TikTok’s likes and views got broken for a vast portion of its user base. While it is not uncommon for an application to encounter issues, this was pretty strange.
Over the years, numerous apps from the play store had a history of errors and bugs which was later fixed. TikTok is now a billion-dollar company with a pristine tech team.
They look after the security and integrity of the app every now and then. This is making us question if this issue is the start of something big. It has also pushed the content creators into distress.
The Background
TikTok has been making headlines recently after getting banned from several countries. There were rumours about the company having ties to the Chinese government.
There were also accusations about the app stealing personal data from the users. India has now completely banned the app from its soil. If the rumours were true, the app had all the means to steal user data.
It gained millions of users within a very short period of time which established a sense of trust among its users.
The countries that banned the app have said that this trust factor made it really hard to spot the data-heist.
The issue with TikTok’s likes and views seems to be a continuation of this problem.
What Went Wrong?
The users of this application started seeing “zero likes” on their videos. They slowly noticed the same on the videos of others as well.
Gradually the views began to disappear. Several users reported had “zero views” displayed on any new videos that they made.
When users addressed this to the company, they said that we’re working on a fix but hesitated to reveal what caused the issue in the first place.
TikTok gave their first response at around 2:43 PM ET and informed the users that there’s work in progress. At 3:35 PM ET, they made another announcement stating the same.
TikTok’s likes and views should return to its original state soon as the company said that it rectified everything on their side.
Is The US Involved?
There are various conspiracies that surround this issue. One states that the US government has a major role to play. The US has also begun suspecting the app for the ties that it has with China.
The US secretary also mentioned in a meeting that the US is planning to ban TikTok along with all other Chinese apps. Although this has no confirmation, it is highly likely to happen.
To re-establish trust, ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok, is planning to set up its headquarters somewhere outside of China.
Conclusion
Some coding enthusiasts have said that this is nothing but a small issue that the developers are having. They are most probably making a few tiny changes to the “For You” page of the app.
This is because most users were growing increasingly frustrated about how they don’t find the suggestions interesting anymore. But there are no solid shreds of evidence to support this fact either.
People have started using other similar apps like Byte, Likee, and Dubsmash. If this issue doesn’t get solved in time, TikTok might lose its fanbase.