“I watched first-hand as meaningful stories disappeared from feeds, while harmful disinformation thrived.”
As TikTok users in the US report what they describe as suspicious activity on the platform, including the apparent suppression of videos covering controversial political topics, such as the killing of Alex Pretti by an ICE agent, a new social media platform is gaining traction – UpScrolled.
Dissatisfaction with TikTok comes just weeks after the company’s US operations were placed under the control of a new joint venture, TikTok USDS, led by a consortium of US-backed investors and companies. While the arrangement was presented as a safeguard against foreign political interference and data misuse, many users fear it has instead opened the door to domestic political manipulation.
Against this backdrop, UpScrolled has emerged as a magnet for politically engaged users, particularly progressives and pro-Palestinian activists.
UpScrolled was founded in July 2025 by Issam Hijazi, a Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian technologist who left a career in Big Tech to build what he describes as a censorship-resistant alternative to mainstream social media. The platform is backed by Tech for Palestine, an advocacy initiative that funds pro-Palestinian technology projects.
Promising “transparent tech,” UpScrolled positions itself as a platform owned by its users rather than by opaque algorithms or corporate interests. On its website, the company says it aims to give people a place to “freely express thoughts, share moments, and connect with others,” without “hidden algorithms or outside agendas.”
Functionally, UpScrolled resembles a hybrid of X and Instagram, with a strong emphasis on text and images rather than short-form video. Its “Discover” page is dominated by political content, with Palestine currently the most popular topic. Posts frequently express solidarity with Palestinians and document the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
The platform’s growth has been explosive. According to Hijazi, UpScrolled expanded from around 150,000 users at launch to 2.5 million users largely through word-of-mouth. In a video posted on Smashi TV, a Middle Eastern business and tech media channel, he described the pace of adoption as beyond anything he had anticipated.
“Our community is growing at a pace that I only could have dreamt of,” Hijazi said.
The influx has pushed UpScrolled to the top of app download charts in the United States, and into the top rankings in the UK, Canada, and Australia.
In an interview with the tech news site Rest of World, Hijazi said he was motivated by what he sees as systemic censorship across major social media platforms, particularly following Israel’s attacks on Gaza, attacks which the United Nations Commission of Inquiry has described as genocidal.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” Hijazi said. “I lost family members in Gaza, and I didn’t want to be complicit… I wanted to feel useful.”
Born in Jordan to parents and grandparents from Safad, a Palestinian city near the Lebanese border, Hijazi said the events since 2023 have altered his relationship with technology.
“I watched first-hand as meaningful stories disappeared from feeds, while harmful disinformation thrived,” he said.
That sentiment appears to resonate widely. Several high-profile figures have joined UpScrolled, including Chris Smalls, the American labour activist and former Amazon Union organiser. Smalls was among those who joined the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in July 2025 in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade on the Gaza strip.
UpScrolled’s rise coincides with growing unease among TikTok’s roughly 200 million US-based users following the restructuring of the platform’s ownership. Under the new TikTok USDS arrangement, a consortium that includes major US technology firms,notably cloud computing company Oracle, controls the platform’s US operations, while Chinese parent company ByteDance retains a 19.9 percent stake.
Many of the investors involved have close ties to Donald Trump and the global right. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is a prominent Trump supporter, a vocal backer of Israel, and a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Although the restructuring was introduced under legislation passed during Joe Biden’s presidency to curb Chinese political influence and protect user data, critics argue it may simply shift algorithmic power from Beijing to Washington. Some users fear that a future Trump administration could exploit this control to suppress dissenting political speech, echoing the very accusations previously levelled against China.
These concerns have prompted California Governor Gavin Newsom to call for a review of TikTok’s algorithm to determine whether it complies with state law. TikTok USDS has denied any political motivation, attributing recent system disruptions to a power outage at an Oracle data centre.
For many new users, UpScrolled is less a tech novelty than a political statement. As one European user who recently joined the platform wrote on Facebook: “I am now on UpScrolled, the REAL alternative to the odious Facebook! No data harvesting/selling! No algorithms! No shadow banning, ‘jail time’ or censorship! Join me here!”
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