TikTok has permanently suspended the account of the three-hour, 52-minute Elon Musk documentary Musk, telling the film’s producers the action was due to the “level of severity with political-policy violations” the account allegedly committed, and noting that “some violations trigger immediate suspension,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The documentary is unflattering toward Musk. It was released nationwide yesterday after a limited preview.
Late last month, the major social media companies appeared to ban the promoters of Musk from placing ads on their platforms. Google/YouTube and Meta reversed that decision shortly after, but TikTok did not. X, which is a division of the Elon Musk-led company SpaceX, not only disallowed ads, but “has refused to engage with [Musk distributer] Bleecker Street on the film or even accept advertising for any of its other films on its upcoming calendar,” according to an earlier Hollywood Reporter story.
THR noted that the supposed rule violation was not explicitly laid out, and that TikTok had not commented on this ban. Gizmodo similarly reached out to TikTok for clarity on this, but we did not receive a reply.
By any reasonable standard, politically slanted content is rampant on TikTok. Nonetheless, TikTok’s rules on Civic and Election Integrity have special rules for “political TikTok accounts,” but these rules do not appear to apply to the arts, saying, “We classify eligible political TikTok accounts as Government, Politician, and Political Party Accounts and apply a set of policies that prevent the use of certain features.”
Paid political advertising is not allowed. The Musk film account was apparently using TikTok to advertise. THR describes some of the Musk account’s TikTok content as, “a cheeky ad about what to do during intermission,” but, again, it’s not yet clear if or how this violates TikTok’s stated rules.
In the rules section on Harassment and Bullying, TikTok says, “We allow commentary about political figures which may be critical, but remove content that crosses into severe harm.”
15% of the consortium that owns TikTok’s U.S. 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 matters stranger, HBO has had a deal to distribute the film since 2023, and Larry Ellison’s son David is the chairman and CEO of Skydance, which has officially owned HBO for less than two weeks. However, the younger Ellison has reportedly promised that HBO will still air the film.
