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UpScrolled, a Palestinian-Founded TikTok Alternative, Rises to No. 1 on the App Store

UpScrolled is a Palestinian‑founded social media app that’s rapidly gaining attention. Launched in June 2025 by Palestinian‑Australian technologist Issam Hijazi, the app emphasizes user control and open expression. It positions itself as an anti-censorship alternative to social media platforms.

It combines features from Instagram, TikTok, and X, offering short-form videos, stories, image posts, and a scrolling feed all in one platform. Here’s why it hit No. 1 on the App Store in Social Networking.

Uproar over TikTok’s censorship

Last January, TikTok was briefly banned in the United States over its ties to Chinese app ByteDance. It has since restructured, with most of its US operations now owned by American investors and companies, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX, while ByteDance retains a 20% stake.

However, the app’s new terms and conditions include a content moderation agreement, allowing the new ownership group to ban, restrict, or suspend a user’s account for violating policies. Users have reported that content critical of U.S. policies or posts about Palestine often receives limited visibility or is removed.

Since then, users have expressed dissatisfaction with the app over alleged censorship, especially around videos related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s deportation campaign have been censored.

However, users posting about Palestine say they’ve long faced similar issues, with their content often receiving limited visibility, being removed, or flagged as hate speech, particularly since TikTok’s brief US ban last January.

UpScrolled steps in

Designed to put centralize user voices, UpScrolled rejects “shadowbans” and opaque ranking systems in favor of chronological and engagement‑based feeds. It pledges to moderate only content that clearly violates community guidelines.

Its ethos of equal visibility and user control has resonated with many dissatisfied with Big Tech moderation policies. This helped it surge in downloads and climb the Apple App Store’s rankings. It finally reached the top spot in the social networking category in several markets.