TikTok down in the United States: Thousands report outage as app goes offline
Users in major cities report widespread problems with TikTok, with Downdetector recording more than 30,000 complaints. There has been no word from the company yet.
Thousands of users in the United States reported on Wednesday afternoon that TikTok was down, which affected the app's functionalities and server connections. Complaints peaked at around 4:30 p.m. ET according to Downdetector, with 32,023 complaints being logged by 4:45 p.m.
The outage looks to have impact a number of major U.S. cities including New York City, Washington D.C., Houston and Seattle. Many users reported being able to access the app for short periods before experiencing errors that made the app unresponsive. TikTok has not yet given any statement on the outage at the time of this report.
A window into TikTok's outage: Users reach out on X
As users navigated to TikTok's core platform and discovered it was down for maintenance, they took to X (formerly Twitter) to share their frustration and confusion. Some posts included screenshots or memes of the error messages they received or content that just wouldn't load. Others were left speculating on the connection of the outage and whether it related more to the political quagmire about TikTok's role in the United States.
Interestingly, the official TikTok support account on X has been dormant since July 2021 and communications staff hasn't signaled any activity since the outage commenced. Consequently, millions of users were left angry and confused without any details of the outage instigating the disruption to their TikTok experience.
TikTok stops working in the United States and thousands of users complain. Photo: Daily Express
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Outage coincides with uncertainty surrounding TikTok's future in the U.S.
The outage comes at a time of intense legal and political scrutiny facing TikTok. In early April, President Donald Trump extended the turmoil, giving TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance more time to find a U.S. buyer by extending an Executive Order unless a deal was struck to avert a ban stripping the app of its U.S. presence entirely, and app stores were removed altogether.
In 2024, a bipartisan law passed stating that ByteDance would have to divest TikTok; if they did not, a full ban on the app would take place in the Country. Although various reports indicated that a deal had been close, negotiations have seemingly stalled with the recent tariff wars unfolding between the U.S. and China. Although users have raised timeline concerns with the outages reported, there is no evidence to suggest any form of collusion.
