tech
February 1, 2026
Why TikTok’s first week of American ownership was a disaster
App endured a major outage and user backlash over perceived censorship. Now it’s facing an inquiry by the California governor and an ascendant competitor
TL;DR
- TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, finalized a deal to sell the app to US investors, including Oracle, on January 22nd.
- Shortly after the sale, TikTok altered its privacy policy to allow for more extensive data collection, including precise user location tracking.
- A severe winter storm caused power outages at Oracle datacenters, leading to widespread TikTok outages and users unable to upload or view videos.
- Prominent personalities accused TikTok of censoring videos critical of federal immigration agents following the death of Alex Pretti.
- TikTok initially blamed the issues on the storm, with Oracle confirming a datacenter power outage impacted the app.
- California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an investigation into whether TikTok had censored videos critical of Donald Trump.
- User backlash over perceived censorship led to an exodus from TikTok, boosting competitor Upscrolled in app store rankings.
- TikTok's first week in the US saw damaged user trust, with its future uncertain despite its large global user base.
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