Problems have hit TikTok’s newly formed US arm, with users in America facing difficulties logging onto the platform and others reporting issues with uploading and posting videos.
The issues began on Sunday, said DownDetector, which tracks internet and platform disruption. There were fewer reports of users finding it difficult to access the social network overnight into Tuesday, it said.
Jamie Favazza, head of communications of TikTok's joint US venture, told The National that the problems were due to a power cut at a data centre.
"Since yesterday we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a US data centre impacting TikTok and other apps we operate," the company said on X. "We're working with our data centre partner to stabilise our service."
Last Thursday, China-based ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, finalised a deal to set up a majority US-owned joint venture, to avoid a ban on the social media app in the country. More than 200 million Americans use the platform.
Those concerns revolved largely around various reports that US data could be compromised by Chinese officials, although China and ByteDance have repeatedly denied the claims.
Under the deal announced on Thursday, TikTok USDS Joint Venture will secure US user data, apps and the algorithm through data privacy and cybersecurity measures, the company said.
The agreement provides for American and global investors, including cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX, to hold a stake of 80.1 per cent in the joint venture, while ByteDance will retain 19.9 per cent.
TikTok has been no stranger to controversy since it was founded in 2016.
During the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the platform was accused of bias, with content moderation throttling the reach of certain videos.
Its content moderation has been criticised being unfair, too strict, or not enforced at all.
Adam Presser, formerly the company’s head of operations, trust and security, has been appointed chief executive of the new TikTok USDS.
This announcement prompted the recirculation of a video from May, when Mr Presser appeared at the World Jewish Congress symposium and discussed hate speech and bans.
“Over the course of 2024, we tripled the accounts that we were banning for hateful activity,” he said. “We also have two dozen Jewish organisations that are constantly feeding us intelligence and information when they spot violative trends."
He said TikTok tweaked its policies regarding the word "Zionist" to fall under the guidelines of protected hate speech.
“So if someone were to use ‘Zionist’, and of course you can use it in the sense that you’re a proud Zionist, but if you’re using it in the context of degrading someone or calling someone that as a dirty name, then it gets designated as hate speech to be moderated against,” he said.
Although the comments were made several months ago, some have expressed concerns that TikTok posts related to Palestine could be moderated disproportionately, as the new US TikTok regime begins to craft its own policies.
All technical aspects plaguing the debut of TikTok USDS aside, Mark MacCarthy, a senior fellow at the Institute for Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown Law in Washington, said that the platform seems to finally be emerging from the shadow of scrutiny in terms of Chinese data concerns.
"The fact that the US entity 'will retrain, test, and update the content recommendation algorithm on US user data' should address the concern that the ByteDance algorithm will be a vector for Chinese government propaganda," he said.
