I tried UpScrolled to escape TikTok's new terms, but I just found a lot of Keanu Reeves instead

I’ve never been a big fan of TikTok. I know it’s silly given my always-online line of work, but I couldn’t make myself download one more social media platform to mindlessly scroll in my free time. For a long time, my stubbornness worked — I just waited patiently for top TikTok videos to hit Instagram and then laughed just like everyone else.

But when a group stepped in to take over TikTok in the US from ByteDance and implemented strict new terms of service, it grabbed my attention. It amped up tracking, pared back privacy, and caused users to flee in droves — many turning to a new platform I’d never heard of called UpScrolled.

So, in an effort to satisfy my curiosity, I followed suit. I downloaded UpScrolled and quickly felt more than a little out of place. Here’s why I’ll be waiting a while to try it again.

Same same, but different

I won’t lie — I wasn’t sure what to expect when I downloaded UpScrolled. All I knew was that it was a relatively new platform that prides itself on skipping censorship and staying away from controlling algorithms. And to me, that sounded like I would have no idea what I got when I opened the app for the first time. I was right … well, mostly.

Honestly, UpScrolled does a pretty good job of feeling familiar right from the start, once you create your handle and log in for the first time. It looks and feels a lot like a cross between Instagram and TikTok, with tabs across the bottom for search, notifications, and content creation, as well as a row of uploaded stories across the top. If I didn’t know any better, I would tell you I was scrolling Instagram in the middle of a fever dream.

And yet, it’s not quite Instagram, either. In fact, it feels the most like a tweaked version of X, or maybe Threads. All I know for absolute sure is that it’s full of images (a lot of them AI-generated), videos (mostly political, definitely not TikTok dances), and text posts (many from journalists being glad that UpScrolled is gaining traction). Somehow, the hodgepodge of content feels both exciting and kind of like the Mos Eisley spaceport — a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Well, maybe not villainy. Despite the lack of apparent censorship, I’ve yet to feel like the content I’m being served is inappropriate. There’s definitely a political tilt to much of it, with most advocating against the upcoming World Cup and what’s happening in Minneapolis, but I haven’t come across any violence or profanity in my few hours of scrolling. So far, I’m firmly in favor of the content I’ve been fed, though it’s probably because it largely aligns with my worldview.

UpScrolled’s search tab is interesting, though, as it seems to prioritize top posts over recent ones, at least when you choose from its menu of topics. Every time I open the Film tab, I’m fed the same few posts, comprised mostly of fan edits, reuploaded videos, and a surprising amount of Keanu Reeves. Like, a lot of Keanu.

A word of warning, though: As the platform grows, users will probably take advantage of the lack of censorship to upload adult content. I’m not sure there’s a good way to avoid it, since the lack of an algorithm means it may just appear. However, I’ve seen UpScrolled mark one or two posts with a sensitive content warning, so maybe you’ll just be able to filter that out in the future, I don’t know.

If this app is popular, where is everyone?

The other problem with UpScrolled right now is that there’s just nobody here. I was shown some content from Real Madrid pretty quickly in my scroll down the sports topic, which I’ve come to accept is legit because it matches the team’s Instagram presence. And, with football on the brain, I decided to search for a few other large clubs and famous players, to see who’s here.

The answer is nobody. FC Barcelona isn’t here, Lamine Yamal isn’t here, and Chelsea FC isn’t here, either. I didn’t have any better luck with US-centric sports, though I didn’t really expect to. Unfortunately, that lack of footprint also extends to most of the tech and running influencers I follow on platforms like X and Instagram. Maybe it’s just a matter of my being here on what feels like day one, and perhaps I just have to stick around for a while, but it doesn’t make things too exciting yet.

The thing that worries me about the lack of familiar faces, at least right now, is that I’m not sure how I’ll find them when they do show up. There aren’t too many verified accounts on UpScrolled at the moment, and the lack of an algorithm means that even if verified accounts do start popping up, I’m not sure they’ll be shown to me because I only follow Real Madrid and journalist Taylor Lorenz at the moment.

Then again, who knows? I didn’t expect TikTok to rise from the ashes of Vine in the way that it did, so maybe I’m being too quick to dismiss UpScrolled. For now, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see who shows up at the party.