TikTok's U.S. operation was split from its global business and placed under a new joint venture with Oracle taking a major stake and control of American user data and a U.S.-run recommendation algorithm. Many young users perceived the change as a transfer of corporate and political power and warned against feeding data to Oracle, alleging potential censorship of pro‑Palestinian speech. The ownership handover coincided with a visible algorithm meltdown that flooded For You Pages with irrelevant content, intensifying Gen Z skepticism about recommendation systems. A rival app, UpScrolled, launched quietly in 2025 and gained traction amid the unrest and algorithm failures.
"In January, TikTok's U.S. operation was formally split from its global business and placed under a new joint venture in which Oracle holds a major stake, with the enterprise software giant now responsible for American user data and a U.S.-run version of TikTok's recommendation algorithm. The shift capped years of political pressure and delivered what backers framed as a national‑security victory, but on the ground, many young users saw something else: a beloved app becoming an instrument of corporate and political power."
"In late January, as TikTok's U.S. ownership shifted, the app suffered a widely discussed algorithm meltdown that flooded For You Pages with what users derided as "slop." The glitch hit at a moment when Gen Z was already questioning how recommendation systems distort reality, serve irrelevant life‑stage content, and turn every feed into an infinite scroll of lowest‑common‑denominator virality. The r/TikTok feed on Reddit featured an upvoted post that simply said, " R.I.P. TikTok, 2016-2026.""
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