TikTok has restored the account promoting Alex Gibney’s Musk documentary after joining other technology platforms in obstructing publicity for an unflattering portrait of their fellow billionaire.
The platform blamed an error, but Silicon Valley’s machinery seems remarkably prone to malfunction when somebody points a camera at the people running it.
According to TheWrap, distributor Bleecker Street received notice on Friday afternoon that the account would be suspended. The page, which had attracted more than 10,000 followers, subsequently disappeared.
TikTok cited political content rules but didn’t specify the breach. By Sunday, TikTok US spokesperson Mahsau Cullinane told The Verge: “I can confirm that the advertising account has been restored after an error.”
YouTube and Meta previously rejected the documentary’s ads, then reversed course after an outcry. Musk’s own X has refused to carry its adverts despite his previous claims that social media was silencing people.
Taken together, the restrictions have served the billionaire protection club admirably, whatever the platforms’ explanations. Criticism of one of their own keeps running into administrative hurdles before it reaches an audience.
The documentary offers ample material to explain why Musk might prefer viewers stay elsewhere. NPR’s account describes a sequence in which a Tesla engineer testifies about a staged autonomous-driving promotional video. During filming, the engineer said the car crashed into a fence while attempting to park itself.
Gibney uses the episode to challenge Musk’s claims about the technology. The film examines the consequences of Musk’s DOGE campaign against federal agencies. Former USAID administrator Samantha Power discusses the human cost of dismantling aid programmes, followed by footage of families learning that nutritional assistance was ending.
His personal relationships receive similarly uncomfortable scrutiny. According to Variety’s account, Ashley St Clair alleges she was offered a financial arrangement worth approximately $40 million in exchange for silence after having his child. She refused.
St Clair says Musk texted about wanting a “legion of children before the civil war”. The documentary presents these accounts alongside interviews with his first wife, Justine, and former business associates.
Musk has accused Gibney of making a false film, and his lawyer has threatened legal action.
The platforms’ repeated restrictions invite scrutiny of their own. A handful of companies control access to enormous audiences, and a film examining billionaire power has repeatedly struggled to buy publicity from them.
TikTok is linked to Musk ally Larry Ellison through Oracle’s involvement with the platform. TheWrap reports that the documentary includes a text from Ellison offering to help finance Musk’s purchase of Twitter. The film has been doing well and expanded to 472 cinemas over the weekend.
