TikTokers are heading to UpScrolled following US takeover

TikTok’s takeover in the US has prompted users to join an alternative social platform called UpScrolled. The app, which is available on Android and iOS, currently holds the 12th spot in Apple’s App Store, and it’s struggling to keep up with an influx of new traffic. “You showed up so fast our servers tapped out,” UpScrolled writes in a post on Bluesky, adding that it’s working to get things up and running. Data shared by Appfigures indicates that the app had been downloaded 41,000 times between Thursday and Saturday, while averaging about 14,000 downloads per day — 29 times more than the 460 daily downloads it averaged before TikTok’s takeover. Several users, including journalist Taylor Lorenz, have said that they’re making the switch to UpScrolled after Oracle and a group of investors took over TikTok’s US operations last week, sparking concerns about censorship. On top of that, US-based users began experiencing issues with the app following the takeover, which TikTok blamed on a power outage at one of its data centers. [Media: https://bsky.app/profile/upscrolled.bsky.social/post/3mdcrngpgys2u] UpScrolled was founded in 2025 by Issam Hijazi, a Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian technologist, with the goal of giving users the ability to “freely express thoughts,” while “ensuring every post has a fair chance to be seen.” Its website says the platform will remain “impartial” to political agendas, won’t shadowban users or content, and will “uphold social responsibility.” The app’s interface looks like a mix between Instagram and X, allowing you to post and discover photos, videos, and text posts, as well as write private messages to other users. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen such a large call to switch to alternative social networks, as TikTokers flocked to apps like RedNote in response to the TikTok ban last year, while other networks, like Bluesky and Mastodon, emerged as popular spots for people looking to get away from X. Update, January 26th: Added data from Appfigures.