US ownership of TikTok off to a rocky start as outage continues into second day

Winter storms bring Oracle datacenter down

updated TikTok's new life under majority American ownership is off to a rough start, after users complained of widespread service disruptions the company blamed on a datacenter power outage.

Users began reporting problems with TikTok's app and website on Sunday. Many took to Reddit to say that they couldn't post and were unable to access their feeds, and when they could, they were finding garbage and unusual posts. Others posted that view counts were stuck at zero, suggesting something was definitely wrong days after a new majority American-owned joint venture was set up to operate key parts of TikTok's US business, following months of wrangling to get it out of Chinese hands. 

The TikTok USDS (US Data Security) Joint Venture - the entity backed by Trump ally Larry Ellison's Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Emirati-backed investment firm MGX, with ByteDance retaining a minority stake - took to X on Monday to explain the issues as resulting from a power outage at a US datacenter. 

"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," the Joint Venture said. "We're working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We're sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon."

The TikTok USDS Joint Venture confirmed the issue to The Register, explaining that the outage is impacting TikTok for US users, although we note that other self-reported TikTok users outside the US said on Reddit that the issue is also affecting them. The new owners are still working to stabilize the service. 

It would make sense that the company is experiencing a widespread outage, given the massive winter storm that barreled across much of the US over the weekend. Following publication of this story, an Oracle spokesperson confirmed that weather was indeed the reason:

"Over the weekend, an Oracle data center experienced a temporary weather-related power outage which impacted TikTok. The challenges U.S. TikTok users may be experiencing are the result of technical issues that followed the power outage, which Oracle and TikTok are working to quickly resolve," said Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert.

Some TikTok users noted the outage coincided with the federal agents' fatal shooting of a second American citizen in Minneapolis - this time Alex Pretti - and speculated that it was an attempt to restrict the flow of information about the incident. A TikTok USDS Joint Venture spokesperson told us that TikTok content guidelines haven't changed since the majority American-owned joint venture was established. ®