TikTok's Likes System Crashed Yesterday Causing Panic Among Users

TikTok confirmed outages and issues with the app's notifications, likes and view counts yesterday. Users reported problems on Twitter, posting images, videos and memes about being unable to see likes and view counts on the app, which both read "0" on their feeds.

The outage occurred amid reports of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo proposed banning of the app in the United States.

me after all of my views and likes disappear on Tiktok #tiktokdown pic.twitter.com/OEILBMRTDz

— lexienichole (@lexienichole2) July 9, 2020

"Earlier today, some of our users experienced app issues around notifications, the display of likes and view counts, and trouble loading videos on some pages of the app," TikTok said in a statement to The Verge. "The issues appear to have been caused by higher traffic than normal on our servers in Virginia, causing temporary service disruptions. We've resolved the problem and are investigating the cause, and will share updates as they become available."

On Twitter, people reacted to the outage with memes, with some theorizing that the blackout could be related to the proposed banning.

Me: no way they’ll ban TikTok Me now seeing all the videos at 0 likes and views pic.twitter.com/DErdrkuiSy

— Ana (@yoodudechill) July 9, 2020

me rn because tiktok won’t show likes and views: pic.twitter.com/XaHYHPi0D8

— blake (@itsblakelamude) July 9, 2020

me after all of my views and likes disappear on Tiktok #tiktokdown pic.twitter.com/OEILBMRTDz

— lexienichole (@lexienichole2) July 9, 2020

On Monday, Secretary of State Pompeo told Fox News that he was "looking into" banning TikTok.

"We are taking this very seriously. We are certainly looking at it," Pompeo said. "With respect to Chinese apps on peoples' cellphones, the United States will get this one right too."

However, Tiktok continued to treat the outage like a normal hiccup for the app that has since been fixed.

Hi TikTok community! We're aware that some users are experiencing app issues – working to quickly fix things, and we'll share updates here!

— TikTokSupport (@TikTokSupport) July 9, 2020