TikTok Experiencing Major Outage

Topline

Popular video-sharing app TikTok experienced a major outage on Friday, with many users unable to watch videos on the social media platform.

Key Facts

According to outage tracker Down Detector, the issues began around 1 p.m. EDT and eventually a peak of over 90,000 users reported problems using the app.

By 2 p.m. EDT, many of the issues were reported to be resolved on Down Detector.

TikTok has not addressed the outage.

Forbes has reached out to ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, for comment.

Key Background

TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps in the last few years and has an estimated 1.6 billion active users. As Instagram faces steep competition from TikTok for the attention of users, the Meta-owned company said this summer it would prioritize video, post recommendations and other features similar to those of TikTok. The decision was met with outcry from users. TikTok has faced several security concerns. Last month, Forbes reported that a team at ByteDance based in China planned to use TikTok’s app to monitor the location of some specific American users and that a China-based team at ByteDance investigated TikTok’s former global chief security officer in the U.S.