TikTok experiences service problems in the United States and users look for alternatives like UpScrolled

American users are looking for alternatives to TikTok with applications like UpScrolled, showing an increase in downloads in the United States, after the change of ownership and the service problems that the ByteDance social network is experiencing.

TikTok confirmed the establishment of a “majority American-owned” joint venture last week, which will see Chinese company ByteDance retain a 19.9 percent stake to operate in the United States, allowing the microvideo platform avoid the ban of the application in the country.

Specifically, the company operates under the name TikTok USDS Joint Venture and complies with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Thus, it is composed of American firms such as Silver Lake, Oracle y MGXeach with a 15 percent participation.

After this change, the social network has been experiencing various service interruption issueswhich were initiated over the weekend due to a power outage at one of its associated data centers and which have caused a “cascading system failure” that they are working to resolve, according to a statement shared by the company through the social network X.

These issues include bugs for US users like Slower loading times or failures to publish new content. Likewise, they may temporarily see that their videos have zero views or likes.

In addition to all this, the analysis firm Sensor Tower has shared other metrics, collected by CNBC, which detail that the TikTok uninstalls in the United States have grown by 150 percentcompared to the last three months.

ALTERNATIVES THAT WIN USERS LIKE UPSCROLLED

Under this scenario, users are looking for alternatives to the well-known vertical video application and, as a result, UpScrolled is experiencing an increase in downloads in the country, ranking 12th in the Apple App Store and second in the social media category from the same store.

This is reflected by data from the market analysis firm Appfigures, collected by TechCrunch, which details that UpScrolled has registered approximately 41,000 downloads between last Thursdaythe day on which the agreement with TikTok was formalized, and on Saturday. Likewise, he has clarified that an average of 14,000 daily downloads have been registered, that is, a increase of 2850 percent.

UpScrolled itself has shared in a post on X that, due to the increase in users in such a short period, its servers have collapsed and they are working to cope with the demand for their services.

Well, this is new…
You showed up so fast our servers tapped out. Frustrating? Yes. Emotional? Also yes.
We’re a tiny team building what Big Tech stopped being. Right now we’re scaling on caffeine to keep up with what YOU started.
Bear with us. We’re on it. pic.twitter.com/OAlYcN6t5q

— UpScrolled (@realUpScrolled) January 26, 2026

UpScrolled is presented as a social media platform designed to offer a space where users can “freely express your thoughts, share moments and connect with others”, as detailed on its official website, focusing on offering “greater transparency, authenticity and trust in the platforms.”

Thus, the company states that each publication has “the same opportunity to be seen”, offering fair recommendation algorithms and creating an environment “unfiltered and equitable for all.” Furthermore, it ensures that it will remain “impartial to political agendas, conflicts and unfair opinions,” and that practices such as ‘shadowbanning’ (moderation technique that reduces or eliminates the visibility of posts without notification) are prohibited.

In this sense, founded by Issam Hijazi, the operation of UpScrolled combines features of platforms such as Instagram and X, allowing the sharing of photographs, videos and text publications interchangeably. It also has direct messages.