TikTok

TikTok is the social media sensation that all of Silicon Valley — and a lot of Washington, DC — has their eyes on. The app, created by ByteDance, became famous for rocketing musicians and dancers to stardom. But as its popularity and influence have grown, so has scrutiny of its privacy policies, security, and influence, with legislators voicing concern about its ownership by a Chinese firm. Meanwhile, social media competitors are doing everything they can to knock off TikTok’s features and usurp its short-form video dominance.

Trump administration is allegedly collecting $10 billion on the TikTok deal

Terrence O'BrienMar 14

Emma RothMar 13

Canada gives TikTok the green light to continue operating in the country.

The decision reverses a 2024 order for TikTok to shut down its operations in the country, and comes after an agreement that TikTok will implement “enhanced protection” for Canadians’ personal information.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which previously warned against using TikTok, said Canadians should “proceed cautiously” when joining new platforms and “conduct their own research on the type of data being collected,” CTV News reports.

Spy agency won't release its TikTok advice to Ottawa, urges caution online

[CTVNews]

You can soon listen to Apple Music inside of TikTok — and artists get paid for it

Jess WeatherbedMar 11

Another Oracle outage is messing up US TikTok

Stevie BonifieldMar 3

How MLB can make baseball relevant on a fast-changing internet

The old sport is going all-in on chasing virality.

Mia SatoMar 1

More Shohei Ohtani content is coming to TikTok

Mia SatoFeb 24

Social media on trial: tech giants face lawsuits over addiction, safety, and mental health

Stevie BonifieldMar 12

A Star is born

One night in the audience of Netflix’s most ambitious live show yet.

David PierceFeb 16

Thomas RickerFeb 16

Actually, few TikTok USA users defected.

A new Sensor Tower report suggests the USDS takeover managed to retain most of its users despite a bumpy start and concerns with the new owners:

The average number of TikTok’s daily active users in the US remains around 95% of its usership compared to the week of Jan. 19-25.

What’s in the Epstein files? For Tiktokers, a content gold mine

Niamh RoweFeb 13

TikTok launches Local Feeds in the US

Stevie BonifieldFeb 11

TikTok’s infinite scroll is too addictive, say EU regulators

Dominic PrestonFeb 6

Thomas RickerFeb 2

TikTok USA is back.

We can confirm that basic features in the US do seem to work reliably now on the new Trump-friendly entity’s servers, even if the algorithm still seems a little wonky at times. Per TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC:

We have successfully restored TikTok back to normal after a significant outage caused by winter weather took down a primary US 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 US.

Great, but how many of ya’ll have abandoned the platform?

Who’s afraid of the new TikTok?

Mia SatoJan 30

Richard LawlerJan 28

Oracle admits it broke TikTok.

Without explaining why its cloud status page doesn’t list any outages, TikTok USDS part-owner Oracle outed itself as the previously unnamed “US data center partner” that experienced a power outage over the weekend, blocking videos from publishing and unraveling its all-important algorithm for a few days.

Michael Egbert, Oracle Spokesperson:
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.

TikTok US is mostly back up and running

Richard LawlerJan 27

Lauren FeinerJan 27

TikTok moves to settle a major social media addiction case shortly before trial.

It follows Snap in reaching an agreement to resolve the first of several cases slated to go to trial this year about social media’s alleged harm to users, an attorney for the 19-year-old plaintiff confirmed. That leaves Meta and YouTube as defendants in the case going to jury selection today.

2026 is the year of social media’s legal reckoning

Lauren Feiner

Jan 26

Truth and AI in Minneapolis

David PierceJan 27

Richard LawlerJan 27

TikTok is still struggling in the US due to a “cascading systems failure.”

TikTok’s US service crashed early Sunday morning, and as of late Monday night, it still hasn’t fully recovered.

After finally announcing the problem started with a power outage at an unnamed partner’s data center, TikTok USDS followed up with an updated statement saying, “While the network has been recovered, the outage caused a cascading systems failure that we’ve been working to resolve together with our data center partner,” and listing some of the bugs users are experiencing. There’s still no ETA for a full fix.

We’re continuing to resolve a major infrastructure issue triggered by a power outage at one of our U.S. data center partner sites. While the network has been recovered, the outage caused a cascading systems failure that we’ve been working to resolve together with our data center partner. What this means for your Tik Tok experience: . You may notice multiple bugs, slower load times, or timed-out requests, including when posting new content. Creators may temporarily see “0” views or likes on videos, and your earnings may look like they’re missing. This is a display error caused by server timeouts; your actual data and engagement are safe. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to bring TikTok back to full capacity as soon as we can. TikTok USDS JV

Image: TikTok USDSJV (X)

TikTok is still down, here are all the latest updates

Richard LawlerFeb 2

Richard LawlerJan 27

Is New TikTok banning the word “Epstein” in DMs? Not really.

Despite claims floating around social media, the truth is a bit more complicated, not least by the fact that TikTok in the US is still largely down, about a day and a half after its data center power outage problems started.

While tweets from random users, the governor of California, and PopBase claimed TikTok US DMs now censor “Epstein,” testing it from our end showed that its messaging feature bans many innocuous single-word messages, like “test.” Using the convicted sex offender’s name in a sentence, however, goes through unbanned.

A screenshot of a TikTok DM conversation showing messages for single words like “Epstein” and “test” are blocked, but using the word Epstein in a sentence is not, contrary to rumors claiming otherwise..

TikTok DM screenshot showing the words “Epstein” and “test” trip the service’s ban by themselves, but not in a sentence.

Emma RothJan 26

TikTok’s new owners and your FYP.

Oracle and a group of investors now control TikTok in the US, and promise to retrain the app’s algorithm on US user data. Though TikTok blames some of the issues users experienced over the weekend on a power outage, many are still concerned about how their feed could change.

TikTokers are heading to UpScrolled following US takeover

Emma RothJan 26

Internal chats show how social media companies discussed teen engagement

Lauren FeinerJan 26

TikTok blames its US problems on a power outage

Emma RothJan 26

TikTok USA is broken

Dominic PrestonJan 26

2026 is the year of social media’s legal reckoning

Lauren FeinerJan 26

Richard LawlerJan 25

TikTok is breaking down.

Whether this is just a regular outage or a result of this week’s changes in management, reports tracked on Downdetector and Reddit confirm many people are having trouble loading TikTok right now.

If the mobile app loads, it’s not consistently showing comments or other features, and the algorithm managing the For You page doesn’t feel like it’s working correctly.

Update, January 26th: TikTok is still having problems in the US, which it says are connected to a data center power outage.

Graph showing reports of an outage on TikTok spiking on Downdetector.

Screenshot: Downdetector

Congress doesn’t seem to know if the TikTok deal complies with its law

Lauren FeinerJan 23

What TikTok’s new owners mean for your feed

Emma RothJan 23

The TikTok deal is done, finally

Richard LawlerJan 23

Terrence O'BrienJan 22

The TikTok deal could finally close this week.

It’s been a long, confusing, and at times tiresome saga, but according to Semafor, the Chinese and U.S. governments have given the green light for ByteDance to sell TikTok’s American arm. The target closing date set back in December was today, January 22nd, 2026.

Exclusive: China, US sign off on TikTok US spinoff

[Semafor]

Stevie BonifieldJan 16

TikTok is taking a closer look at European users’ accounts with a new wave of age checks.

TikTok will roll out new age detection technology in Europe that uses profile information, posts, and “behavioral signals” to guess if a user is under 13, then flags suspected accounts for moderators to review, reports Reuters.

Google/YouTube announced similar age-estimating tech last year, amid lawsuits and an expanding push to “age-gate” the internet.

Will you have to show your ID at the app store?

Lauren Feiner

Jan 11

Jay PetersJan 8

Parts of the World Cup will stream on TikTok.

As part of a partnership between TikTok and FIFA, select media partners can livestream “parts of” World Cup matches as well as “post more curated clips and access special content produced by FIFA for TikTok.”

FIFA and TikTok reach first-of-its-kind Preferred Platform agreement to enhance coverage of FIFA World Cup 2026™

[FIFA]

How to tweak your online platform algorithms

Jess WeatherbedDec 29, 2025

Emma RothDec 19, 2025

TikTok is “turning into a Chinese super app.”

During Semafor’s Mixed Signals podcast, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said TikTok is “very much applying lessons they’ve learned in China to the rest of the world:”

Super apps, which are very popular in China, are not popular in the same way outside of China, and I think they’re turning into a Chinese super app — and that may or may not work outside of China.