TikTok outage live updates — power outage blamed, TikTok issues apology

TikTok response

I reached out to a press email on the USDS site. The spokesperson who responded pointed me back toward the tweet from earlier today.

As a reminder, it says: "Since yesterday we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate. We're working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We're sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon."

I was told by "TikTok USDS Joint Venture" that the data center caused service disruption and is continuing to impact TikTok.

It was confirmed that they are working to restore service, but a timeline was not provided.

Where we currently stand

We've been tracking TikTok's issues for about four hours now.

The issues really kicked off on Sunday, January 25, but have continued well into Monday.

Today, it appears that the issues are mostly centered around people attempting to edit videos via CapCut and posting videos. Or videos are posting but somehow receiving 0 views.

An X account purporting to be the USDS Joint Venture in charge of TikTok posted a tweet today saying that a data center power outage caused the disruption. The post apologized for the outage but has not posted since.

Users and Tom's Guide readers are reporting that there are still problems with the social app.

We have reached out to TikTok USDS via email for more information and will update if they respond.

Are you experiencing issues?

This disruption has been going since Sunday though it's largely settled down today.

We've noticed that it appears to mainly be affecting people trying to create and upload videos. But if you're just watching you should be fine.

Have you noticed any problems? Let me know in the comment section or by emailing me at scott.younker@futurenet.com

No update from TikTok

Three hours ago an alleged account claiming to be part of the US version of TikTok claimed that the company has been working to restore services.

Since then, there have been no updates. The outage has refused to totally go away as reports have hovered around 1,500 reports for multiple hours.

It trudges on.

How to delete TikTok

If you are interested in deleting TikTok, it is fairly straight forward.

Open the app and click Profile, found on the bottom of the UI.

Tap Menu.

Go to Settings and then privacy.

Tap Account then select deactivatee or delete account.

From there follow the instructions to delete or deactivate your account. Of course, remove the app from any devices.

I've seen Redditors saying you can get around the new TOS by trying to delete it in Airplane mode. Though that may not work for everyone.

Collected data isn't new

While TikTok lurches forward into a new era of US ownership, people are freaking out about the new privacy policy.

TechCrunch points out that much of the language in the update isn't actually new and existed in previous privacy agreements.

The difference is now the US government partially owns the service and is collecting data for its own purposes rather than China.

Maybe delete it just in case.

TikTok seems aware its addictive

The Verge is reporting on discovered documents that reveal how companies like TikTok, Meta and Google internally discussed teenage use of their social platforms.

"A 2021 document from TikTok recognized that compulsive use of its platform was “rampant,” but said that meant it needed to provide users “better tools to understand their usage, manage it effectively, and ensure being on TikTok is time well spent.” The company saw it as a good thing that TikTok users were more actively engaged on their app than on other platforms, since “research suggests passive use of social media is more harmful.” TikTok did not immediately provide a comment on the latest document release."

Numbers right now

As of 9:30 a.m., TikTok is still showing about 1,500 reports on Down Detector.

It appears to be mostly back up though.

CapCut is also down

From what we've seen, the TikTok outage appears to mostly be affecting creators. And while the numbers aren't as large, we are seeing reports that the popular video editing tool CapCut is also experiencing an outage.

This is most likely related to the TikTok outage as users aren't able to edit and upload videos properly.

Unfortunately, CapCut doesn't appear to have a status page or a proper social feed where it shares company information, so it's not clear if the company is aware of the outage or fixing anything on its end.

The most recent video on the company's TikTok page is filled with angry users demanding they fix the app.

TikTok also facing an addiction lawsuit

TikTok, Meta and YouTube are all heading to the courtroom over allegations that the social media platforms are "fueling a youth mental health crisis" Reuters is reporting.

That lawsuit starts this week and is only the first of several cases that are expected to tackle similar issues against social platforms this year.

Users report recent video uploads are getting 0 views

Creators typically gauge the level of success of their videos by looking at how many views they've generated. Many users are reporting that new videos uploaded to the video sharing platform are getting zero or few views. Meanwhile, other TikTok users are reporting that they're seeing views again, but nowhere to the degree they're used to getting before the disruption.

This happened after TikTok updated its terms of service

Just days ago, TikTok rolled out its updated terms of service — which greeted users when they opened the app. Of course, users had to agree before they could proceed to use the app.

What's interesting, though, is the amount of changes found within it, including data sourcing, precise location tracking, generate AI rules, and much more. There's also a new 180-day rule about user names. If an account stays active for 180 days, TikTok reserves the right to reset the name, which would make it up for grabs to anyone. There's been a ton of commotion from the community about this, including this Reddit thread.

Disruption to feeds, longer loading times

One of our editors, John Velasco, explained that he was seeing disruptions with his feeds on TikTok, which could be stem from the power outage at its U.S. data center. Not only that, but he also recalls that user pages were also taking much longer to load, including the comments section.

No, it wasn't just you

TikTok's US side of the business is now officially under the ownership of Oracle, which is the solution that saves it from the US ban that's been threatened for a long time.

But as you can see (and have probably spotted yourself while trying to use TikTok or CapCut), it's not been a smooth transition.

TikTok's USDS Joint Venture account has recently posted an update saying the issue was a "power outage" at a data center, and that the company is "working with our data center partner to stabilize out service."