TikTok has insisted that issues on its platform within the US in recent days are the result of technical problems caused by a power outage at one of its data centres. And nothing to do with the Donald Trump fans who are now in charge of the all new TikTok USA business instigating revised editorial rules that deprioritise or block content criticising the President and his administration.
The new TikTok USA company took over TikTok’s US operations from China-based ByteDance late last week. Soon after, users started reporting that they were experiencing issues on the app, including problems logging in and issues uploading videos, plus people were seeing very different content on their For You page.
Creators posting content critical of Trump started to fear they were experiencing upload issues because of the nature of their videos. That included people publishing content about the dramatic events that have been recently unfolding in Minneapolis, as well as other videos criticising or mocking Trump, including in relation to the long-running scandal regarding the infamous Jeffrey Epstein files.
The social media company was forced to comment on the situation after notable Trump foe and California Governor Gavin Newsom responded to a TikTok user who claimed that the app was now blocking any posts or messages that contain the word ‘Epstein’. Newsom wrote on X, “It’s time to investigate - I am launching a review into whether TikTok is violating state law by censoring Trump-critical content”.
The governor's office then put out a statement noting that, “following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports, and independently confirmed instances, of suppressed content critical of President Trump”. As a result, “Gavin Newsom is launching a review of this conduct and is calling on the California Department Of Justice to determine whether it violates California law”.
However, a TikTok spokesperson has denied that Trump-critical content is being suppressed on the platform, pointing instead to the technical issues that the company had already acknowledged in an earlier statement on Monday.
“It would be inaccurate to report that this is anything but the technical issues we’ve transparently confirmed”, the spokesperson said. When NPR specifically asked TikTok about the apparent ‘Epstein’ censorship, the spokesperson added, “We don't have rules against sharing the name ‘Epstein’ in direct messages and are investigating why some users are experiencing issues”.
ByteDance was forced to sell TikTok’s US operations to a company controlled by American investors because of concerns the Chinese government had access to TikTok user-data, and influence over the TikTok algorithm, via the China-based parent company.
The law forcing the sale was passed by US Congress when Joe Biden was President, but the sale happened under - and was facilitated by - the Trump administration.
Of the new shareholders, US tech giant Oracle is a key player, and it is run by long time Trump ally and centibillionaire Larry Ellison. As a result, some have expressed concern that it’s now the US government that will have access to user data and influence over the algorithm, which for some American TikTok users is even more concerning than Beijing allegedly wielding its influence.
Last weekend’s technical issues only escalated the fears of Trump interference on the all new TikTok USA. But, according to the official statement, the problems weren't the result of any changes being made behind the scenes - technical or editorial - as a result of the change in ownership. Instead they were caused by a power outage, likely linked to the big storm that hit the US last weekend.
In a statement on Monday, TikTok said, “We’re continuing to resolve a major infrastructure issue triggered by a power outage at one of our US data centre partner sites”. While the network “has been recovered” it added, “the outage caused a cascading systems failure that we’ve been working to resolve together with our data centre partner”.
Specific issues caused by the power outage included, it explained, “slower load times” and “timed-out requests including when posting new content”. Creators might also see issues with data connected to their videos, for example the app may incorrectly state that their content has had zero views or likes. This blip will be temporary, TikTok insisted, adding, “your actual data and engagement are safe”.
In other TikTok news, the company has settled litigation in California that accuses various social media and user-generated content platforms of deliberately designing their apps to cause and capitalise on addictive behaviour, to the detriment of users. Both Snapchat and TikTok have now settled with the unnamed woman who instigated the lawsuit, leaving Meta and YouTube as defendants.
Terms of the TikTok settlement are not known, but the Social Media Victims Law Center - which exists to support “families whose kids have been harmed by social media” and which is representing the claimant in this case - said “the parties are pleased to have reached an amicable resolution of this dispute”.