TikTok went dark in the United States for a mere 12 hours over the weekend, and people online are reacting to the temporary ban that left many U.S. creators scrambling.
In the lead up to its short-lived death, American creators were resurrecting old viral videos, admitting lies they’d told to their millions of followers, and sharing tearful funeral videos thanking their audiences for “changing their lives.”
Within seconds of its disappearance, Instagram became overpopulated with reels as U.S TikTokers migrated onto the Meta-owned platform.
While Americans were met with a PSA declaring TikTok unavailable, it remained usable for the rest of the world, nonetheless, it wasn’t long before U.S. users were back online creating content.
“ A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” the original ban message said.
Within hours an update appeared, “Thanks for your patience and support, as a result of President Trump’s efforts TikTok is back in the U.S.” it read.
“She’s back, this is great news” one creator said in a video after the ban was lifted.
@bethebuz The greatest update we could have recieced regarding the tiktok ban in the US #greenscreen #tiktokban #usa_tiktok #tiktokaustralia #tiktokagency #businessowners ♬ original sound – Bianca (bethebuz)
“Hey TikTok’s back man, they said Trump figured it out,” one creator said in a video shortly after the app returned.
When the app was offline for Americans, users took their chance to fill the gaping content void left by their banished friends with reaction videos.
Some of them mocked American’s dominant presence on the app, with many users commenting they wish the ban had lasted longer than half a day.
“Like we couldn’t have ONE DAY,” a user wrote beneath a TikTok of a woman “welcoming” Americans back to the app.
“Australian here, literally went to bed and they were gone. woke up and they’re all back,” another person commented.
One trend saw thousands of comments and videos about finally being able to use the metric system.
“Guys we can talk now in kg, cm, km and celsius,” one person commented.
“I’m 175cm, I weigh 71kg, and it’s like 20 C° outside,” someone else wrote.
Sympathy for American users was generally scarce. A visibility upset James Charles, an American creator who made his name on YouTube as a makeup artist, and has traversed his fair share of scandals, posted an emotional “final thoughts” video to his 40.5 million followers.
“I don’t know how many hours we have left together, or whether this app is even gonna go dark tonight at midnight, but in case it does I don’t want the last video I posted to be some screaming and yelling at the camera during some rant or audio trend,” he said.
The app came back online for American users on Sunday, tinging genuinely upset creators’ farewell messages with irony, and morphing many into comedy gold for international observers who witnessed the arc of the ban from a far.
“THIS IS AWKWARD BROOOOO,” one TikTok user said.
“laughs in australian,” another person said.
Some American users took the brief absence in their stride, returning to the app with an appropriately awkward hello.
“In the clurb we all confused,” one user wrote under Yesly Dimate’s video, a New York based creator.
