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TikTok Glitches Spark Censorship Fears Amidst Data Center Outage
26 Jan
Summary
- TikTok users reported widespread app issues during a recent snowstorm.
- The company cited a U.S. data center power outage for the service disruptions.
- Some users suspected government censorship due to the timing of the outages.
Recent widespread issues on TikTok, including problems loading comments and erratic For You page behavior, occurred as snowstorms impacted the U.S. The app's U.S. joint venture attributed these disruptions to a power outage at a U.S. data center, affecting TikTok and other applications. This explanation came shortly after the mandated creation of a separate U.S. TikTok entity, intended to address concerns about Chinese government access to user data.
Despite the company's explanation, some users expressed suspicion, linking the outages to the app's recent ownership restructuring. These concerns were amplified when users reported difficulties searching for information on significant events, such as ongoing ICE operations and a civilian death in Minneapolis. TikTok maintained that these specific search issues were also a result of the concurrent data center outage.
Additionally, weekend discussions touched upon TikTok's updated privacy policy, which includes provisions for collecting data on sensitive user information. However, it was noted that some of these disclosures were not new and were previously included to comply with regulations like California's Consumer Privacy Act.
