Social network UpScrolled sees surge in downloads following TikTok’s US takeover

In the aftermath of TikTok’s U.S. ownership alteration past week, immoderate users are seeking retired alternative platforms. One app gaining traction is UpScrolled, a societal web that pledges to stay impartial to governmental agendas. The app presently ranks 12th wide successful Apple’s App Store and 2nd successful the societal networking category.

Upscrolled blends acquainted features from Instagram and X, letting users stock photos, videos, and substance posts, observe caller content, and nonstop nonstop messages.

The app was founded past twelvemonth by Issam Hijazi, a Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian technologist, with the purpose of giving users a spot to “freely explicit thoughts, stock moments, and link with others,” according to the app’s website. The squad down the app says they’re “building a level that belongs to the radical who usage it — not to hidden algorithms oregon extracurricular agendas.”

“UpScrolled is the instauration for a integer ecosystem that puts powerfulness backmost into the hands of the radical — not the corporations,” Hijazi says successful a connection connected UpScrolled’s website. “It’s much than conscionable an alternate to Meta, X, oregon TikTok — it’s a reimagining of what societal media should be: a abstraction wherever creators, communities, and businesses thrive independently, with existent control, transparency, and accountability.”

The app, disposable connected some iOS and Android, is grappling with a surge of caller users, but says it’s scaling to support up with the demand.

According to information from the marketplace quality supplier Appfigures, UpScrolled saw astir 41,000 downloads betwixt Thursday, the time the TikTok woody was finalized, and Saturday, accounting for astir one-third of its beingness installs. UpScrolled has seen an mean of astir 14,000 regular downloads since Thursday, representing a 2,850% summation successful regular downloads.

In total, the app has been downloaded 140,000 times to date, with 75,000 of those being U.S.-based installs.

“Well, this is new… You showed up truthful accelerated our servers tapped out,” the institution wrote successful a post connected Bluesky. “Frustrating? Yes. Emotional? Also yes. We’re a tiny squad gathering what Big Tech stopped being. Right present we’re scaling connected caffeine to support up with what YOU started. Bear with us. We’re connected it.”

The surge comes arsenic TikTok announced past Thursday that it signed a deal with a radical of non-Chinese investors to signifier a bulk American-owned associated task to support the societal app operating successful the U.S. TikTok’s Chinese genitor ByteDance owns little than 20% of the caller entity, portion the venture’s 3 managing investors, Oracle, backstage equity steadfast Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based concern institution MGX, each clasp a 15% stake. Some users interest that TikTok’s caller U.S. investors whitethorn person governmental allegiances to Trump.

Following the takeover, immoderate users accused the app of potentially censoring definite governmental content. This disapproval included a fistful of high-profile users, including Senator Chris Murphy and vocalist Billie Eilish, who raised concerns that TikTok was suppressing oregon limiting posts criticizing ICE. Additionally, immoderate said they were incapable to hunt for accusation astir ongoing protests successful Minneapolis pursuing the sidesplitting of Alex Pretti by borderline patrol agents.

However, TikTok attributed these issues to an ongoing information halfway outage, which has been impacting its app’s functionality.

Concerns besides grew erstwhile TikTok released an updated privateness argumentation that allows the app to way users’ GPS coordinates, among different things. This led to immoderate users encouraging radical to delete the app successful favour of alternatives, with UpScrolled being 1 of the fashionable choices, mostly owed to its promise to not shadowban anyone and springiness “every station a just accidental to beryllium seen.”

UpScrolled isn’t the lone app that’s seeing a surge successful users pursuing the takeover. Skylight, a TikTok alternate built connected unfastened root technology, says it has now topped over 380,000 sign-ups and is continuing to grow.