Just over a week ago, TikTok arrived on US shores as a newly American-owned company, but almost immediately found itself fighting for survival amid suspicion, outages and accusations of censorship, the UK’s Guardian reports.
After ByteDance sold the app to a group of US investors including Oracle, TikTok updated its privacy policy to allow broader data collection, a move that aligned with industry norms but triggered distrust given the politics and power of its new owners. Days later, a severe winter storm knocked out Oracle datacentres that TikTok relied on, causing widespread outages and zero-view glitches that coincided with users’ failed attempts to post videos criticising US immigration authorities over the killing of Alex Pretti.
The overlap between technical failures and politically sensitive content led celebrities, politicians and major media outlets to accuse TikTok of censoring dissent, claims that intensified when California governor Gavin Newsom announced a state investigation.
Although TikTok and Oracle eventually blamed the disruptions on weather-related power outages, the delayed explanation fuelled an exodus of users, boosted rival app Upscrolled, and deepened a broader fear of digital surveillance and political interference in American online life.
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