TikTok said on Sunday it has restored service following a week of technical outages caused by a winter storm at an Oracle-operated data center.
The disruptions impacted core features for TikTok’s 220 million U.S. users and occurred as the platform finalized a mandatory ownership transition to a U.S.-led consortium. According to the company, the outages affected content posting, discovery, and real-time engagement metrics across tens of thousands of servers.
TikTok attributed the service failure to power outages and subsequent network issues at an Oracle data center during a major snowstorm. The company stated in a post on X that the weather event disabled primary storage and network systems responsible for U.S. operations.
TikTok service restored. pic.twitter.com/Pn3ZSTmKU3
— TikTok USDS Joint Venture (@tiktokusdsjv) February 1, 2026
During the outage, creators reported zero views on new posts and experienced persistent time-outs and search glitches. Some users faced total inability to upload content, while others encountered significantly slower load times for video playback.
The service instability coincided with the January finalization of a deal transferring an 80% controlling stake in TikTok to TikTok USDS, a U.S.-based investor group. ByteDance, the previous sole owner, retains a 20% minority stake in the newly formed separate entity.
Competitor platforms experienced growth during TikTok’s technical difficulties and ownership shift. Skylight, a short-video application backed by Mark Cuban, increased its user base to more than 380,000 users.
Upscrolled, a social network founded by Issam Hijazi, reached the second position in U.S. App Store rankings for social media. According to analyst firm AppFigures, the application recorded 41,000 downloads in the days following the TikTok ownership deal.
TikTok is a short-form video platform that recently underwent a structural reorganization to comply with U.S. regulatory requirements regarding foreign ownership and data security. Oracle serves as the primary cloud infrastructure provider for TikTok’s U.S. user data and operations.
