Heartbroken TikTokers Mourn App’s Demise as It Goes Dark in the US
TikTok users across the nation are in an uproar after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in the face of a legal US ban. The app, which had 170 million American users, ceased to function early Sunday morning, leaving fans in a state of shock and withdrawal.
Users took to social media to express their heartbreak, with many posting gifs and memes to cope with the loss. “ITS GONE TIKTOK IS GONE,” wrote one user, while podcaster iJustine tweeted, “It’s been 15 minutes and I’m already going through TikTok withdrawals. THIS IS A CRIME.”
Influencer Mikayla Nogueira, who has 16 million TikTok followers, shared her final TikTok video on Saturday and later wrote on Instagram, “Mentally I am totally dissociating right now I’m crashing out BAD LOL. This can’t be f–g real.”
The online freak out began after TikTok went dark in the US, with users greeted with a message saying “Sorry TikTok isn’t available right now” and the site being otherwise unusable. The app was removed from the App Store, and users are now left to wonder about its future.
TikTok’s shutdown was widely anticipated after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld Congress’s law requiring the platform’s Chinese-owned parent company to divest its stake in the company by January 19 or face a national ban. The law also requires service providers like Google and Apple to stop allowing new downloads of TikTok, with potential fines of $5,000 per user if they don’t comply.
As the app’s future hangs in the balance, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to “save” TikTok, which he credits with helping him win in November. Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to work out a deal.