TikTok will live to see another day. Despite increasingly scary security risks, TikTok did not get banned in the U.S. today, even though Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently suggested that the federal government was “looking into†it. A glitch caused TikToks to be shown without likes or views in the U.S. and the U.K., leading to wild rumors on Twitter that the Feds got TikTok. Users also reported that their For You pages were filled with random videos instead of personalized ones. TikTok confirmed the app was experiencing issues … around 45 minutes too late. Several hashtags, including #RIPTikTok, trended on Twitter; Vine comparisons went flying; and influencers were looking at career pivots. Creator SnarkyMarky (“The volume inside this bus is astronomical!â€) tweeted “omg is tiktok gone†with a screenshot of his viral TikToks, now with zero views. YouTuber and Kombucha Girl Brittany Tomlinson was on the case, getting info from her sources and quelling the masses. “MY CONTACT AT TIKTOK JUST SAID THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SHUTDOWN RUMORS ITS A BUG THEYRE WORKING ON MOMENTARILY!!!,†she all-caps tweeted with the hashtag #tiktokshutdown. “WILL BE FIXED SOON.†You can feel the TikTokers’ stress in these capital letters.
The bug was addressed shortly after, and TikTok has already begun rolling out fixes, but the trauma of thinking they lost the only thing getting them through quarantine is going to live with TikTokers forever.
Update, 9:30 p.m.: It appears the person(s) responsible for the Great Tik Tok Outage of 2020 resides somewhere in Virginia. “Earlier today, some of our users experienced app issues around notifications, the display of likes and view counts, and trouble loading videos on some pages of the app,†said reps for Tik Tok in a statement to The Verge. “The issues appear to have been caused by higher traffic than normal on our servers in Virginia, causing temporary service disruptions. We’ve resolved the problem and are investigating the cause, and will share updates as they become available.†NoVa, Richmond, and Virginia Beach Tik Tok users, we’re keeping our eye on you…