TikTok experienced significant disruptions affecting its users across the United States over the weekend, leading to widespread complaints about the app’s functionality. By Saturday, users were in full-on freakout mode when their feeds and content began disappearing. By Monday’s close Downdetector had counted an incredible 663,061 reports. The policy proved highly unpopular among users who complained about videos overwhelming their “For You” feeds. Meanwhile, their posts were getting — in some cases — zero engagement at the same time.
The problems persisted into Monday, with reports claiming that some videos posted by creators were “frozen at zero views.” This led many TikTok users to turn to rival social media platforms to voice their concerns and share their experiences. The issues ranged from content not loading correctly to the whole app feeling particularly slow and sluggish.
“Okay so is anyone else’s TikTok being extremely slow, keeps showing you old videos, doesn’t show you what you actually search, and doesn’t load certain stuff…,” – one X user
In its official response, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC admitted that users have experienced challenges. The company indicated that a power outage at a US data center was impacting not only TikTok but other applications it operates.
“We’re working to restore our services following a power outage at a US data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate,” said a spokesperson for TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.
In addition to addressing the immediate disruption, TikTok announced that Oracle Corporation would be inspecting and retraining a separate version of the app’s algorithm specifically for American users. This decision is consistent with Oracle’s continued (federal) partnership in protecting US user data through a plan called Project Texas. Oracle also has a 15% stake in TikTok’s US operations. They’re currently one of three managing investors in the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a subsidiary of ByteDance.
Oracle’s participation is yet another sign of the company’s serious commitment to reaffirming US control over user data. More importantly, it seeks to improve the app’s performance across the region.
“We’re working with our data center partner to stabilize our service,” the spokesperson added.
TikTok ended its public message with an apology for the inconvenience, saying it was looking forward to the issue being worked out “ASAP.”
“We’re sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon,” they stated.