By Sarah Yáñez-Richards
New York, US, Jan 29 (EFE).- Australian social network UpScrolled topped download charts in the United States after thousands of TikTok users switched due to alleged censorship of content critical of US politics following the recent company restructuring.
The UpScrolled surge came after TikTok announced on Thursday a 14 billion-dollar deal to establish a US subsidiary, responsible for data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance to avoid being banned.
Users turn their backs on TikTok
Following the restructuring, some users accused the app of censoring political content, particularly criticism of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and information about the protests in Minneapolis following the death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old civilian, at the hands of ICE officers on Saturday.
US singer Billie Eilish claimed on Instagram on Monday that TikTok “is silencing people,” citing as an example the low views received by a video from her brother, fellow musician Finneas O’Connell, in which he criticized those who justified Pretti’s death.
Hours after publication, O’Connell’s TikTok video had 46,000 likes and 137,000 views, a number significantly lower than other recent posts, which had reached hundreds of thousands and millions of views.
TikTok attributed these problems to an outage at its data center, which affected the app’s functionality.
Concerns also grew when the platform released an updated privacy policy allowing the app to track users’ GPS coordinates, among other things.
User suspicion also points to Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle and new “guardian” of TikTok’s algorithm in the US.
Ellison, a known ally of President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Elon Musk, has significant influence over the platform’s content moderation and data security via the new entity TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.
The rise of UpScrolled
UpScrolled, which allows users to share photos, videos, and text posts, recorded approximately 41,000 downloads (almost a third of its total installations) between Thursday and Saturday, according to data from Appfigures.
Sensor Tower, another marketing intelligence firm, confirmed that as of Tuesday, UpScrolled had been downloaded approximately 400,000 times in the United States and 700,000 times worldwide since its launch in June 2025.
”Well, this is new…You showed up so fast our servers tapped out. Frustrating? Yes. Emotional? Also yes. We’re a tiny team building what Big Tech stopped being. Right now, we’re scaling on caffeine to keep up with what YOU started. Bear with us. We’re on it,” the Australian company wrote on X.
An “uncensored” network
UpScrolled describes itself as an “uncensored” platform. It has been highly critical of TikTok, Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), and X for “tightening control—censoring voices, enforcing biased moderation, and hiding content behind algorithms.”
“Shadowbanned elsewhere? Not here. UpScrolled is the social platform where every voice gets equal power. No shadowbans. No algorithmic games. No pay-to-play favoritism. Just authentic connection where your content reaches the people who matter most,” the social network states on its website.
UpScrolled founder and CEO, Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian Issam Hijazi, explained, “UpScrolled started with a simple observation: social media had stopped being social. Algorithms replaced genuine connection with engagement tactics.”
”We don’t push agendas—political, commercial, or otherwise. Our rules are clear and applied evenly. Our ranking is explainable, our decisions accountable, and influence comes with responsibility,” the company highlights on its website.
UpScrolled is not the only app experiencing an increase in users following TikTok’s restructuring. Skylight, an alternative to TikTok based on open-source technology, claims to have surpassed 380,000 registrations. EFE
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