After TikTok’s US ownership change last week, some users are looking up alternative platform. One app that is gaining traction is UpScrolleda social network that promises to keep its political agenda intact. The app is currently ranked 12th overall in the Apple App Store and second in the social networking category.
Upscrolled It combines the familiar features of Instagram and X, allowing users to share photos, videos, and text posts, discover new content, and send instant messages.
The app was founded last year by Issam Hijazi, a Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian technologist, with the goal of giving users a place to “express their thoughts freely, share time, and connect with others,” according to the app. app website. The team behind the app said they are “building a platform that belongs to the people who use it – not to hidden algorithms or external agendas.”
“UpScrolled is the foundation for a digital ecosystem that puts power into the hands of people – not corporations,” Hijazi said in a statement on UpScrolled’s website. “This is more than just an alternative to Meta, X, or TikTok – it’s a reimagining of social media: a place where creators, communities, and businesses thrive independently, with real control, transparency, and accountability.”
App, available in two iOS and AndroidGrappling with the increase of new users, but said it is scaling to keep up with demand.
According to data from market intelligence providers AppfiguresUpScrolled saw about 41,000 downloads between Thursday, the day the TikTok deal was finalized, and Saturday, accounting for nearly a third of its lifetime installs. UpScrolled has seen an average of around 14,000 downloads per day since Thursday, representing a 2,850% increase in daily downloads.
In total, the app has been downloaded 140,000 times to date, with 75,000 installed in the US.
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The surge came when TikTok announced last Thursday sign a deal with a group of non-Chinese investors to form a joint venture majority American-owned to maintain the social app operating in the US TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance owns less than 20% of the new entity, while the venture’s three managing investors, Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi based investment company MGX, each share 15%. Some users worry that TikTok’s new US investor may have political allegiance to Trump.
After the takeover, some users accused the app has the potential to censor certain political content. This criticism includes some high-profile users, including Senator Chris Murphy and singer Billie Eilish, who expressed concern that TikTok is suppressing or limiting posts that criticize ICE. Additionally, some said they were unable to find information about the ongoing protests in Minneapolis following the killing of Alex Pretti by border patrol agents.
However, TikTok attributed the problem to persistent data center outageswhich has affected the functionality of the app.
Concerns also grew when TikTok released an updated privacy policy grant app to track users’ GPS coordinates, among others. This has led some users to encourage people to remove the application in favor of an alternative, with UpScrolled being one of the popular options, mainly because promise no shadowban anyone and give “each submission a fair chance to be seen.”
UpScrolled isn’t the only app to see a spike in users after the takeover. Skylight, a TikTok alternative built on open source technology, says it’s now at its peak over 380,000 sign-ups and continues to grow.