TikTok is experiencing service disruptions just days after a new majority American-owned joint venture took control of its US operations. Users began reporting problems on Sunday, such as being unable to post or access their feeds. Some reported seeing unusual content, while some others reported that view counts remained stuck at zero, indicating persistent issues following the ownership transition.
The TikTok USDS Joint Venture, backed by Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Emirati-backed MGX, with ByteDance retaining a minority stake, acknowledged the problem on Monday. The company attributed the disruptions to a power outage at a US data center and is working with its partner to stabilize services and restore functionality as reported by The Register.
On X TikTok made the following statement about the outage, “Since yesterday we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate. We’re working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We’re sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon.”
While the outage primarily affected US users, some international users reported similar issues on Reddit. The company confirmed the outage to The Register but did not provide details about the scope of the problem.
The disruption came shortly after TikTok’s US operations were shifted to the new joint venture, a process that followed months of negotiations to reduce Chinese ownership. Observers noted that the massive winter storm that swept across much of the US over the weekend could have contributed, but the company did not confirm any connection.