UpScrolled users briefly overwhelmed the startup’s servers this week after a surge of sign-ups pushed the app into the Apple App Store top 10 for free apps in its category. The spike followed renewed criticism of TikTok over alleged political suppression after its U.S. operations were reorganized under an Oracle-led deal, and users sought alternatives.
Issam Hijazi, the app’s founder, said the team scrambled to add capacity and apologized for outages. (Ed. note: Data shows UpScrolled recorded about 41,000 downloads between Thursday and Saturday, according to AppFigures.)
The app, launched last July, supports short videos, photos and text and says it avoids shadowbans and paid promotion. According to the company, followed accounts appear chronologically while discovery ranks posts by engagement.
Users saw service errors during the surge, and Hijazi posted, “Crazy load on our servers. So exciting! haven’t slept in two days folks lol,” followed by “Sorry about the errors and glitches. We are increasing our capacity to handle the load.” The app’s rules state it will remove abusive content and ban violators; see the company’s Rules and Policies.
The migration comes amid scrutiny after reports that TikTok spun off U.S. operations into a new entity at TikTok USDS Joint Venture. High-profile figures and users have accused the platform of suppressing political posts, as discussed in a Variety report and on social posts like this and this. TikTok said the disruption followed a U.S. data-center power outage, writing “Since yesterday, we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate.” Alternatives such as Kick, Rumble and Spill are also attempting to attract creators, as noted here.
