What’s UpScrolled, the app gaining popularity after TikTok’s US takeover?

UpScrolled, a social media application created by Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian entrepreneur Issam Hijazi, has surged in popularity across several countries, including the United States, as many users looked for an alternative to TikTok, which was formally taken over by US-backed investors and companies last week.

With Larry Ellison, the owner of Oracle, who is a staunch supporter of Israel and a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, acquiring a stake in TikTok’s US-based entity, social media users have expressed concerns about censorship of pro-Palestine posts on the popular app. TikTok’s global operation will still be run by its Chinese owner, ByteDance.

On Wednesday, TikTok permanently banned Emmy Award-winning journalist and media contributor from Gaza, Bisan Owda, sparking outrage and boycott calls from her supporters. The app has also been accused of content censorship around unprecedented ICE violence in the US.

UpScrolled, which was founded only a year ago, surprisingly climbed to the top spot of US app downloads this week, ranking number one in the “social networking” category of Apple’s App Store free apps by Wednesday. It was also among the top apps downloaded by Apple users in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

The app, meanwhile, is gaining thousands of new downloads as disgruntled TikTok users flock to the platform, pulled by its promise of “transparent tech”. The flood of new users momentarily crashed the platform’s servers over the weekend, UpScrolled reported.

Here’s what we know about the new app that’s stirring up the social media space:

What is UpScrolled, and how does it work?

UpScrolled enables the trio of photos, short-form video and text posts, making it feel like a combination of X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Its interface is similar to X, and users can similarly like a post, comment under it or repost.

So far, users on the app appear to be using it more for text and photo posts, rather than for the short-form videos TikTok is popular for.

UpScrolled also has a “Discover Page” similar to Snapchat’s. By far the most popular topic on the Discover Page is Palestine. Hundreds of posts depicting the continuing suffering in the Gaza Strip, or standing in solidarity with Palestinians, are flooding the app.

Some high-profile figures joined the new flock of UpScrolled users, including Chris Smalls, the American labour activist and former Amazon Union organiser who joined others on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in July 2025 to try to break the blockade on the strip.

Jacob Berger, the Jewish-American actor who starred in the popular American crime series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and who was also on the Freedom Flotilla, is also on the app.

Some users on the app earlier this week complained that video uploads were crashing. UpScrolled, in an update on the app on Thursday, said that was a result of more user downloads, and added that the bugs have been fixed.

Who developed UpScrolled?

UpScrolled was founded in July 2025 by Issam Hijazi, a Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian developer who formerly worked with Big Tech companies like Oracle and IBM. It is backed by Tech for Palestine, an advocacy project that funds pro-Palestine tech initiatives.

Hijazi, in an interview with tech news site Rest of World, said he was inspired to leave his Big Tech career behind and build an alternative amid Israel’s obliteration of Gaza, which was declared a genocide by a United Nations Commission of Inquiry. The rate of content censorship across the popular apps, Hijazi said, was a major driver.

“I couldn’t take it any more,” Hijazi is quoted as saying. “I lost family members in Gaza, and I didn’t want to be complicit. So I was like, I’m done with this, I want to feel useful.

“I found this gap in the market, with a lot of people asking why there is no alternative to the Big Tech platforms for their content, which was getting censored. So I thought, why don’t we build our own? I just rolled up my sleeves and built it,” he added.

In a report last year, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese accused IBM and several other Big Tech companies of complicity in what she called “Israel’s genocide”. Social media apps like Instagram, X and TikTok have faced accusations of shadow bans by users posting pro-Palestine content.

UpScrolled claims to moderate only illegal content, such as hard drug sales, but nothing else. Hijazi said the app’s algorithm is not designed to keep people scrolling, unlike TikTok and others.

“It’s not because we don’t know how: it is very easy to design the algorithms to do that,” Hijazi said in the interview. “But I don’t want to do that because I know the effect it can have on people, mentally, especially the younger generation.”

UpScrolled says its feed remains entirely chronological, a feature that has long been removed from other popular apps despite complaints.

Posts on the Discover Page are currently ranked based on engagement, although the team is experimenting with using AI to reorganise the feed, according to user behaviour.

On its website, UpScrolled says it wants to give users a place to “freely express thoughts, share moments, and connect with others”. The app belongs to the people who use it and “not to hidden algorithms or outside agendas,” the company says.

How many people have downloaded UpScrolled?

By Tuesday, estimates from the marketing intelligence firm Sensor Tower noted that UpScrolled had been downloaded about 400,000 times in the US and 700,000 globally since launching in June 2025.

The app saw a surge in US downloads beginning on January 22 – the same day TikTok signed a deal to create an American-controlled US version of its app.

Sensor Tower estimated that, as of Tuesday, 85 percent of UpScrolled’s downloads in the US had occurred between January 21 and 27.

On Wednesday, UpScrolled was number one in the “social networking” category in Apple’s US App Store, surpassing Meta’s Threads, WhatsApp and TikTok. It was the number six free social app on Google Play for Android users, where TikTok (and TikTok Lite) reign.

The app has also seen a high number of downloads in Canada, the UK and Australia.

“Crazy load on our servers. So exciting!” founder Hijazi posted on the platform on Sunday, after the site reported that soaring numbers of new users crashed its servers.

“Sorry about the errors and glitches, we are increasing our capacity to handle the load. We expect things to become more stable in the next 12-24 hours,” Hijazi wrote.

What are the censorship concerns regarding TikTok?

Since the TikTok US deal went live last week, the tag #TikTokCensorship has been trending on the US sites of social platforms like X and Instagram.

Users are accusing TikTok of suppressing videos in support of Palestine. The ban on Bisan Owda has only appeared to support their claims.

Many are also accusing TikTok of quelling content that’s critical of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), amid outrage over the force’s deadly crackdown on immigrants and US citizens alike. This week, ICE officials killed emergency nurse Alex Pretti, less than three weeks after killing another civilian, Renee Good. Others say any anti-Trump criticism is similarly being shadow-banned.

Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a Tuesday post on X that he would investigate TikTok after users complained of being flagged for content about Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted child sex offender alleged to have ties to numerous high-profile figures, including President Trump.

Separately, TikTok users have complained of video glitches on the app since last week’s business deal. Creators say they are seeing zero views on their videos and are experiencing slow uploads.

In a statement on Monday, TikTok said the glitches were caused by a “major infrastructure issue triggered by a power outage” at one of its US data centre partner sites.

Which other apps have surged in popularity in recent years?

Skylight, which launched in April last year, is another app that’s gaining prominence as a TikTok alternative.

The American short-form vertical video app has gained more than 380,000 users and saw an uptick in downloads over the weekend, according to reporting by tech website TechCrunch.

Another is Bluesky, which aims to rival X and was launched in 2024. It’s largely used by users opposed to X owner Elon Musk’s right-wing ideologies. Bluesky, owned by CEO Jay Graber, had about 1.5 million active users by September 2025.