TikTok 'not going to be the same' after disruption

The owner of a British Star Wars-themed TikTok account believes irrevocable damage has been done by the disruption caused by the US ban of the app.

The platform was temporarily unavailable in the US on Saturday after the Supreme Court denied a bid by Chinese owner ByteDance to overturn a law banning it.

Chris Saunders, from Wallsend, runs an account with more than 270,000 followers and said 40% of them were from America.

"It's not going to be the same, everyone said goodbye, from celebrities to brands to followers and now, coming back, there's a cloud of uncertainty," he said.

"It was a weird 14 hours when it was down and, while it's great to have everyone back, there's a feeling that if it's been taken away once, it could be taken away again.

"Is it going to stay? Is it going to go? Everyone's had that feeling of impending doom that it might all happen again.

"The general feeling has made people start looking elsewhere."

The law was passed by Congress and upheld on Friday by the Supreme Court, which said it was "designed to prevent China - a designated foreign adversary - from leveraging its control over ByteDance to capture the personal data of US TikTok users".

It was due to take effect on Sunday but the app stopped working for US users on Saturday night.

On Sunday, however, service was resumed after Donald Trump - then still president-elect - promised to issue an executive order after he took office on Monday.

American users were greeted with a notification reading: "Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the US!"

This was a relief for Mr Saunders who said he could have lost "almost half" of his followers had the ban stayed in place.

"There were videos all over from my American followers about the impending ban, everyone said goodbye," he said.

"It was devastating because, over the last few years, we've built up really good relationships with followers, some of them have travelled over to London for Star Wars events and we've met, so to lose that was going to be gutting."

Mr Saunders said he was not financially reliant on the app but would still be affected if the ban were to be reintroduced.

Losing deals with US brands would have "massive implications," he said.

"With sabers, costumes, books - to take all that away would be massive."

He would stay with TikTok as his main platform but had started using Instagram and YouTube more "because I have got those US relationships with viewers that I don't want to lose", he added.

TikTok has been approached for comment.

In a statement made after restoring services it thanked Trump "for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties".

The platform said it would work with the president on a "long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States".

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