By Doyinsola Oladipo
NEW YORK (Reuters) – On Saturday night time, for the primary time in 5 years, thousands and thousands of American TikTok customers who logged on for a late-night scroll had been met with an unwelcome discover that their beloved app had been banned and shut down.
Their exile lasted lower than 24 hours, ending when the Chinese language-owned firm restored service on Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump, who returns to energy on Monday, mentioned he would revive U.S. entry. However the TikTok lots had already began considering life with out the app that has captivated almost half of all People.
As customers returned, some cringed at sappy goodbyes posted earlier than the shutdown or thanked Trump on social media website X, whereas others questioned whether or not the TikTok world would ever be the identical once more.
“We’re again however at what price?” one consumer mused on the platform.
Trump’s motion to save lots of TikTok, owned by ByteDance, represents a reversal from his first time period in workplace. In 2020, he aimed to ban the short-video app over considerations the corporate may share People’ private data with the Chinese language authorities.
Extra lately, Trump has mentioned he has “a heat spot in my coronary heart for TikTok,” crediting the app with serving to him win over younger voters within the 2024 election.
TikTok stopped working for U.S. customers late on Saturday earlier than a regulation shutting it down on nationwide safety grounds took impact on Sunday.
Trump mentioned he would “prolong the time frame earlier than the regulation’s prohibitions take impact, in order that we are able to make a deal to guard our nationwide safety.”
“I would really like the USA to have a 50% possession place in a three way partnership,” he wrote on his Fact Social platform.
DON’T GO CHANGING
Although relieved, some customers surprise if such a change to the corporate’s possession construction would in the end alter the TikTok expertise.
“I believe again to when Elon purchased Twitter and the way dramatically it shifted general sentiment and the way individuals interacted on the app. So that offers me quite a lot of concern,” mentioned Kelly Websites, 38, referring to billionaire Elon Musk’s buy of the social media website now often known as X.
“I do not need the magic of the algorithm to vary,” mentioned Websites, a part-time content material creator based mostly in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas.
The algorithms TikTok depends on for its operations are deemed core to the general operations of ByteDance, which might make a sale of the app with algorithms extremely unlikely, Reuters reported in April.
Whereas questions linger about the way forward for TikTok, some customers – notably those that earn a dwelling from it – lament their belief within the authorities won’t ever be the identical.
“I believe that it is a very unhappy time in historical past,” mentioned Richard “Chuck” Fasulo, 37, a mechanic and auto-influencer from Duchess County, New York.
Fasulo advised Reuters that the app helped him dig his method out of debt, greater than double his revenue and take his household on trip for the primary time final summer season. Confronting the specter of shedding the enterprise alternatives that the app supplied him was not a nice expertise.
“I believe that myself, like many others, have gained quite a lot of disdain for the U.S. authorities,” mentioned Fasulo, who has about 400,000 followers.
For others, nonetheless, reduction is the essential factor, regardless of its supply.
“I might select a political stunt over shedding TikTok endlessly,” Charlotte Warren, 31, a relationship and relationships content material creator based mostly in Austin, Texas, advised Reuters. With out TikTok, she mentioned she may lose as much as $60,000 in annual revenue, over 200,000 followers and was uncertain if she would proceed posting content material to different platforms.
“I simply needed my app again.”
