14 million affected Californians. The verdict, delivered on Tuesday, found that Google collected and transmitted data from idle Android devices for its own benefit, imposing “mandatory and unavoidable burdens” on users.

The class action lawsuit, filed in 2019, argued that Google’s unauthorized data use served corporate purposes like targeted advertising while consuming users’ cellular data at their expense. Google denied wrongdoing, maintaining that users consented to data use via its terms of service and privacy policies, and claimed no harm was caused.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda stated the company plans to appeal, arguing the verdict “misunderstands services that are critical to the security, performance, and reliability of Android devices.” Plaintiffs’ attorney Glen Summers praised the decision, calling it a strong vindication of the case’s merits and highlighting the seriousness of Google’s misconduct.

Separately, a similar federal lawsuit covering Android users outside California is set for trial in April 2026 in San Jose.