Libs of TikTok owner Chaya Raichik blasted Verizon CEO Dan Schulman on Wednesday, citing his political and personal beliefs as possible contributing factors to the provider’s nationwide service outage.
Hundreds of thousands of Verizon customers had limited to no service for roughly 10 hours on Wednesday, impacting calls, texting, and internet usage. Verizon restored most services by 10 p.m. ET and apologized several times on social media, promising that customers would receive account credits. The outage meant that Verizon users could not use their cellular devices to call emergency services if needed.
Raichik blamed Schulman, who was officially named Verizon’s CEO this past October, for the outage. In an X post with over 130,000 views and 5,600 likes at publication, Raichik described Schulman as “a pro BLM, George Floyd lover, pro-illegal alien, anti-Trumper, Hillary Clinton pal, who endorsed Kamala.” She included several of his prior social media posts, including one on LinkedIn that took subtle jabs at President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
“Who wants to bet DEI is partially responsible?” Raichik asked.
Verizon has been down all day leaving millions without service
The new CEO of Verizon is Dan Schulman— a pro BLM, George Floyd lover, pro-illegal alien, anti-Trumper, Hillary Clinton pal, who endorsed Kamala.
Who wants to bet DEI is partially responsible? pic.twitter.com/MfbWuDVM8b
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 15, 2026
Schulman had not publicly commented on the outage as of publication, and Verizon had not identified the specific cause of the disruption. According to Reuters, Verizon said it found no indication of a cyberattack.
Raichik’s criticism comes during what could prove to be a defining moment of Schulman’s tenure at Verizon. It is unclear how many customers have canceled their Verizon plans and switched to other service providers. Phones were stuck in SOS mode, and both New York City and Washington, D.C., advised residents to use other service providers or landlines if they needed to make emergency calls.
For some customers, the promise of account credits may not be enough to preserve trust in Verizon, particularly for those who endured a similar outage in 2024. It is also worth noting that Verizon cut more than 13,000 jobs during a restructuring in November, a move Schulman reportedly said would “simplify our operations.”
“Our current cost structure limits our ability to invest significantly in our customer value proposition,” Schulman wrote to employees at the time.
Were you impacted by Verizon’s outage yesterday? @cyberguy breaks down the workarounds you need to know if you’re left on “SOS” 📲 pic.twitter.com/sQRYPHo2wa
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) January 15, 2026
Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T remain the United States’ most popular wireless providers. Both T-Mobile and AT&T addressed the Verizon outage on Wednesday, with each company confirming that its network was unaffected.
“Our network?” the official AT&T X account wrote, attaching a link for potential new customers. “Solid. If you’re experiencing issues, it’s not us…..it’s the other guys. Some things are just out of our hands!”
In a separate post, AT&T added, “Strong performance, steady connections. That’s our network today.”
Neither AT&T nor T-Mobile had announced any special promotions for Verizon customers looking to switch providers as of Thursday morning.
