this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2026
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Within hours of the deal for TikTok’s U.S. operations being announced last week, Issam Hijazi noticed a big uptick in users to his social media platform UpScrolled. That stream of disgruntled users fleeing TikTok over censorship concerns turned into a flood this week, crashing UpScrolled’s servers.

UpScrolled, launched last July, supports text posts, photos, short-form videos, stories and other features. It claims to be a platform with “no censorship” and “no shadowbans.” On Monday, it ranked among the top 10 free apps on Apple’s App Store, and No. 2 among social network apps. It hit more than 1 million users from just 40,000.

“You all showed up so fast our servers tapped out,” UpScrolled said in an Instagram post on Monday. “We’re a tiny team building an alternative to the platforms that stopped listening to you. Right now, we’re scaling and running on caffeine to keep up with what YOU started. Bear with us. We’re on it.”

UpScrolled is backed by the Tech for Palestine incubator, an advocacy project that helps fund tech initiatives to support the Palestinian cause. Hijazi, a Palestinian-Australian, spoke to Rest of World on the sidelines of a conference on Saturday.

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[–] remington@beehaw.org 27 points 1 month ago (2 children)

There are other TikTok alternatives worth mentioning:

[–] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 14 points 1 month ago

Loops finally seems usable now. I tried the beta a while back and it was kinda "Meh" but it's improved significantly since. And you can browse on the website now, too. I'm not into short form videos, but credit where it's due.

Well, I do like short form videos, but I hate panning for the gems and just let my friends send me the ones that rise to top.

[–] chromodynamic@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Looks like Skylight is app-only, no website.

[–] PanGodofPanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's almost irrelevant though, since very nearly no one is using tiktok (or any other short form video site except maybe Shorts because of how it shows up while browsing regular youtube) via its website. This is Lemmy so I'm sure some nerd here has some weird reason to want to do so, but they're an astronomically tiny minority of users.

[–] Kissaki@beehaw.org 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

We are on Lemmy though. It's certainly relevant to me.

I don't need it to be a popular app for others when is not for me.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 16 points 1 month ago

Does "no censorship" mean "no moderation"?

[–] artyom@piefed.social 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It claims to be a platform with “no censorship”

So they don't censor CSAM?

[–] alyaza@beehaw.org 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

they're actually more overzealous in terms of policy about nudity and sexualized material than basically any alternative

[–] artyom@piefed.social 13 points 1 month ago

Ok so they're just lying then.

[–] atropa@piefed.social 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

4 trackers ,no thanks

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 8 points 1 month ago

Why would I want to join a dark pattern social media?

[–] compostgoblin@piefed.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They’re already banning trans women just for being trans

[–] spiderhamster@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

do you have any posts or articles that discuss this? I've heard this referenced a few times but haven't seen examples yet. I'll continue searching but I'd appreciate you can link me to.

[–] claudinec@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago

I saw a post on Mastodon about it, but a cursory search didn’t turn it up. I’ll look a bit more later and see if I can find it

[–] 01189998819991197253 8 points 1 month ago

It's a centralized platform. The exact same thing that happened to TikTok will, in time, happen to upscrolled. These people are running from the Schutzstaffel to the Sturmabteilung and expecting different outcomes.

[–] mwalimu@baraza.africa 5 points 1 month ago

It is not enough to talk of an alternative if the underlying structure reinforces centralization. This is so especially when federation protocols are active and seeking adoption.

[–] belated_frog_pants@beehaw.org 4 points 1 month ago

Anti-censorship is a dog whistle for nazi bar. This one is already garbage.

[–] irelephant@anarchist.nexus 3 points 1 month ago
[–] null@piefed.nullspace.lol 3 points 1 month ago

I wonder if Upscroll is one of the 13 known forms of engagement...