- TikTok has faced app issues for U.S. users since January 25
- The problems followed TikTok’s U.S. spinoff into a new joint venture
- TikTok says a U.S. data center power outage is to blame
While the official spinoff of TikTok’s U.S. operations into the TikTok USDS Joint Venture closed last week, things in the first few days under this new ownership have been less than perfect. Mainly, the platform has been disrupted since yesterday, January 25, 2026, resulting in the app not functioning properly for many users.
I’ve experienced the feed displaying older videos, pausing in the middle of content, sound not syncing, and even videos not fully uploading. I’ve heard similar tales from friends who use TikTok – one who saw a video post that wasn’t visible to other users – and Down Detector shows a spike that started early on the morning of January 25, 2026.
It could be that, after the TikTok USDS Joint Venture was formalized, it’s experiencing growing pains as this new entity takes control of the algorithm and moves operations to new data centers. Remember, in the middle of last week, after the deal was announced, new terms and conditions were rolled out to TikTok users in the United States.
The TikTok USDS Joint Venture’s X (formerly Twitter) account posted earlier today, January 26, to address the issues. “Since yesterday, we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate,” noting that the issues folks have been experiencing were due to a power outage at a data center in the United States. These issues also correlate with a spike in reports for CapCut, the editing app owned by ByteDance – TikTok’s parent company and still a partial owner of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture.
The post ends with, “We’re working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We’re sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon.” This was posted at 10:21 a.m. ET on January 26, 2026, and as of this publishing, there are still over 1,000 reports of issues with TikTok. That’s more than an average day but less than the nearly 8,000 reported last evening.
Since yesterday we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate. We’re working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We’re sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon.January 26, 2026
Hopefully, TikTok US will be able to share a bit more about what’s going on in the hours or days after this is fully resolved, but it’s been a tough start for the platform so far. If you’re still having issues with your FYP feed, uploading videos, loading comments, or just using the app in general, let us know in the comments below.
The timing of these functional issues also coincides with increased scrutiny of the new terms and conditions – specifically around how the app will collect location data and use user data for AI training – as well as the platform’s updated content moderation policies.
At a minimum, let’s hope that the TikTok USDS Joint Venture can get these issues related to “a power outage at a data center in the United States” fixed soon, so we can all get back to scrolling on the app.
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jacob.krol@futurenet.com (Jacob Krol)
