The company informed employees of the outage on Sunday. That day, TikTok users began reporting issues with their feeds, including seeing a flurry of old or irrelevant posts instead of new videos. The absence of topical content, such as on-the-ground videos from the Minneapolis ICE protests, led to speculation on social media that TikTok’s new US investors were manipulating the algorithm. A TikTok spokesperson said any algorithm changes users may have noticed were likely due to the outage. Many users were on high alert for any changes to their FYP this weekend after TikTok said on Thursday that it had finalized a joint venture agreement to hand over management of its US user data and algorithm to an investor group. TikTok’s new managing investors include Oracle and the investment firms Silver Lake and MGX. The company has also granted some US ownership to wealthy individuals, such as Michael Dell.Even before TikTok closed its deal, creators, employees, and other members of the app’s community were worried about what a US divestment could mean for its algorithm. Do you think that the investors could be manipulating the algorithm ?
