Social media application UpScrolled, developed by Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian entrepreneur Issam Hijazi, has soared in popularity in several countries, including the United States, as many users looked for alternatives to TikTok, which was officially taken over by US-backed investors and companies last week.
Social media users have raised concerns about censorship of pro-Palestinian posts on the popular app after Oracle owner Larry Ellison, an ardent supporter of Israel and friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, acquired a stake in US-based TikTok. TikTok’s global operations will continue to be run by Chinese owner ByteDance.
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
On Wednesday, TikTok permanently banned the Emmy Award-winning journalist and Al Jazeera contributor from Bisan Ouda, Gaza Strip, sparking outrage and calls for a boycott from her supporters. The app has also been criticized for content censorship surrounding the unprecedented ICE violence in the United States.
Founded just a year ago, UpScrolled surprisingly rose to the top spot in U.S. app downloads this week, ranking No. 1 in the “Social Networking” category of Apple’s App Store free apps by Wednesday. It was also among the top downloaded apps by Apple users in the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Meanwhile, the app is gaining thousands of new downloads as disgruntled TikTok users flock to the platform, drawn by its promise of “transparent technology.” UpScrolled reports that a large number of new users caused the platform’s servers to temporarily crash over the weekend.
Here’s what we know about this new app that’s making waves in the social media space.
UpScrolled lets you do three things: photos, short-form videos, 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 posts, comment below them, and repost them.
For now, users of the app appear to be using it to post text and photos, rather than the short videos that are popular on TikTok.
UpScrolled also has a “Discover Page” similar to Snapchat. By far the most popular topic on the Discover page is Palestine. Hundreds of posts depicting the continuing suffering in the Gaza Strip and solidarity with Palestinians have flooded the app.
Several celebrities have joined the new wave of Upscroll users, including Chris Smalls, an American labor activist and former Amazon union organizer who joined other members of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip in July 2025.
Jacob Berger, a Jewish American actor who starred in the popular American crime series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and was a member of the Freedom Fleet, is also on the app.
Earlier this week, some users of the app complained that video uploads were crashing. UpScrolled said in an app update on Thursday that this was the result of an increase in user downloads, adding that the bug had been fixed.
UpScrolled was founded in July 2025 by Issam Hijazi, a Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian developer who previously worked for big tech companies such as Oracle and IBM. It is supported by Tech for Palestine, an advocacy project that funds pro-Palestinian technology initiatives.
Hijazi said in an interview with tech news site Rest of the World that he was inspired to leave his career in Big Tech and forge an alternative path amidst Israel’s destruction of the Gaza Strip, which has been labeled a genocide by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry. Hijazi said the main factor is the rate of content censorship across popular apps.
Hijazi reportedly said, “I couldn’t take it anymore.” “I lost my family in Gaza and I didn’t want to be complicit. So I wanted to be done with it and feel like I was contributing.
“I noticed this gap in the market with so many people asking why there’s no alternative to censored content from big tech companies. So I thought why not build our own platform? 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 such as Instagram, X, and TikTok are facing accusations of shadowbanning by users who post pro-Palestinian content.
UpScrolled claims to only moderate illegal content, such as the sale of hard drugs, and nothing else. Hijazi said the app’s algorithm is not designed to keep people scrolling, unlike something like TikTok.
“It’s not because we don’t know how to do it; it’s very easy to design an algorithm for that,” Hijazi said in an interview. “But I don’t want to do that because I know the psychological impact it has on people, especially the younger generation.”
According to UpScrolled, the feed remains fully 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, but the team is experimenting with using AI to reorganize the feed based on user behavior.
UpScrolled says on its website that it wants to give users a place to “freely express their thoughts, share moments, and connect with others.” The app belongs to the people who use it, and “does not belong to any hidden algorithms or outside agendas,” the company said.
As of Tuesday, marketing intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimates UpScrolled has been downloaded about 400,000 times in the U.S. and about 700,000 times worldwide since its launch in June 2025.
The number of downloads of this app in the US has increased rapidly since January 22nd. On the same day, TikTok signed a deal to create a U.S.-controlled version of the app.
As of Tuesday, Sensor Tower estimated that 85% of UpScrolled’s downloads in the U.S. occurred between Jan. 21 and 27.
On Wednesday, UpScrolled took first place in the “Social Networking” category on Apple’s U.S. App Store, beating out Meta’s Threads, WhatsApp, and TikTok. It was number 6 on Google Play’s free social apps for Android users, where TikTok (and TikTok Lite) reigns supreme.
The app also has a high number of downloads in Canada, the UK, and Australia.
“We’re experiencing an unusual load on our servers. It’s very exciting!” founder Hijazi posted on the platform on Sunday after the site reported that its servers were crashing due to a surge in new users.
“We apologize for any errors or glitches, but we are increasing our ability to handle the load. We expect the situation to become more stable within the next 12 to 24 hours,” Hijazi wrote.
What are the censorship concerns regarding TikTok?
Since TikTok began trading in the US last week, the tag #TikTokCensorship has been trending on the US sites of social platforms such as X and Instagram.
Users have accused TikTok of suppressing pro-Palestinian videos. The ban on Bisan Ouda only seems to confirm their claims.
Many have also accused TikTok of squelching content critical of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amid outrage over the agency’s equally deadly crackdown on immigrants and U.S. citizens. This week, ICE authorities killed emergency nurse Alex Preti, less than three weeks after killing another civilian, Renee Good. Some say anti-Trump criticism has been similarly shadowbanned.
Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a post on X on Tuesday that he would investigate TikTok after users complained that they were flagged for content about the late Jeffrey Epstein, who is suspected of having ties to many celebrities, including President Trump.
Separately, TikTok users have been complaining about video glitches on the app since last week’s deal. Creators say their videos have zero views and uploads are slow.
TikTok said in a statement Monday that the glitch was caused by “significant infrastructure issues caused by a power outage” at one of its U.S. data center partner sites.
What other apps have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years?
Skylight, which was released in April last year, is another app that is gaining attention as an alternative to TikTok.
The American short-form vertical video app has attracted more than 380,000 users, with downloads increasing over the weekend, tech website TechCrunch reported.
The other is Bluesky, which aims to rival the X and is launched in 2024. It is primarily used by users who oppose X owner Elon Musk’s right-wing ideology. Bluesky, owned by CEO Jay Graeber, had about 1.5 million active users by September 2025.
