TikTok's US service is finally coming back online after a three-day outage that crippled the platform for American users. The app, now operated by TikTok USDS under Trump administration oversight, confirmed Tuesday morning that users can once again post and watch videos following what the company described as a cascading systems failure that began with a data center power outage Sunday. The extended downtime sparked mass speculation about censorship, algorithmic manipulation, and the future of the platform under its new US management structure.
TikTok's US operations are limping back to life after a disastrous three-day outage that exposed the fragility of the platform's new American infrastructure. Users began regaining the ability to post and watch videos Tuesday morning, marking the first signs of stability since the service collapsed early Sunday under what TikTok USDS - the Trump administration-assigned entity now controlling US operations - called a "cascading systems failure."
The recovery comes at a critical moment for the platform's credibility. TikTok USDS, the mysterious new operator whose ownership structure remains largely opaque, issued a statement Tuesday acknowledging it has "made significant progress in recovering our U.S. infrastructure" with an unnamed US data center partner. But the damage to user trust may prove harder to repair than the technical systems.
Verge testing confirmed that basic functionality has returned. A newly posted video successfully uploaded and reached viewers, including users outside the US. But the experience remains unstable - newly created UK accounts failed to load, and numerous user profiles still won't display properly. TikTok USDS warned that "the U.S. user experience may still have some technical issues, including when posting new content."
The outage began with what should have been a routine problem: a power failure at a data center. But instead of graceful degradation, the platform experienced what engineers call a cascading failure - when one system's collapse triggers failures across interconnected infrastructure. For a platform serving over 170 million Americans, the prolonged downtime represented an existential crisis.
What started as a technical emergency quickly metastasized into a full-blown trust crisis. With TikTok now operating under a controversial new ownership structure imposed by the Trump administration, users immediately suspected foul play. Theories spread rapidly across social media about algorithmic manipulation, content censorship, and hidden agendas behind the new terms of service that accompanied the ownership transition.
