Tag: tiktok

TikTok says its services are restored after the outage

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TikTok, which is under new ownership in the U.S., said Sunday that it has restored service after outages last week that marred user experiences. The social network has over 220 million users in the U.S.

The company blamed last week’s snowstorm, which caused an outage at an Oracle-operated data center responsible for TikTok operations.

“We have successfully restored TikTok back to normal after a significant outage caused by winter weather took down a primary U.S. data center site operated by Oracle. The winter storm led to a power outage which caused network and storage issues at the site and impacted tens of thousands of servers that help keep TikTok running in the U.S. This affected many of TikTok’s core features—from content posting and discovery to the real-time display of video likes and view counts,” the company said in a post on X.

In January, the U.S. finalized the deal to create a separate entity for TikTok. A U.S.-based investor consortium called TikTok USDS took a controlling 80% stake, with the remaining 20% ownership held by ByteDance.

Following the deal finalization — which coincided with the snowstorm — users experienced glitches in features like posting, searching within the app, slower load times, and time-outs. TikTok noted that creators might see zero views on their posts until the problem was resolved. Later, the company said that it was working on solving the issue, but outages persisted, and users faced problems with posting content.

TikTok’s transition to a new ownership structure, paired with app snafus and user experience glitches, was beneficial for some other social networks. The Mark Cuban-backed short video app Skylight, which is built on the AT protocol, saw its user base soar to more than 380,000 users in the week the deal was finalized. Upscrolled, a social network by Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian technologist Issam Hijazi, also climbed in App Store rankings to reach the second spot in the social media category in the U.S. The app was downloaded 41,000 times within days of the TikTok deal’s finalization, according to analyst firm AppFigures.

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What you should know about the owners of US TikTok

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​ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, recently established a separate American entity to run the app’s U.S. operations. This restructuring aims to separate U.S. TikTok from its Chinese parent, addressing concerns about data privacy and foreign control.

The move came after years of pressure from lawmakers, who feared the Chinese government’s potential access to Americans’ data. In 2024, Congress enacted a law, mandating that TikTok’s U.S. operations be separated from ByteDance.

​Under the new structure, about 80% of the U.S. TikTok entity is owned by non-Chinese investors, with ByteDance keeping only a 19.9% share. The newly formed entity, “TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC,” licenses TikTok’s recommendation algorithm from ByteDance and independently manages content moderation, and oversees data protection, algorithm security, and software controls.

The managing investor group consists of Oracle, the private equity firm Silver Lake, and the investment firm MGX. Each holds a 15% stake, totaling 45% of the U.S. business. Here’s what you should know about them.

Oracle

Oracle is a leading cloud computing and database firm that collaborates with top companies, such as OpenAI. Oracle previously attempted to acquire TikTok and already provides cloud infrastructure for the app, managing its U.S. user data. 

Under the new deal, Oracle serves as the security partner, auditing TikTok’s compliance with U.S. security requirements, managing data storage, and overseeing updates to the content recommendation algorithm. 

It’s important to note that Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, now the company’s executive chairman and chief technology officer, is a prominent billionaire with known connections to President Trump.

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MGX

MGX is an AI-focused investment firm based in the United Arab Emirates, which invests in semiconductors and data centers. The firm was created by Mubadala (Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund) and G42, an Emirati AI company. 

MGX’s stake in U.S. TikTok could give the firm influence over key decisions shaping TikTok’s AI direction. The firm already backs Elon Musk’s xAI, Anthropic, and OpenAI, and contributed to a $100 billion AI data center initiative announced by President Trump, in which Oracle is participating as well. 

It’s also worth pointing out that MGX has partnerships with Microsoft and BlackRock.

Silver Lake

Silver Lake, a leading U.S. private equity firm, has long invested heavily in technology companies, including Airbnb, Twitter, Dell Technologies, Tesla, and Waymo. Its role in U.S. TikTok is primarily financial and strategic, offering capital and expertise to help shape the platform’s direction.

Notably, Silver Lake has collaborated with MGX in the past, including during the acquisition of a majority stake in the software and chip company Altera last year. Additionally, Silver Lake has invested in G42 since 2021.

Other investors

  • Dell Family Office: Michael Dell’s investment firm.
  • Vastmere Strategic Investments: A firm affiliated with Susquehanna International Group (SIG), which is owned by billionaire Jeff Yass.
  • Alpha Wave Partners: A global investment firm involved with notable companies, including SpaceX and Klarna.
  • Virgo LI: The investment arm associated with Israeli tech investor Yuri Milner, who was an early backer of Facebook and Twitter.
  • NJJ Capital: The family office of Xavier Niel, a French billionaire businessman who founded telecommunications company Iliad.
  • Revolution: The venture capital firm founded by AOL co-founder Steve Case.
  • Merritt Way: Managed by partners of Dragoneer Investment Group, a San Francisco-based investment firm.
  • Via Nova: An affiliate of General Atlantic.

TikTok quietly launches a micro drama app called ‘PineDrama’

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TikTok has quietly released a new standalone short drama app called PineDrama in the U.S. and Brazil. The app offers access to micro dramas, which are essentially bite-sized TV shows that can be watched in a series of one-minute episodes. Think TikTok, but every single video you come across is a short episode of a fictional story.

PineDrama is available on iOS and Android. It’s free and currently ad-free, though that could change in the future.

The news was first reported by Business Insider.

You can find content through the app’s “Discover” tab, where you can sort through “All” or “Trending dramas, or through endless vertical recommendations that are tailored to your taste. PineDrama features a variety of genres, including thriller, romance, family, and more. Examples of popular shows include “Love at First Bite” and “The Officer Fell For Me.”

The app features a “Watch history” section where you can jump back into the various series you’re watching. There’s also a “Favorites” section where you can save the dramas you like the most. You can also share thoughts with other viewers in the comment section, and enter a full-screen viewing experience that gets rid of the caption and sidebar.

Image Credits:TikTok

The move comes as TikTok launched a “TikTok Minis” section in its app late last year, where users can watch micro dramas.

With the launch of PineDrama, TikTok is taking on popular micro drama platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox. While the micro drama industry wasn’t that popular until recent years, it’s racing toward $26 billion in annual revenue by 2030, as reported by Variety.

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Short-form storytelling hasn’t always found success, even with notable backing. In 2020, DreamWorks co-founder and former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg launched a short-form streaming platform called Quibi with $1.75 billion in funding. The platform offered episodes under 10 minutes featuring popular Hollywood actors, but failed to gain traction and was shut down six months later.

ReelShort and DramaBox succeeded where Quibi failed because while Quibi tried to compress Hollywood TV into shorter episodes, ReelShort and DramaBox created low-budget stories that hook viewers within the first few seconds, followed by continuous cliffhangers, all featuring non-union talent. Additionally, they target fans of soapy romance and revenge thriller stories, while Quibi tried to target everyone.

TikTok is now looking to replicate this success with PineDrama. The company already dominates the short-form social media space and is now aiming to take on another media category.

Trump’s TikTok deal is another step closer to finally actually happening

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Remember back in September when President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seemingly finalized some of the terms of a deal to spin off TikTok’s US business? Three months later, that same deal is apparently one step closer to being official.

According to Bloomberg, TikTok CEO Shou Chew told employees that TikTok and ByteDance had signed off the agreement for control of TikTok’s US business. It sounds like terms of the deal are roughly the same as what Trump announced earlier this year. A group of US investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX will control a majority of the new entity while ByteDance will keep a smaller stake in the venture.

According to Chew’s memo, the deal is expected to close January 22, 2026. “Upon the closing, the US joint venture, built on the foundation of the current TikTok US Data Security (USDS) organization, will operate as an independent entity with authority over US data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance,” he wrote according to Bloomberg.  TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Notably, it’s still not clear where Chinese officials stand on the deal. Trump said back in September that China was “fully on board,” but subsequent meetings between the two sides have so far produced vague statements. In October, China’s Commerce Ministry said it would “work with the U.S. to properly resolve issues related to TikTok.”

If a deal is indeed finalized by next month, it will come almost exactly a year after Trump’s first executive order to delay a law that required a sale or ban of the app front taking effect. He has signed off several other extensions since.

TikTok will now give you badges for limiting your doomscrolling

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TikTok is rolling out new digital well-being features like an affirmation journal and a background sound generator aimed at improving the mental health of its users. The social network said it will also give users badges for controlling their TikTok usage.

The company is redesigning its screen time management page and adding new features to it. These include an affirmation journal with more than 120 positive prompts that let users set your intent for the day, a sound generator that can play calming sounds like rain or ocean waves, and a breathing exercise module. The company said that the page will also feature content from creators who talk about limiting screen time, using parental tools, and customizing their feeds.

TikTok is also debuting new badges to reward people who use the platform within limits, especially teens. The company said it reviewed academic literature on digital well-being and found that overly restrictive tools can have a negative effect on teens.

Image Credits: TikTok

To earn these badges, users need to complete different missions. Users can complete the sleep hours mission by avoiding using the platform at night. They can also use the new meditation tools to get a badge. TikTok is also rewarding people who set a daily screen time limit and use the app within those bounds with a badge. There are other badges for viewing the weekly screen time report and inviting others to complete these missions.

The company said that during its early testing, it observed that more people visited the new well-being screen compared to the previous version of the screen time menu, with the affirmation journal being the most popular tool.

TikTok said it will display a link to these tools when someone is using the app at night or when they hit their daily screen time limit.

The company launched new parental control tools in July, giving guardians the ability to block certain accounts and get notifications when teens upload a public video or a story. In the past month, tech companies including Meta, YouTube, OpenAI, and Discord, have added new safety tools with an aim to increase teen safety.

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TikTok to start pushing Amber Alerts to users’ For You feeds

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TikTok is partnering with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to bring real-time Amber Alerts directly to users’ For You feeds in the United States, the company announced on Thursday.

With this new feature, if an Amber Alert is activated by law enforcement and you are in the designated search area, the alert will now appear in your For You feed. A spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch that TikTok identifies whether users are within a specific search through their device’s IP address.

The alert will include key details that are available in standard Amber Alerts, such as the child’s photo, description, last known location, and any other critical information that could aid in the search.

TikTok says the nationwide launch of Amber Alerts follows a pilot in Texas, where Amber Alerts on TikTok were viewed over 20 million times, and led to 2.5 million visits to NCMEC’s website between August and December 2024.

Image Credits:TikTok

The company says it’s also donating advertising credits to amplify NCMEC’s messaging on TikTok around missing children and youth safety information.

It makes sense for TikTok to introduce in-app Amber Alerts, as the platform’s massive user base of teens may be more likely to notice these alerts than traditional notifications that they may tend to overlook.

“Every second counts when a child goes missing,” said Gavin Portnoy, Vice President of Communications & Brand at NCMEC, in a press release. “By harnessing the reach and speed of a platform like TikTok, parents, caregivers, and communities nationwide can become powerful advocates in the urgent effort to locate missing children.”

TikTok isn’t the only social network to integrate Amber Alerts into its platform. Facebook has been pushing Amber Alerts to users since 2016, and Instagram has done so since 2022.

TikTok is back on the App Store and the Play Store in the U.S.

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Apple and Google on Thursday evening restored TikTok to their respective app stores in the U.S. on Thursday, several weeks after they removed the short video platform following a national security law that banned it in the country.

The companies has also removed other apps owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance — video editor CapCut and social media app Lemon8 — and on Thursday restored them as well.

Former U.S. President Joe Biden had passed the law last year, calling on ByteDance to sell TikTok to a company that wasn’t owned by a Chinese entity by January 19. The law was spurred by concerns that the company’s ties to Beijing threatened national security, and would have imposed severe financial penalties on app store operators if they didn’t comply. The Supreme Court had upheld the law on January 17.

But right after he assumed office, current U.S. President Donald Trump on January 20 signed an executive order aimed at delaying the law, and gave a 75-day extension to ByteDance to find a seller.

TikTok promptly restored services in the country, but Apple and Google kept the app out of their stores since there was some confusion regarding the penalties that would be imposed since the law had only been deferred.

For users in the U.S., those who had uninstalled TikTok were not able to reinstall it, but those who didn’t have been able to use it. Earlier this month, TikTok urged Android smartphone users to sideload the app.

Since then, Trump has said that he would like the U.S. to own a 50% share in TikTok through a joint venture with other tech companies. He also inaugurated a sovereign fund that could participate in TikTok’s dealmaking.

Last month, CNBC reported that TikTok’s traffic was restored almost 90% from the pre-ban time according to Cloudflare Radar data. However, rival social networks are trying to bank on this uncertaintly. Both X and Bluesky launched dedicated vertical video feeds while Meta announced a video editing app that would rival Capcut.

According to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower, TikTok was the second most-downloaded app in the country last year, with 52 million downloads.

Elon Musk said he’s not interested in acquiring TikTok

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Elon Musk recently said he is “not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok.”

Musk made those remarks during an interview at the WELT Economic Summit on January 28. A video of the interview was published today.

The interview came after President Donald Trump delayed a law requiring parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok or see it banned in the United States. At the time, there were reports that the Chinese government was open to a deal in which Musk (a key Trump ally) would acquire the app. Trump even told reporters that he’d like to see Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison acquire TikTok; he’s also signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund that could purchase a stake in the app.

But Musk claimed that he wasn’t interested, flatly stating, “I have not put in a bid for TikTok.”

“I don’t have any plans for what would I do if I had TikTok,” he said in the interview. “I guess I would look at the algorithm and try to decide: How helpful or useful is this algorithm? And what can we do to shift the algorithm to be more productive and ultimately be beneficial to humanity?”

He added that he doesn’t “use TikTok personally” and is “not that familiar with it.” And he described his acquisition of Twitter (now X) as an anomaly in his career: “I usually build companies from scratch.”

Musk’s comments on TikTok came nearly 20 minutes into the interview, which initially focused on his plans for his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration. Musk and his allies have subsequently taken control of federal agencies and gained access to large troves of sensitive data. 

“With respect to government, really the challenge is overcoming bureaucracy,” he said. “I think bureaucracy is perhaps the penultimate boss battle. The ultimate boss battle is defeating entropy … The second hardest battle is defeating bureaucracy. That’s how difficult it is to improve government.”

What will happen to TikTok? A look at the potential buyers.

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TikTok may be back online, but the app’s future in the United States is still far from certain. President Donald Trump’s executive order of the ban was only a temporary reprieve for the company.

While ByteDance was once resistant to the idea of selling TikTok’s US business, that seems to have changed since Trump took office. A ByteDance investor that striking a deal to keep TikTok in the US is “in everybody’s interest.” Officials in China have also suggested they are “open” to a deal, The Wall Street Journal.

A number of people and companies have signaled some interest in TikTok. Trump himself he would like to see a “bidding war” for the app and that the US government should own in the company. What an eventual deal may look like, though, is unclear. These are the offers we currently know about. Trump’s executive order gave the company 75 days to come to an agreement.

NPR that Oracle was working with Trump Administration officials on “a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app’s global operations.” Under this arrangement, ByteDance “would retain a minority stake in the company” but Oracle would oversee “the app’s algorithm, data collection and software updates.”

Headed up by Trump pal Larry Ellison, TikTok has an existing partnership with Oracle. The cloud company TikTok’s US user data and the company was of TikTok’s original negotiations to remain operational in the US under a plan called Project Texas. (Those negotiations abruptly in 2022.)

Trump also previously for Oracle and Walmart to acquire a 20 percent stake in TikTok in 2020, when the president tried to ban the app during his first term. That deal never materialized. Now, Trump’s position on Oracle is unclear. He that Oracle was not among the “many people” with whom he had discussed a deal for TikTok. (Ellison, notably, has been at the White House in recent days. He joined Trump and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for the announcement of the .)

Microsoft is reportedly also interested in playing a role in TikTok’s future, according to the same NPR story, which said Microsoft was among the “other potential investors” involved in the talks with Oracle. Trump seemingly confirmed this. When asked directly if Microsoft was interested in buying TikTok this week, Trump “I would say yes.”

As with Oracle, this isn’t the first time Microsoft has attempted to acquire the social media company. Microsoft was in talks to buy TikTok and take over its US business, but the deal . Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella later it as “the strangest thing I’ve ever sort of worked on.”

Just before TikTok briefly went offline, Perplexity AI threw its hat into the ring, offering to ByteDance that “would “create a new entity combining Perplexity, TikTok US and New Capital Partners.”

Since then, Perplexity has reportedly tweaked its proposal. According to the , the AI company is now floating a plan that calls for the “U.S. government to own up to half of that new structure once it makes an initial public offering of at least $300 billion.” Under this plan, ByteDance would keep a minority stake in the company and “would contribute TikTok’s U.S. business without the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app.”

YouTuber MrBeast, also known as Jimmy Donaldson, joked about buying TikTok ahead of the initial ban. He later that “so many billionaires” had reached out to him about making an offer that he was going to try to actually pull it off.

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At least one group has already his involvement, along with other “high-net-worth individuals” looking to make an “all-cash offer.” That group, led by employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley also reportedly includes Roblox CEO David Baszucki. According to Bloomberg, together they have put together “significantly” more than for a bid, though it’s not clear how seriously their offer is being considered. Bloomberg notes that there’s also a possibility that MrBeast may attach himself to other bids.

Another set of investors that’s proposed a bid to buy TikTok is a group known as . Led by investor Frank McCourt, it includes of Shark Tank fame. The group initially came forward before the ban took effect. However, it’s not clear where they stand at the moment.

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O’Leary previously that deals involving a government stake may not comply with the law. “That 50/50 deal, I would love to work with Trump on, so would every other potential buyer … But the problem with some of these ideas is they are inconsistent with the ruling of the Supreme Court,” he said. “I would love to do a deal, if the law provided for it, but I don’t have the luxury of breaching the order of Congress.”

This week, he said that the deal “changes by the hour,” writing on X that iIt’s clear to me now that we’re going to have to do a dance between the original owners, the founders of ByteDance itself, and interpreting the law of what Congress and Supreme Court has upheld.”

So where does all this leave TikTok? For now, the company is in the same limbo it’s been in since it was briefly . The app is still not available in Apple or Google’s app stores and it could go down again if the company is unable to reach a deal.

For now, though, it seems both the government and ByteDance are much more willing to negotiate than they have been in the past. While these are all the semi-credible plans we know about now, the situation is likely to change over the next few weeks as the various sides attempt to hammer out a viable deal. We’ll keep this post updated as new details emerge.

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Apple lists all apps it removed alongside TikTok in the U.S.

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Amid the TikTok shutdown, in a rare move, Apple published a statement and a support document listing all affected apps that are inaccessible in the U.S. The iPhone maker typically doesn’t publish information for when it blocks apps.

Notably, other ByteDance apps, including CapCut, Lemon8 — which surged in the last few months — and Marvel Snap, are also part of the blocked apps. Here is the full list of apps that Apple has removed:

  • TikTok
  • TikTok Studio
  • TikTok Shop Seller Center
  • CapCut
  • Lemon8
  • Hypic
  • Lark – Team Collaboration
  • Lark – Rooms Display
  • Lark Rooms Controller
  • Gauth: AI Study Companion
  • MARVEL SNAP

In the support document, Apple noted that the company is following the law by blocking all these apps.

“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates. Pursuant to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, apps developed by ByteDance Ltd. and its subsidiaries — including TikTok, CapCut, Lemon8, and others — will no longer be available for download or updates on the App Store for users in the United States starting January 19, 2025,” the company said.

The document also highlights that people who are visiting the U.S. and have the App Store set to a non-U.S. region won’t be able to update the app or purchase in-app items for these apps.

TikTok and other ByteDace apps are banned as a result of a bill passed last year that would force the company to sell the short video app or face a ban. Last week, the Supreme Court upheld that law, resulting in Apple and Google blocking the app late on January 19.