TikTok blames data center outages for U.S. app problems, denies censorship claims

TikTok's U.S. app, present nether bulk American ownership, said a caller question of glitches and contented disruption was owed to a powerfulness outage astatine 1 of its information centers, pushing backmost against claims that the level was censoring governmental speech.

Users have reported issues with their accounts since the video-sharing app began operating nether a newly-formed U.S.-led associated venture, pursuing months of governmental unit implicit its Chinese ownership.

Against the backdrop of a tense governmental situation successful the U.S., a increasing fig of viral complaints astir TikTok person accused the level of censoring definite governmental positions and adjacent the connection "Epstein" wrong nonstop messaging.

CNBC confirmed that messages containing the connection "Epstein" triggered an mistake message, but was incapable to independently verify broader claims of governmental censorship.

Asked astir the issues, a spokesperson for the TikTok associated task told CNBC that the level does not prohibit sharing the sanction 'Epstein' successful messages and that it is investigating wherefore immoderate users are experiencing the problem, among others.

The sensitivity surrounding the messaging contented relates to Jeffrey Epstein, the precocious financier and convicted enactment offender. The Department of Justice has, since December, been releasing caches of documents tied to its investigations of Epstein, but has yet to merchandise the entirety of the alleged "Epstein files."

The caller complaints astir TikTok person been amplified by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose property bureau said successful a Tuesday post connected X that "our bureau has received reports — and independently confirmed instances — of suppressed contented captious of President Trump."

"[Gavin] Newsom is launching a reappraisal of this behaviour and is calling connected the California Department of Justice to find whether it violates California law," it added. 

Newsom's bureau didn't supply grounds to enactment the claims, though galore users person posted videos allegedly showing the issue. In a viral X post, freelance writer David Leavitt shared a screenshot of videos connected his illustration that had been flagged arsenic "Ineligible for Recommendation," and claimed TikTok had begun censoring anti-Trump and anti-ICE content.

ICE refers to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which is presently engaged successful a politically charged cognition in the metropolis of Minneapolis. The fatal shootings of 2 U.S. citizens during national enforcement actions by ICE person sparked outrage and governmental debate.

Just hours earlier Newsom issued his threat, the caller TikTok associated task posted an update connected its X relationship saying the institution was "continuing to resolve" its large infrastructure issue. 

"While the web has been recovered, the outage caused a cascading systems nonaccomplishment that we've been moving to resoluteness with our information halfway partner," it said, adding that users whitethorn announcement aggregate bugs, slower load times, and timed-out requests erstwhile posting caller content. 

The institution besides said creators mightiness temporarily spot "0" views oregon likes connected videos owed to server timeouts. 

When asked straight astir caller accusations of censorship, including claims related to contented astir ICE, a TikTok USDS Joint Venture spokesperson said that videos of the incidental successful Minnesota were disposable connected the level and had been since Saturday.

Separately, users reported this week that nonstop messages containing the sanction "Epstein" failed to nonstop done TikTok's nonstop messaging feature. CNBC was capable to recreate this mistake connection erstwhile sending a connection containing the sanction "Epstein." 

That connection read: "This connection whitethorn beryllium successful usurpation of our Community Guidelines, and has not been sent to support our community." Users were fixed the enactment to study imaginable mistakes. 

TikTok had faced a imaginable shutdown successful the U.S. past twelvemonth aft the Supreme Court upheld a instrumentality requiring it to exit the marketplace unless its China-based genitor company, ByteDance, divested the business, among different nationalist security-related requirements. 

Trump aboriginal issued a bid of enforcement orders allowing the level to stay online portion negotiations implicit a divestment continued.

Last Thursday, TikTok announced it had formed a associated task to support the app operating successful the U.S. nether caller leadership. Under the deal, ByteDance retains a 19.9% ownership stake, portion U.S. and planetary investors clasp 80.1%. Key investors see Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, each with a 15% stake. 

Oracle's co-founder Larry Ellison, a salient Trump supporter, was antecedently floated by the U.S. President arsenic a potential TikTok buyer arsenic acold backmost arsenic January past year. 

The Trump medication and a Trump-backed crypto steadfast person antecedently been progressive successful deals with MGX, an Emirati state-owned concern firm focused connected artificial quality technologies. 

— CNBC's Matthew Chin contributed to this report