TikTok’s US Outage: Power Problems or Censorship Panic?

TikTok’s US arm is crumbling under new ownership, but is it a power outage or a PR disaster waiting to happen?

TikTok US Data Security (USDS) attributed a widespread outage to a power failure at a U.S. data center. "The problems are the result of a power outage at a data center that it is working to resolve," said USDS spokesperson Jamie Favazza.

The company confirmed the outage impacted "TikTok and other apps we operate," according to a X statement from TikTok USDS.

Users reported algorithmic For You page failures, comment loading issues, and video upload errors following the ownership transition. Testing revealed that direct messages (DMs) blocked single-word messages like "test" but allowed the phrase "Epstein" in full sentences. The outage began January 22nd, coinciding with the new ownership’s first weekend in control.

The ownership shift sees Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX holding 15% stakes in TikTok USDS, while ByteDance retains 19.9%.

The timing has fueled speculation about censorship, despite the company’s technical explanation. No additional context was provided about the data center’s location or the outage’s scope.