Heartbroken TikTokers are going cuckoo.
Users of the now defunct social app nationwide are mourning its loss early Sunday, after the popular video-sharing platform went dark for its 170 million American users in the face of a legal US ban.
“ITS GONE TIKTOK IS GONE,” one user posted to X with a gif of someone nervously smoking.
A podcaster with more than 1.8 followers named iJustine helped lead the hysteria on X: “It’s been 15 minutes and I’m already going through TikTok withdrawals. THIS IS A CRIME.”
It’s been 15 minutes and I’m already going through TikTok withdrawal. THIS IS A CRIME pic.twitter.com/k6g1t8l9MB
— iJustine (@ijustine) January 19, 2025
Mikayla Nogueira, a makeup influencer with 16 million TikTok followers, said she keeps clicking to open the app out of habit forgetting it doesn’t work.
“Mentally I am totally dissociating right now I’m crashing out BAD LOL,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “This can’t be f—g real.”
The online freak out began after TikTok went dark in the US before 11 p.m., and users were greeted with a message that said: “Sorry TikTok isn’t available right now” and the site was otherwise unusable.
“TikTok was just removed from the App store,” Republican State Delegate Sarah Fields posted to X. “The US Government has unconstitutionally silenced millions of voters.”
TikTok was just removed from the App Store.
The US Government has unconstitutionally silenced millions of voices. pic.twitter.com/IDl871koKn
— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) January 19, 2025
“Tiktok is gone and im already having withdrawals,” another user posted.
“It’s been 15 minutes and I’m already going through TikTok withdraws,” a podcaster with more than 1.8 followers said. “THIS IS A CRIME.”
“TIKTOK IS GONE NOOOOO,” another user posted.
Before it went down, users began to express heartbreak and #SaveTikTok trended.
ITS GONE TIKTOK IS GONE pic.twitter.com/USTFbIA1Yi
— ☆La 🤍 (@Ayah2156) January 19, 2025
TikTok’s shutdown was widely anticipated after the Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld Congress’s law that required the platform’s Chinese-owned parent company to divest its stake in the company by Jan. 19 or face a national ban, rejecting TikTok’s appeal that the decision violates the First Amendment.
Under the law, service providers like Google and Apple must stop allowing new downloads of TikTok after the ban takes effect – with potential fines of $5,000 per user if they don’t comply.
As of midnight, the app was removed from Google and Apple stores.
Bipartisan members of Congress and the Justice Department have alleged that TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, poses a national security threat.
TikTok has denied the allegations.
The app’s future now rests in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump, who returns to the White House on Monday and has vowed to “save” the app, which he has credited 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.
