TikTok restores service following data center outage

TikTok announced on Sunday that it has restored service following outages last week that disrupted operations for its user base of 220 million users in the U.S. The company blamed a winter storm that caused a power failure at a primary U.S. data center site operated by Oracle. In a statement, TikTok explained: “We have successfully restored TikTok back to normal after a significant outage caused by winter weather took down a primary U.S. data center site operated by Oracle. The winter storm led to a power outage which caused network and storage issues at the site and impacted tens of thousands of servers that help keep TikTok running in the U.S.” This disruption affected core features, including content posting, discovery, and the real-time display of video likes and view counts. During the incident, TikTok noted that creators might experience zero views on posts until the issue was resolved.

The operational instability occurred shortly after a major transition for the platform’s corporate structure. In January, the U.S. finalized a deal to create a separate entity for TikTok. Under this new arrangement, a U.S.-based investor consortium called TikTok USDS holds a controlling 80% stake in the new entity, while the remaining 20% ownership is held by ByteDance. Following the finalization of this deal, which coincided with the winter storm, users experienced glitches and time-outs. These glitches affected features such as posting and searching within the app, alongside slower load times.

These technical difficulties provided a direct growth opportunity for competing social platforms. Skylight, a short video app backed by Mark Cuban and built on the AT protocol—a networking protocol—saw its user base grow to more than 380,000 users during the week the corporate deal was finalized. Meanwhile, UpScrolled, a social network developed by technologist Issam Hijazi, climbed to the second spot in the social media category of the U.S. App Store. According to analyst firm Appfigures, UpScrolled was downloaded 41,000 times within days of the TikTok deal’s finalization.

Why it matters

The incident highlights the operational risks inherent in the platform’s new U.S.-centric ownership structure and demonstrates how quickly users migrate to alternatives when core features falter.