People lost it after the U.S. ban on the social media app TikTok went into effect this past weekend, but it didn’t stay offline for too long. The popular social media app went dark for about 14 hours before its services were restored in the U.S., but what does the future hold for its American users?
TikTok ban went into effect after the Supreme Court ordered its owner ByteDance to cease U.S. operations if it didn’t divest from Chinese ownership. Even before the ban became official, many TikTok users migrated to other Chinese-owned apps including REDnote, taking part in a viral social media trend.
TikTok ban became official on January 18, and the app was promptly removed from Google and Apple stores, but not for too long! Just 14 hours later, many users could access it again after TikTok restored its services in the face of a new executive order that allows a 90-day extension before the ban is enforced.
Many U.S. users who deleted the app from their phones still can’t access TikTok, and it remains to be seen what its future in the U.S. holds. ByteDance would have to sell the app to a non-Chinese buyer to keep it running in the U.S. and the artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI emerged as a potential buyer after proposing a merger this past weekend.
Many people reacted to the ban with humor, and we’re bringing you some of their most hilarious tweets.
