Topline
More than 32,000 users reported issues with the popular social media app TikTok late Thursday afternoon, according to reports on DownDetector.com.
In this photo illustration, a TikTok logo is displayed on an iPhone on February 28, 2023 in London, … More
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Key Facts
TikTok users began reporting issues around 4:15 p.m. EDT, and rose to more than 32,000 by 4:45 p.m. EDT, according to DownDetector.
By 5:30 p.m. EDT, reports of outages had dropped to around 13,300 on DownDetector.
Most of the issues reported, 79%, were with the app, though 20% were about server connection and 1% was about the website, as of just after 5 p.m. EDT.
Neither TikTok’s support nor its communications accounts had addressed the issue on X as of 5:05 p.m. EDT.
Forbes has reached out to TikTok for comment on the outage.
This story is developing and will be updated.
Key Background
TikTok, a Chinese-owned video sharing platform, skyrocketed in popularity in the U.S. around 2019 and, as of 2024, about 170 million Americans used the platform, The New York Times reported. In 2020, during his first term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to ban the use of TikTok amid concerns that the Chinese government was collecting U.S. data, like users’ personal information, through TikTok. A judge blocked Trump’s first attempt to ban TikTok, but former President Joe Biden signed a law last year requiring the app be sold or banned after bipartisan security concerns around the app’s connection to the Chinese government again increased. Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office this year that halted the ban on TikTok for 75 days, and in early April he extended it for another 75 days to allow more time for a deal to be made.
Big Number
33%. That’s how many adults said they used TikTok in a Pew Research Center survey last summer. That number rose significantly from two years prior in 2021 when just 21% of adults said they used TikTok.
Further Reading
Ice Bucket Challenge Goes Viral Again On TikTok—Here’s Why (Forbes)
How TikTok Changed America (New York Times)
