TikTok Data Center Outage Triggers Trust Crisis for New US Owners

image via WIRED

January 26, 2026, 9:49 PM

• •TikTok's US service experienced a widespread outage affecting millions of users.
• •Users speculated about content suppression related to political topics, particularly immigration.
• •TikTok blamed the outage on a power issue, but concerns about censorship persist.
• •The new US entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture, was formed to comply with a law requiring divestment from Chinese ownership.
• •Oracle, with a stake in the new entity, has raised concerns about potential algorithm manipulation.

TikTok experienced a widespread service outage in the US, causing disruptions for millions of users just days after transferring control to a US-majority investor group. The outage led to speculation about content suppression, particularly regarding political topics and recent immigration operations. TikTok attributed the issue to a power outage, but users reported difficulties uploading and viewing content, sparking concerns about censorship. The situation has also attracted the attention of US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

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