Attention American TikTok Users: Here Are the People Who Talked Smack About Us During the Ban
"It just feels ... off."
Updated Jan. 20 2025, 11:35 a.m. ET
The TikTok ban all but lasted for around 12 hours. During those 12 hours, some TikTok users commented on what it was like using the social media service while Americans were gone.
Try searching for "Americans Gone" on TikTok.
There are posts from users on the app who gave their candid opinions on what they thought about Americans during their brief hiatus from the mobile application.
One user gleefully says that they are "lowkey glad Americans are gone," before a snippet of Madonna's "Vogue" begins playing and he starts dancing in front of the camera.
One Canadian user posted a video urging TikTok to enable the "creator fund" for folks in the Great White North. He stated that because folks in the "third world country" that is America no longer have access to the application, TikTok needs Canadians for engagement, and he would be more than willing to take up the mantle and keep the app "alive."
However, since the ban was short-lived, there was one content creator who decided to "snitch" on those who were talking smack about Americans, like the aforementioned Canadian gentleman above. Furthermore, he added that there were groups of individuals who tried to act as if they were the new bosses of TikTok.
The first group of users he called out were indeed Canadians.
He said that a lot of them were trying to act like they were "the s--t" but conceded that he, too, was guilty of posting similar "new boss" energy. One dude called for Canada to take over the app while repping a red Maple Leaf hockey jersey.
Moreover, he snitched on Nigerian users who were dancing and celebrating, presumably upon discovering American users were no longer on TikTok.
He also called out some Jamaican, Australian, and British users, who he said were happy to see the Yankees gone. And speaking to that last point, there was one U.K. user who decided to jump on the app for a grammar lesson, stating that U.S. TikTok users were incorrectly using a common phrase.
She was perturbed that some Americans say "on accident" instead of "by accident," which she avers is proper grammar. Several U.S. posters who logged back in after the ban was lifted couldn't understand why they felt as if she couldn't post that video prior to the U.S. TikTok ban, however.
Another U.K. user was angry Americans decided to remove letters from particular words, like the "u" from "colour."
However, there were some folks from across the pond who were sad to see Americans go, like this one U.K. user who said that half of her viewers were from the U.S.
And one Canadian user said that his TikTok feed felt "off" after Americans were gone from the feed, because, he felt, U.S. app users were "entertaining to watch."
Someone else also expressed that TikTok felt desolate with U.S. users gone from the application, too.