Former transgender influencer Oli London says Chinese TikTok meddles in US politics, censors conservatives

EXCLUSIVE: Social media influencer Oli London — who recently detransitioned back to male after identifying as female for several months — supports the TikTok ban for government devices to combat national security threats and believes the platform uses algorithms to meddle in U.S. elections.

In an exclusive interview, London told Fox News Digital that he supports the Senate’s unanimous ban on TikTok on government devices because it poses a major risk to the private data of Americans.

‘The real risk is if China has access to this data, it has people’s personal details, their addresses. It can also create a kind of image of who this person is, what are their buying habits, what are their political beliefs or their social beliefs,’ London said of TikTok’s algorithms.

London, who has more than 1 million followers on TikTok, says the algorithms promoted anti-Republican content in an attempt to interfere with the 2022 midterm elections.

‘You saw before the U.S. midterms, there were several state-run Chinese TikTok accounts, which were news accounts, but they weren’t labeled as Chinese state media, and they were actually trying to push and promote videos that are anti-Republican,’ London told Fox News Digital.

‘So, they were going against Republican congressional candidates, Senate candidates, and basically trying to persuade the TikTok users to not vote for that candidate. And instead, you know, they weren’t really criticizing the Democratic candidate. So, there’s a real risk that China has been and will continue to meddle with U.S. elections via TikTok,’ London said.

While London does not think that there should be a national ban on TikTok, he is calling for investigations into whether the platform uses politically biased content promotion, even suggesting someone like Elon Musk should take over the social media giant.

‘I mean, it’d be great if Elon Musk would buy it,’ London said, referring to Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter. 

London said there should be internal changes to the company in order to reveal what content the platform is promoting and to reduce the security risk. 

‘So, I think they need to really go through the internal communications of TikTok. Have they been meddling in the U.S. election? You know, have they been trying to suppress conservative voices like Twitter was doing? And you know, how can we move on from this? Because I definitely think TikTok is doing some things that aren’t good,’ London added.

London advised young voters to not use the platform as a main source of election information and to do independent research when deciding who to vote for in future elections.

‘If you see, like, a political video of something on TikTok, don’t read too much into it. Do your own research regardless whether you’re Democrat or Republican,’ he said.

Earlier this year, London announced that he was transitioning back to a man after living as a transgender woman for several months. The influencer said that since his detransition, TikTok began suppressing his content because ‘it goes against the narrative.’

‘I think they like to silence certain voices, and they like to amplify other voices. They’re trying to silence these people. These are just kids. Whenever they speak out and share their story of detransitioning, they get absolutely destroyed. They get vilified. They get death threats. They get so much abuse. And I just think, you know, these are kids. They’ve gone through absolute trauma. They’re in an extremely vulnerable position. People need to give these … kids love. We need to give them compassion. So, for these trans activists, these woke warriors, to radically attack them, you know, we have to look at the deep meaning. Why are they trying to do that?’ London said.

The social media influencer suggested that TikTok uses its platform to silence certain accounts or posts that don’t align with their political messaging.

‘They’re trying to silence these voices because they don’t want them to exist because, you know, it goes against the narrative,’ London said, calling into question what the social media platform is trying to push on America’s youth. ‘Does TikTok really have the interests of the users? Do they really care about kids that are very easily influenced and easily led astray, or do they simply want to corrupt the youth of America and kind of weaken the American society?’