Photo: Alamy
Dr. Phil McGraw recently sat down with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago to discuss a range of issues including the presidential campaign and the ongoing criminal trials against him. In an apparent continuation of the social media campaign to silence content related to President Trump, TikTok has banned Dr. Phil’s promotional video of the interview.
Dr. Phil discussed the ban on his show on Monday, saying his team submitted a promo video to TikTok and was told it would need to be reviewed to see if it was “consistent with community standards.”
Dr. Phil went on to call out the double standards with which TikTok treated a video involving Trump. “Usually the review is like ten seconds…an hour later the message came back rejected,” he added.
The move from TikTok was indicative of election year censorship, a concerning trend which was also noted by Dr. Phil. “They would not put it up, which is really disturbing to me,” Dr. Phil said. “It was just a news promo…it’s not like I’m an unknown person to them, but they wouldn’t put it up because it had Trump in it.”
Dr. Phil further noted that the promo video was not taking a stance on Trump. It was simply promoting the interview for voters to watch and make their own determination.
Despite TikTok’s apparently biased stance against him, Trump is remaining committed to protecting free speech once in office. The suppression of the video is contrasted by Trump’s promise that, if elected, he would not ban TikTok. Trump’s promise comes after lawmakers pushed legislation to potentially ban the platform earlier this year.
The full interview can be viewed through Dr. Phil’s platform, Merit Street Media.
