TikTok is facing a storm of challenges post-new U.S. ownership, including major technical glitches from a power outage and accusations of censoring content, particularly critical of Donald Trump. These issues have led to a significant spike in app uninstalls, prompting California's Governor to launch an investigation, even as TikTok attributes problems solely to technical faults.
TikTok is grappling with numerous challenges following the finalization of its new U.S. ownership structure. The company initially reported a 'major infrastructure issue' caused by a power outage at one of its U.S. data center partner sites, leading to bugs such as creators temporarily seeing zero views, slow load times, and timeout requests when posting videos. While TikTok announced significant progress in restoring services, users concurrently raised concerns about alleged content censorship, specifically targeting videos critical of President Donald Trump, ICE, or mentioning Jeffrey Epstein. These complaints were serious enough for California Governor Gavin Newsom to announce a review into whether TikTok is violating state law by censoring Trump-critical content. Jamie Favazza, a spokesperson for TikTok’s new U.S. joint venture, maintains that the problems users are encountering are 'anything but the technical issues we’ve transparently confirmed.' Despite this, the combination of technical problems and the perceived ties of some new owners to Trump has reportedly led to a 130% increase in daily average app uninstalls from January 22 to January 26, compared to the previous 30 days, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. However, Sensor Tower also noted that daily average users still increased by 2% in the same period, suggesting the uninstalls had little effect on overall usage, and people spent more time on TikTok than its rivals. Minda Smiley, a social media analyst at Emarketer, points out that the ownership change involves significant infrastructure-related shifts, which naturally can cause technical issues. She stresses the critical importance of user perception, stating that if users 'feel as if content is being suppressed or content is difficult to upload or is being moderated,' it could be enough reason for many to abandon the platform, regardless of the actual situation. While acknowledging that user statements don't always align with their actions, Smiley concludes that if these issues and perceptions persist, TikTok faces a substantial challenge.
