{"id":60485,"date":"2026-01-27T09:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/tiktok-backlash-fuels-sudden-surge-in-little-known-australian-social-app\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T09:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:39:12","slug":"tiktok-backlash-fuels-sudden-surge-in-little-known-australian-social-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/tiktok-backlash-fuels-sudden-surge-in-little-known-australian-social-app\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok Backlash Fuels Sudden Surge in Little-Known Australian Social App"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<h4 color=\"#333\">In brief<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>New users briefly overwhelmed UpScrolled\u2019s servers after pushing it into the top 10 free apps on Apple\u2019s App Store.<\/li>\n<li>The surge followed renewed criticism of TikTok over alleged political bias, and censorship, which the company has denied.<\/li>\n<li>UpScrolled markets itself as a censorship-free alternative, though it remains untested at scale.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Frustration with TikTok following a U.S.-backed Oracle-led takeover has fueled a surge of interest in Australian startup <a href=\"https:\/\/upscrolled.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external\">UpScrolled<\/a>, a short-form video app whose servers were briefly overwhelmed by an influx of new users this week.<\/p>\n<p>The platform climb came amid criticism that TikTok was suppressing political content. As of Monday, UpScrolled reached number two in the social media category on the Apple App Store, above TikTok at number three.<\/p>\n<p>While the UpScrolled team welcomed the influx of new interest, it also strained the platform\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCrazy load on our servers. So exciting! haven\u2019t slept in two days folks lol,\u201d UpScrolled founder Issam Hijazi posted on Sunday. \u201cSorry about the errors and glitches. We are increasing our capacity to handle the load. We expect things to become more stable in the next 12-24 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 color=\"#333\"><strong>What is UpScrolled?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Launched in July of last year by Issam Hijazi, a former IBM employee who also worked as a consultant at Oracle, UpScrolled supports short-form video, photos, and text posts.<\/p>\n<p>The company says it does not censor content or use shadowbans, does not prioritize political or commercial agendas, and does not boost posts through paid promotion, relying instead on user engagement for visibility.<\/p>\n<p>Posts from followed accounts appear in chronological order, while the discovery feed ranks content by engagement, according to the company. UpScrolled says it does not use paid promotion and that neither political nor commercial interests influence visibility. Whether the platform can sustain its rapid growth or maintain that approach remains unclear.<\/p>\n<p>The UpScrolled surge mirrors a spike in interest seen last January ahead of Trump\u2019s second inauguration, when users briefly flocked to the Chinese social media platform <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/301365\/i-joined-chinas-tiktok-alternative-rednote-and-lived-to-regret-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RedNote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUpScrolled\u2019s increased adoption appears to be more organic, driven largely by word of mouth on TikTok and X before any major media coverage,\u201d Head of Insights and Media Resources at AppFigures, Randy Nelson, told<i> Decrypt<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson said UpScrolled recorded about 41,000 downloads between Thursday and Saturday, roughly one-third of its 140,000 lifetime installs. Since Thursday, UpScrolled has averaged about 14,000 daily downloads, about 29 times higher than its pre-surge average of roughly 460 installs per day, according to AppFigures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat said, it\u2019s still too early to project even the app\u2019s near-term performance, but we&#8217;ll be tracking it in order to provide that data as soon as possible,\u201d Nelson added.<\/p>\n<p>RedNote recorded about 292,000 U.S. downloads in its first three days, compared with roughly 41,000 for UpScrolled, which is about 14% of RedNote\u2019s three-day total, he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompared with the three days before it took off, RedNote\u2019s average installs during its first three days were about 3,368%, or roughly 35 times higher,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n<h2 color=\"#333\"><strong>TikTok backlash<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The latest migrations follow turbulent years for TikTok in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>To avoid a federal ban, the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/01\/22\/tech\/tiktok-us-deal-closes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spun off<\/a> its U.S. operations into a new <a href=\"https:\/\/usdsjv.tiktok.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external\">entity<\/a> called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, backed by investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, Susquehanna International Group, and Emirati investment firm MGX.<\/p>\n<p>Since the change, several high-profile figures, including Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and musicians <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/stories\/billieeilish\/3818362204131398197\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Billie Eilish<\/a> and Finneas O\u2019Connell, have raised concerns about possible political bias on the platform, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/digital\/news\/hacks-meg-stalter-deletes-tiktok-claims-censoring-ice-videos-1236641121\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">accusing<\/a> TikTok of suppressing content critical of U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. immigration enforcement actions. Users of X <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PacoOnPause\/status\/2015877655573209448?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external\">pointed<\/a> to similar suppression during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiberals and Blue MAGA ignored us when we were screaming about this under Biden, and now they\u2019re acting shocked that OF COURSE, this was gonna be the next step,\u201d artist and songwriter Blakeley <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/_iamblakeley\/status\/2015905034815291657?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external\">wrote<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n<p>TikTok has denied censorship, saying on X that a power outage at a U.S. data center caused the recent feed delays and publishing issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince yesterday, we\u2019ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate,\u201d TikTok <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/tiktokusdsjv\/status\/2015807214871535741?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external\">wrote<\/a>. \u201cWe&#8217;re working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We&#8217;re sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the claims, skepticism among users persisted and has helped drive interest in alternative platforms, including Kick, Rumble, and Spill, which are attempting to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/chrispavlovski\/status\/2015559677547860446?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external\">lure<\/a> content creators to their respective platforms.<\/p>\n<p>While UpScrolled claims it does not censor or shadowban, the company also added that it will not tolerate abuse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive behavior,\u201d the company <a href=\"https:\/\/upscrolled.com\/en\/rules-and-policies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external\">wrote<\/a> in its Rules and Polices. \u201cAny content or conduct involving hate speech, harassment, sexual exploitation, violence, or threats will be removed, and the responsible accounts may be suspended or permanently banned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>UpScrolled has yet to respond to <i>Decrypt&#8217;s<\/i> requests for comment<i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<div>\n<h3>Daily Debrief Newsletter<\/h3>\n<p>Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In brief New users briefly overwhelmed UpScrolled\u2019s servers after pushing it into the top 10 free apps on Apple\u2019s App [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":60487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tien-dien-tu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}