A glitch on the video-making platform TikTok caused panic among its users in the US, leading them to suspect that the US authorities may have banned the Chinese app. The technical glitch occurred just four days after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US is 'looking into' banning TikTok.
The Chinese app has over 30 million users in America alone. TikTok, along with 50 other Chinese apps, was recently banned by the Indian government after a clash with Chinese troops along the borders that the two nations share.
TiKTok Says Glitch Due to Increased Traffic
In the glitch which occurred around the afternoon on Thursday, a number of TikTok users could not see the likes generated on their previous videos. Despite raking in thousands of likes, app users found zero likes in the section.
TikTok took to Twitter to address the issue. "Hi TikTok community! We're aware that some users are experiencing app issues – working to quickly fix things, and we'll share updates here!" the tweet stated.
According to the Daily Mail, the outage started around 2 pm ET, with more than 17,000 users reporting issues on Downdetector. The issues first arose in parts of the US and UK, but quickly affected users around the world reported the outlet.
"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," TikTok told 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," it went on to add.
Stating that TikTok had privacy issues, Pompeo had said that if Americans want their private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, they can download the Chinese apps on their devices.
TikTok Glitch Sparks Memes Online
Soon after the glitch was removed by the app, it tweeted: "Issue update: We're back in action. Thanks for your patience today!"
However, the outage led to memes flooding the social media platform. Here are some of them:
