On Tuesday, Oracle said technical difficulties experienced by U.S. users of the short-form video app TikTok were tied to a temporary power outage at an Oracle data center caused by severe weather over the weekend. In an email, Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert said the outage set off subsequent technical problems that have affected access and functionality for some users.
"Over the weekend, an Oracle data center experienced a temporary weather-related power outage which impacted TikTok," Egbert said. He added that "the challenges U.S. TikTok users may be experiencing are the result of technical issues that followed the power outage, which Oracle and TikTok are working to quickly resolve."
The company's account of the incident arrived amid public concern and official scrutiny. California Governor Gavin Newsom had publicly suggested the problems might reflect deliberate suppression of content critical of former President Donald Trump, and his office said it was opening a review to determine whether TikTok’s content moderation practices violated state law.
Newsom’s office said it had "received reports - and independently confirmed instances - of suppressed content critical of President Trump" following TikTok’s sale to what the office called a Trump-aligned business group.
TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, last week completed a transaction that established a majority U.S.-owned joint venture, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, intended to secure U.S. user data and head off an app ban. The arrangement gives U.S. and global investors 80.1% of the new venture, while ByteDance retains a 19.9% stake.
Under the terms of the joint venture, each of the three managing investors - Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX - will hold a 15% stake. The deal was described in the original reporting as having the support of Donald Trump.
The joint venture has rejected the suggestion that the issues reflect censorship, saying it would be inaccurate to characterize the disruptions as anything other than the technical problems it has transparently confirmed. The venture also reported progress in restoring U.S. infrastructure in collaboration with its U.S. data center partner, while cautioning that some users may continue to face technical constraints, including problems when posting new content.
Separately noted in reporting was that former President Trump, who has more than 16 million followers on his personal TikTok account, attributed part of his 2024 election success to the platform.
The transaction establishing the U.S.-majority joint venture was framed as a milestone for TikTok following extended disputes with U.S. authorities over national security and privacy concerns raised under administrations of both Trump and President Joe Biden.
In addition to official statements from Oracle and the joint venture, California officials have moved to investigate whether content moderation actions run afoul of state law, while the companies involved say they are focused on technical remediation after the weather-related outage.
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