The Rundown AI / Articles / Tech / TikTok U.S.A.'s epic meltdown

Tech

TikTok U.S.A.'s epic meltdown

PLUS: EU probes Grok's deepfake tools

Jennifer Mossalgue

January 27, 2026

Good morning, tech enthusiasts. TikTok’s new U.S.-controlled era is off to a rough start: broken For You feeds, stalled uploads, and posts vanishing mid-scroll.

Now, adding to the trouble, California is probing whether politically sensitive content is being censored. TikTok blames a U.S. data-center power outage — an unglamorous culprit for an app built on viral momentum.

In today’s tech rundown:

TikTok’s U.S.-owned debut is already a mess
Grok under fire as EU probes deepfake tools
Meta plans subscription tiers across its apps
Finland wants your burned-out engineers
Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

TIKTOK

😱 TikTok’s U.S.-owned debut is already a mess

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: TikTok under U.S. control was already glitching out — busted feeds, stalled uploads, videos hitting zero views — and now California has opened a formal investigation into whether the app is quietly throttling political content.

The details:

U.S. users complained of repetitive or wildly off-base recommendations, missing comments, and new posts disappearing into the void.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is launching a review into whether TikTok is violating state law by censoring Trump-critical content.
But TikTok says its tech issues were triggered by a power outage at a U.S. data center and that it's working to fully restore services.
Sensor Tower data shows TikTok’s U.S. daily uninstalls have surged nearly 150% in the five days since the TikTok USDS joint venture was announced.

Why it matters: Just days after ByteDance ceded majority control to U.S. investors — including Trump ally Larry Ellison’s Oracle — TikTok is stumbling through tech chaos and accusations of political censorship. Rivals like Skylight are eager to absorb the spillover, but unseating an app with 200M U.S. monthly actives won’t be easy.

TOGETHER WITH OPTIMIZELY

⚡ AI agents for marketing workflows

The Rundown: Most marketing teams don’t need more ideas — they need more time. Optimizely Opal is an AI agent orchestration platform that handles real workflows like content creation, compliance checks, experiment variations, and reporting, so your team can focus on work that moves the needle.

With Opal, you can:

Automate content creation, approvals, and compliance checks
Generate experiment variations and personalize experiences at scale
Analyze pages for GEO and streamline reporting
Keep everything on-brand while plugging into tools you already use

Apply now to get a free agentic workshop for your marketing team (plus a pair of Ran-Ban X Meta glasses).

GROK

🔎 Grok under fire as EU probes deepfake tools

Image source: Reve / The Rundown

The Rundown: The European Commission just opened a formal probe into xAI and X over Grok’s role in generating non‑consensual sexualized deepfakes of women and children, calling such content a “violent, unacceptable form of degradation.”

The details:

Regulators are investigating Grok’s image-generation tools, which enabled users to “digitally undress” real people and share explicit images at scale.
The inquiry will examine whether X assessed risks before deploying Grok, and whether its recommender systems amplified harmful deepfake content.
X says it has tightened Grok’s image tools and restricted some capabilities following backlash.
The EC has ordered X to preserve all Grok‑related records through 2026 and will assess whether these fixes meet the Digital Services Act’s requirements.

Why it matters: In December, the EU hit X with a $140M fine over deceptive blue-check practices, a penalty CEO Elon Musk called “crazy.” The investigation also follows similar scrutiny from regulators in the UK, California, and countries including Malaysia and Indonesia that have moved against Grok’s deepfake capabilities.

💎 Meta plans subscription tiers across its apps

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Meta is gearing up to test premium subscription tiers across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, according to TechCrunch, offering users optional access to advanced features and AI tools while keeping core functionality free.

The details:

Each app will get its own subscription bundle, with Instagram early perks including unlimited audience lists and anonymous Story viewing.
Meta plans to scale its $2B Manus AI agent acquisition by integrating it into its apps while still selling Manus as a standalone subscription to businesses.
The company will also test paid access to AI features like Vibes, an AI-powered short‑form video tool, shifting it from free to a freemium model.
Meta is following Snapchat’s playbook — Snapchat+ doubled subscribers to 14M in 2024, generating some $500M in annual revenue from AI features.

Why it matters: Meta’s AI subscriptions would create a two-tier social web where paying users unlock stronger tools, fewer limits, and agentic AI. By wiring Manus into those paid tiers — while still selling it separately to enterprises — Meta is betting that AI agents can overcome subscription fatigue and help recoup its massive AI spend.

FINLAND

🎿 Finland wants your burned-out engineers

Image source: …

The Rundown: Finland is pitching overworked U.S. tech and AI workers a tempting deal: ditch the grind for a fast-track visa, saner hours, and a healthcare system that won’t bankrupt you, as spotted by Business Insider.

The details:

The program has partnered with more than 30 companies and universities, with job listings at Oura Health and quantum computing startup IQM.
A Fast Track specialist visa can deliver a combined work-residence permit in as little as two weeks, and spouses get work permits too.
Finnish officials are marketing the country as an antidote to U.S. tech culture: offices are actually empty at 5 p.m., and overtime is tightly regulated by law.
Salaries run lower than U.S. rates, but expats say affordable childcare, universal healthcare, and generous vacation time make up the difference.

Why it matters: Finland is bundling fast-track visas, spousal work rights, and integration support into a soft-landing package designed to lure deep-tech talent away from Silicon Valley. The pitch is simple: trade some compensation for a safer, calmer, higher-quality life. Learning Finnish and surviving the winters? That part’s on you.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Microsoft received approval to build 15 additional data centers in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, to boost capacity for AI and cloud workloads.

Google will pay $68M to settle a class-action lawsuit claiming Google Assistant recorded users after accidental activations and shared some audio without consent.

Apple launched a new AirTag, adding a louder speaker, longer range, and expanded Precision Finding support so items can be located from much farther away.

Chinese EV giant BYD is aiming to sell 1.3M vehicles outside China in 2026, about a 25% jump from last year’s 1.05M overseas deliveries.

YouTubers behind h3h3 and two golf channels are suing Snap, claiming it illegally scraped their videos to train AI for tools like Snapchat’s Imagine Lens.

Y Combinator dropped Canada from its investment list, so Canadian startups must reincorporate in the U.S., Cayman Islands, or Singapore to join the accelerator.

South Korean startup Edenlux is set to launch Eyeary, smart glasses that retrain eye muscles to ease screen-induced eye strain, in the U.S. via Indiegogo in March.

New court documents in a lawsuit show Google has long viewed Chromebooks as a way to hook students into its ecosystem and turn them into lifelong customers.

Chinese EV maker Xpeng aims to deliver more than 90K vehicles outside China this year, accelerating its expansion in Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

COMMUNITY