Second Oracle-linked outage hits TikTok in the US

Some TikTok users in the United States are experiencing issues using the consumer social media application, which has resulted in service disruptions on Tuesday. According to user-generated reports on Downdetector, which is a platform used for tracking service outages, the technical difficulties began before 9 a.m. ET. TikTok has officially attributed the outage to an issue originating within an Oracle data center. However, Oracle has not yet identified the specific cause of the outage. The ongoing infrastructure problems have disrupted the user experience, leaving TikTok down for some in US.

This incident marks a recurring technical challenge for the platform’s infrastructure. Oracle issues have now contributed to two major TikTok outages since the sale of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture was finalized in January. Oracle is part of an investor group that owns an 80% stake in the TikTok USDS Joint Venture, which is the entity created to manage US user data to comply with national security laws. These laws required the Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest—meaning to sell off business assets—its American operations or face a ban in the United States. Oracle, acting as the cloud services provider and investor in the TikTok USDS Joint Venture, has been providing cloud services and managing user data for TikTok since before the creation of the joint venture. The previous outage in January occurred just days after the sale was finalized. TikTok attributed that earlier disruption to a winter storm that impacted a major Oracle data center. This second disruption highlights the ongoing infrastructure dependencies between the social media application and its cloud provider.

In an official communication posted on X, the platform used for official communications, TikTok addressed the impact of the disruption on its user base. The company noted that “Creators may temporarily experience lags in posting content while Oracle works to resolve the issue” as the cloud services provider attempts to restore full functionality to its data center.

Why it matters

This is the second major TikTok outage attributed to Oracle since the sale of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture, highlighting ongoing infrastructure dependencies.