As Alex Gibney takes on Elon Musk with his latest documentary, the Bleecker/Universal project is continuing to push back against censorship on social platforms.
Following the reported “permanent suspension” of the doc Musk‘s promotional TikTok account, the platform has claimed the decision was the result of “an error” and has since restored the profile.
“I can confirm that the advertising account has been restored after an error,” a TikTok spokesperson told The Verge on Sunday. A source close to production confirmed to Deadline that the account has been restored.
The reversal comes after Bleecker Street was informed of the account’s “permanent suspension” on Friday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. A spokesperson for the distributor expressed their “disappointment” in the timing, given the doc’s premiere this weekend.
While Musk does not have an investment in TikTok, his longtime friend Larry Ellison, who also invested in Musk’s Tesla and X, is a part-owner of the short-form video platform.
Last month, YouTube, Instagram, Meta, TikTok and Musk-owned X rejected the trailer over depiction of “political” or “election” content, with Meta calling the decision “an error” and reversing it shortly after.
Producer Nick Shumaker commented on the social platforms’ blocking of the trailer, empashizing, “We’ve got to be as loud as possible about this right now.”
“It feels like the folks who own these companies have an interesting perspective on what the First Amendment is,” he explained. “I was joking about it with Gibney the other day where it’s almost like the half amendment now… That’s all I can really ascertain because it was a big surprise because the trailer is not a political ad.”
Now playing in theaters, Musk producers have described the project as “a definitive and unvarnished examination” of the tech trillionaire and his less than savory business practices.