TikTok U.S. Outage Follows Ownership Transfer

TikTok's U.S. operations faced widespread disruptions over the weekend, shortly after the platform completed a transfer to majority American ownership, leaving millions of users unable to upload videos, access feeds or log in properly. The outage, which began early Sunday morning, affected primarily content creators and stemmed from a power outage at a U.S. data center, according to the platform's new joint venture.

The issues emerged just days after TikTok announced on Thursday that it had formed the TikTok U.S. Data Security Joint Venture LLC, a U.S.-based entity that now oversees American user data and operations. This move addressed longstanding concerns from U.S. regulators about the app's previous ties to its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, which had prompted threats of a nationwide ban. The joint venture includes American investors such as Oracle, led by Larry Ellison, ensuring that content moderation and data handling occur under U.S. jurisdiction. Users encountered a prompt to accept updated terms of service following the announcement, which emphasized protections for American data privacy.

Reports of problems surfaced rapidly on outage-tracking sites, with users...