Her videos, multiple users replied, were still visible.
In the days before the ban took effect, even after the Supreme Court’s ruling that the service must be sold to a non-Chinese company or face a ban in the United States, many TikTok users remained hopeful that the app would be spared and that U.S. users would be able to continue using it without interruption. Others tried to cope with humor, like TikTok creators who threw funerals — complete with makeshift caskets and eulogies — for the platform.
But by Saturday night in the United States, it was clear those hopes were, at least briefly, in vain. Alix Earle, a popular TikTok creator, headed straight over to Instagram to livestream with her followers and process the news. Ms. Earle joked she had tried to learn Mandarin to use RedNote, a Chinese video app that has become popular in recent days. She had already been banned from that app, she said.
Some relief finally came on Sunday when TikTok announced that, after assurances from President-elect Donald J. Trump, it was working to restore the service to U.S. users.
Before that announcement, TikTok users had been looking for a workaround to the ban in the form of virtual private networks, or V.P.N.s, which encrypt a user’s location. On Sunday, demand for V.P.N.s in the U.S. spiked 827 percent, according to Top10VPN, a V.P.N. review site.
The assumption from some was that most TikTok creators would simply shift their content to Instagram Reels, but not everyone was thrilled with that option.
Source link