TikTok services down, thousands report issues

NEW YORK: The services of social media platform TikTok are reportedly affected across the United States. Over 40,000 US users have reported that they are facing issues, on Tuesday.

The fate of TikTok app continues to uncertain in the US, as the federal legislation has effectively banned the social media platform. However, earlier in May, President Donald Trump had said that he could extend the ban deadline if an agreement is nor reached by June 19 – the date set by his executive order in April.

The Chinese parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, has been given until June 19 to divest the social media platform, or it will be banned in the US.

Trump also said that since TikTok was also one of the platforms that allowed him to effectively carry out his presidential election campaign, so he has a “little sweet spot” for the app, and would like to see it keep operating.

Under federal legislation, the president can implement a 90-day extension on the deadline to sell. However, so far Trump chose the way of executive orders delaying the ban by 75 days, in January. He could choose to issue another executive order once again. The executive order came after TikTok went completely dark in January for half a day, following the federal legislation saying that companies could be fined $5,000 per user they help access TikTok.

For companies like Google and Apple, this could amount to $5,000 fine for each user who downloads or updates TikTok. While the services began to be restored soon after the blackout, it was not until February 13 that TikTok was back on App Store and Play Store.

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