1000’s of creators are deleting TikTok and flocking elsewhere simply days after a change in possession and mounting claims of widespread censorship and shadowbanning, or lowered attain, on the app.
However the place are they going?
One of many apps that noticed tens of millions of downloads within the aftermath of TikTok’s U.S. operations changing into a majority managed by an American-owned three way partnership is UpScrolled — a brand new Sydney-based platform pitching itself as a censorship-free app and created by a Palestinian tech developer.
Why is there a reported exodus from the massively standard app and the way are new customers reacting to the brand new platform?
What’s UpScrolled?
The app, which launched in 2025, was created by Issam Hijazi, an Australian Palestinian entrepreneur born in Jordan.
On its web site, UpScrolled describes itself because the social platform “the place each voice will get equal energy,” was designed to counter reported suppression of pro-Palestinian content material on rivalling mainstream platforms like TikTok, Instagram and X.
“No shadowbans. No algorithmic video games. No pay-to-play favouritism. Simply genuine connection the place your content material reaches the individuals who matter most,” it mentioned.
Hijazi mentioned he observed social media restrictions and decreased visibility whereas “watching the genocide in Gaza unfold in actual time.” That have impressed him to create and self-fund the platform in its place.
“UpScrolled doesn’t tolerate hate speech, propaganda, or bad-faith behaviour, nevertheless it additionally refuses to silence voices quietly or with out clarification,” he wrote. “It’s not a free-for-all; it’s a house constructed on dignity, accountability and respect.”
Why are customers deleting TikTok?
Censorship claims, technical issues and a report of a surge in app deletions are simply a number of the challenges TikTok, which is utilized by greater than 200 million Individuals, is going through because it adjusts to its new U.S. possession construction.
The group that can type the brand new TikTok U.S. three way partnership consists of software program large Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati funding agency MGX. Oracle is run by billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison, drawing widespread concern over potential censorship below the brand new possession.
After a deal was reached to maintain TikTok working within the U.S., some customers accused the app of censoring their posts. CBC’s fact-check workforce breaks down the details concerning the deal.
TikTok’s U.S. algorithm can be retrained with solely Individuals’ knowledge, based on the reported settlement. The brand new investor-controlled entity will set content material moderation guidelines round what’s permitted and what’s not.
Bisan Owda, an Emmy-award successful journalist and activist, who shared harrowing tales out of Gaza amid Israel’s lethal two-year offensive within the enclave, is without doubt one of the newest creators to affix UpScrolled.
Final week, Owda mentioned she had regained her TikTok account after it was deleted shortly following the acquisition.
She instructed Al-Jazeera she believed the worldwide outcry and media consideration performed a job in getting her account restored, including that she’d obtained a message from TikTok saying lots of her posts have been ineligible for suggestion.
A spokesperson for TikTok instructed CBC Information on the time the account was dwell and working usually.
Following the acquisition, market intelligence agency Sensor Tower instructed CNBC the each day common of U.S. customers deleting the TikTok app has elevated almost 150 per cent within the 5 days following the transfer, in contrast with the earlier three months.
Customers have been fast to lift considerations final week that the corporate is “censoring” movies, together with ones crucial of U.S. President Donald Trump, ICE or mentions of Jeffrey Epstein. The complaints have been sufficient for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to announce on X Monday that he’s launching a evaluate into whether or not TikTok is violating state legislation by censoring Trump-critical content material.
“The reality is, there’s no technique to know for positive whether or not censorship did happen within the first week of the takeover, or whether or not it’s nonetheless occurring in much less apparent methods now,” wrote Jaigris Hodson, an affiliate professor of interdisciplinary research at Royal Roads College.
“No matter whether or not direct authorities interference is a matter, the algorithm nonetheless filters content material in ways in which usually result in misinformation spreading amongst a worldwide consumer base.”
What number of customers converted to UpScrolled?
Final week, the newly-created platform ranked primary within the social networking class of App Retailer free apps on Apple, within the U.S.
It was additionally among the many high apps downloaded by Apple customers in Canada, the UK and Australia.
The flood of recent customers in late January briefly crashed the platform’s servers, based on UpScrolled.
In accordance with Sensor Tower, UpScrolled has amassed greater than two million downloads final month.
How are individuals reacting to new platform?
As extra customers be a part of, many are testing whether or not UpScrolled’s promise of visibility with out censorship holds up.
On the App Retailer opinions, one consumer mentioned “Not like different platforms, it doesn’t impose political censorship.”
One other consumer described the transfer over to UpScrolled as a “refreshing change.”
“After utilizing UpScrolled, going again to TikTok abruptly feels… **neutered**. You recognize the sensation — the weirdly strict group pointers that appear to flip in a single day, the audio that will get mysteriously eliminated, the fixed dance of ‘is that this gonna get shadow-banned?’ It is exhausting,” the consumer wrote.
One other consumer wrote that whereas they just like the app, they are saying their stories of pornography on the 17+ rated app have gone unheard.
“I’ve reported I believe over 7 completely different accounts for posting pornography together with the video and I preserve seeing them pop again up,” they wrote.
One other consumer complained concerning the algorithm, including that it has potential to develop.
“I like the concept of an moral social media app and wish to attempt to get my pals on right here however the algorithm wants some work. Possibly the rationale why the algorithm is so unhealthy is as a result of the app is not invasive however I am unable to get my [For You Page] to point out me something I am fascinated by,” they mentioned.
Can UpScrolled proceed to see large development?
Affiliate professor Hodson mentioned until TikTok “continues its explosive development, individuals are unlikely to proceed to decide on it over the extra established TikTok.”
Hodson factors to Fb and X as prime examples of “surviving the exodus of each high-profile and common customers.”
“Each couple of years, it appears, information shops publish articles about causes to depart Fb. However Fb and X are nonetheless going sturdy,” she wrote, including that it’s doubtless as a consequence of community results, which is when a product or platform turns into extra helpful or helpful as extra individuals use it.
“At greatest, we’d see a Twitter/X impact, which is the place TikTok will host extra pro-U.S. authorities content material creators and people individuals who need to comply with them, and UpScrolled will host extra crucial content material creators and their followers,” Hodson wrote, citing the 2024 development of BlueSky, an rising various to X publish U.S. election, when many politically left-leaning customers flocked to the app — however X remained standard for “information influencers,” based on a Pew information examine.
“As a result of every social community engages in or facilitates several types of content material filtering, every supplies a distinct sort of echo chamber that individuals self-select into or out of.”
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