TikTok is currently experiencing a widespread service outage in the U.S., causing disruptions for millions of users just days after officially handing over control of its U.S. company to a group of American-majority investors.
Technical problems have led many TikTok users to speculate whether the app’s recent owners were intentionally hiding politically themed videos, particularly content related to recent federal immigration operations in Minnesota. TikTok has denied the allegations, attributing the problems to a power outage.
TikTok users began reporting on Sunday that they were having trouble uploading videos to the app, as well as viewing content that had already been posted on the platform. Others reported that while they were able to upload videos, they received significantly fewer views and engagement than usual.
According to Downdetectorwhich tracks service disruptions in real time, a surge in users began reporting TikTok outages that began early yesterday morning in the US. “Our data suggests that services have not yet been fully restored to all users,” reads a Downdetector alert shared on Monday.
Steve Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University Law School, told Bluesky post that he “made a TikTok video about why DHS’ arguments for allowing warrantless entry into homes in immigration cases are bullshit. Nine hours later, TikTok still says my video is ‘under review’ and cannot be shared.”
The technical glitches also caught the attention of Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. “I know it’s hard to track all the threats to democracy right now, but this is top of the list,” Murphy wrote in his article Blue post. Murphy’s spokesman Deni Kemper, asked for comment, told WIRED that his office had “nothing to report beyond the senator’s tweet.”
In a post from a recent X account created by a U.S.-controlled entity, TikTok said the service outage was due to a “power outage in a U.S. data center.” A TikTok spokesperson confirmed to WIRED the account’s authenticity.
When asked about user claims that content on the platform is being censored, a spokesperson said it would be incorrect to describe the problem as anything other than a technical issue, which the company has publicly acknowledged on X.
The spokesperson added that recent posts on TikTok may temporarily take longer to be published and distributed through the app’s recommendation algorithm. TikTok says it is working with its data center partner to restore service as quickly as possible, but there is currently no estimate of when the app will be fully functional again.
Oracle, which owns 15 percent of TikTok’s recent U.S. entity, has been hosting the app’s U.S. user data since 2022. The company declined to comment on the outage. It is unclear whether this may be related to the powerful winter storm that swept across gigantic parts of the United States, leaving hundreds of thousands of Americans without power.
Last week, TikTok completed the transfer of ownership of its U.S. operations. On Thursday, the company announced that it has created TikTok USDS Joint Venture – a legal entity tasked with ensuring the application’s compliance with the 2024 law requiring TikTok to divest Chinese property. The law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Trump administration repeatedly delayed enforcement until last week.
In the announcement, TikTok said the TikTok USDS Joint Venture will “train, test and update its content recommendation algorithm based on U.S. user data.” The news has caused many American TikTok users to worry that the app’s recent owners may be manipulating the algorithm to prioritize certain types of content.