A message for the TikTok community.
Singh said he believed Trump’s attempt to remove the platform is a violation of his generation’s free speech rights.
Others said the resolution is a eulogy for the onslaught of TikTok users who had booked tickets to the presidential rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June, without the goal of attending.
While not transparent if TikTokers’ reserve tickets had an effect on participation in the rally, this resolution would likely have inflated participation expectations.
“I think he’s threatened because he knows he used to oppose it with the total incident of the Tulsa rally,” Elkins said of TikTok.
McCourt, one of TikTok’s teenagers who booked tickets to the rally without the goal of going there and said that might be the explanation for why Trump announced the ban.
“I feel like that might be one of the reasons you need me to die,” he said. “Personally, I see a lot of politics in my TikTok … it’s a very difficult tool to tell my generation.”
In a video posted on TikTok Saturday, TikTok’s US CEO Vanessa Pappas said the app was here to stay.
“We have heard your outpouring and would like to thank you. We don’t plan on going anywhere,” Pappas said. “We are very proud of all the other communities that live in TikTok.”
Pappas also discussed that TikTok employs another 1,500 people in the United States. In a statement, a spokesperson for TikTok said the app pledged to protect the privacy of its one hundred million users in the United States.
“We’ve rented about 1,000 more people to our U.S. team. This year and we are proud to rent another 10,000 workers in well-paying jobs across the United States,” the spokesman said. “Our $1 billion art fund supports American creators who build livelihoods from our platform.
“The knowledge of the American user of TikTok is stored in the United States, with strict controls on the painter’s access,” he continued. “TikTok’s biggest investors come from the United States. We are committed to protecting the privacy and protection of our users while making paintings to brighten families and careers for those who create on our platform.”
These statements have been a source of convenience for TikTok users who have spoken to NBC News, as it has assured them that the other people the app will fight to keep it in the United States.
“It brought me a lot of comfort and it reminded me a lot has happened between last night and today,” McCourt said. “It felt like there are people behind the app that are going to fight for it.”
Kalhan Rosenblatt is a journalist covering youth and Internet culture for NBC News in New York.
© 2020 NBC UNIVERSEL