OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — On Saturday night TikTok shut down, but it didn't last long. While the Supreme Court upheld the decision to ban the platform, users are already back to scrolling with many curious as to what comes next.
- President-elect Donald Trump pledged to give an executive order Monday after he takes office to delay a ban on the app for 90 days.
- “It seems more like a political ploy in terms of like, oh, Trump is going to be the one to bring back TikTok when formerly he was the one who wanted to ban it."
- The reason the Supreme Court upheld the decision to shut the app down is over privacy data concerns, concerns a few neighbors we spoke with don't seem to be worried about.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's official TikTok has been shut down…Well it was and not for long. While the Supreme Court upheld the decision to ban the Chinese owned platform, less than 24 hours later users can get back to scrolling.
On Saturday night, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, ByteDance, shut down service in the U.S. with many seeing a message like this come across their feed.
We went out to talk to neighbors who told us they weren't shocked.
“We were both like scrolling last night, kind of like savoring it and then it, like, the app just went dark. It was like, sorry, you can't use TikTok anymore, and you're like, oh no, it's the end is here,” said Ben Trapp, a TikTok user.
“But like all my friends, we were texting our group chats and stuff being like, oh my gosh, like it just happened. I thought we still had like a day to look,” said Julia Nulty, a TikTok user.
That brings us to Sunday around 12 hours after first going dark. Many users who checked the app noticed a new message, ‘TikTok is back in the U.S.!'
This comes after President-elect Donald Trump pledged to give an executive order Monday after he takes office to delay a ban on the app for 90 days.
In one of the original messages posted to TikTok during the ban it says ByteDance is quote 'fortunate that president trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution,' end quote.
“I think for me, it seems more like a political ploy in terms of like, oh, Trump is going to be the one to bring back TikTok when formerly he was the one who wanted to ban it. So yeah, I don't know if I necessarily think the algorithm will be the same,” said Darby Durbin, a TikTok user.
The reason the Supreme Court upheld the decision to shut the app down is over privacy data concerns, concerns a few neighbors we spoke with don't seem to be worried about.
Do you think TikTok is dangerous at all? “No more than any other version of social media,” said Phillip Bassing, a TikTok user.
“I don't see the harm in a lot of the stuff that at least what I scroll, I don't really see the harm in TikTok,” said Nulty.
Last year, congress passed a law requiring ByteDance to either sell the app to a new buyer the U.S. approves or face a ban.
For now, users have 90 more days to post and scroll.
