Dr. Phil McGraw expressed frustration with TikTok’s censorship policies after the platform rejected a promotional video for his show on Merit+, advertising an interview with President Donald Trump. Dr. Phil shared the experience with his audience, highlighting concerns about the social media giant’s content moderation practices.
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“We put up promos on the social media platforms about the interview for people to watch,” Dr. Phil began. “We submitted a promo to TikTok, and they said, well, we’re going to review this to see if it’s consistent with community standards. It was just the promo here. I mean, it wasn’t saying, ‘Let’s go stomp baby kittens to death or anything.’”
Dr. Phil explained that typically, such reviews are quick, often taking just a few seconds as they run through an algorithm. However, this time the review took an hour, which he found unusual. “An hour later, the message came back rejected. They would not put it up,” he said, visibly disturbed. “It was just a news promo. And it’s not like I’m a known conspiracy wacko or something, and I’ve got seven or 8 million followers there, so 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 emphasized that the rejection was particularly concerning because the promo did not indicate whether it was pro or anti-Trump. “They didn’t even know if it was pro or against. They just…it had Trump in it. They wouldn’t put it up,” he noted, raising questions about the platform’s content filtering mechanisms.
The promo was intended to attract young viewers to watch the interview and form their own opinions based on facts. “We put it on there because we wanted to get young people; hey, watch this and find out who this really is. Maybe you’ll hate them, and so at least you’ll know it’ll be based on fact,” Dr. Phil explained.
