A massive TikTok outage over the weekend - blamed on a power failure at an Oracle data center - has ignited a creator revolt just days after the platform's controversial restructuring. TikTok US is now TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, co-owned by ByteDance, Oracle, and firms like Silver Lake. But the timing of the technical meltdown has creators like Meg Stalter publicly abandoning the platform, citing fears of censorship under Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison's Trump-aligned ownership.
TikTok went dark at the worst possible moment. Over the weekend, users couldn't upload videos, view counts flatlined, and the platform offered virtually no explanation. Oracle later admitted the culprit was a power outage at one of its US data centers, according to The Verge's reporting. But for millions of creators, the technical excuse rang hollow.
The outage landed just days after TikTok US completed its transformation into TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a restructured entity now co-owned by ByteDance, Oracle, and investment firms including Silver Lake. The ownership restructuring was designed to satisfy US lawmakers who spent years pushing divest-or-ban legislation. Instead, it's triggering an existential crisis among the platform's most valuable assets - its creators.
"Hi so today I will be downloading my videos and deleting my TikTok page," actor and comedian Meg Stalter wrote on Instagram. "[TikTok] is under new ownership and we are being completely censored and monitored." Stalter's public exit reflects growing paranoia about Oracle's role, particularly cofounder Larry Ellison's long-documented ties to Donald Trump.
The suspicion isn't baseless. Oracle's involvement in managing TikTok's infrastructure has been a flashpoint since the company first positioned itself as a "trusted technology provider" in 2020. Now that Oracle holds an ownership stake, creators fear the same playbook Elon Musk deployed at Twitter - seizing a social platform to amplify political messaging.
