As a snowstorm hit the US on Sunday, TikTok users reported widespread problems with the app, such as problems loading comments or unexpected behavior from the For You page algorithm. For some users, the problem persists.
These outages line up with the long wait of a a separate US TikTok entity last week, which the US government imposed due to concerns about the Chinese government being able to access user data through the app’s former parent company, ByteDance. (Currently, ByteDance owns less than 20% of the new TikTok USDS Joint Venture, while managing investors Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX own 15% each).
However, the TikTok USDS Joint Venture stated in a post at X if the problem was caused by a power outage in a US data center.
“Since yesterday, we have been working to restore service after a power outage in our US data center that affected TikTok and other apps,” the company said. said. “We are working with our data center partners to stabilize our services. We apologize for this disruption and hope to resolve it.”
according to user reported data from Downdetector, the outage affected users across the country.
TikTok’s reasoning about the outage is logical, as more than one million people in the US were affected by power outages after a major storm. But some users are suspicious because of the extent of the disruption after the US joint venture was officially established.
The shutdown also overlapped with ongoing protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where thousands ICE agents have been deployed since early January in what ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons called “the biggest immigration operation ever.”
On Saturday, border patrol agents shot and killed Alex Prettialert ICE the second murder of civil in Minneapolis this month.
After the murder, some TikTok users said they had trouble searching the app for information about events in Minneapolis. App malfunctions then lead to panic about possible government censorship. However, TikTok attributed the problem to concurrent data center outages.
People have also raised concerns over the weekend about TikTok’s updated privacy policy, which includes language that allows TikTok to collect data about users, including “sex life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status.” But, as TechCrunch reportedsome of these disclosures are not new and appear in TikTok’s privacy policy previous to close proprietary deals, especially to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act.
While the recent TikTok outage and privacy policy changes seem like an ill-timed issue, Americans have reason to be cautious. social media monitoring – especially in times of political turmoil.