People are listing phones preloaded with TikTok on eBay, Facebook marketplace, and other online storefronts. View on euronews

This story incorporates reporting from ABC, Shacknews and USA Today.President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that Microsoft is engaged in discussions with ByteDance to acquire TikTok.

Disappointment, denial and confusion flooded US TikTok upon hearing that Chinese owner ByteDance planned to shut off the app by Sunday.

TikTok is no longer available in the United States —at least for now. But it’s not the only ByteDance-owned app that’s currently blocked for US-based users.

While TikTok remains hugely popular in Brazil, Indonesia and other markets, its 170 million users in the United States are its most valuable.

Shou Zi Chew was an intern at Facebook before he became Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest competitor as CEO of TikTok. Shou Zi Chew may be the CEO of Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest competitor, TikTok, but at the start of his career, he worked for Zuckerberg as an intern at Facebook.

A looming ban on TikTok set to take effect on Sunday presents a multibillion-dollar headache for app store operators Apple and Google.

U.S. TikTok users were engulfed in disappointment, denial, and uncertainty on Wednesday after learning that Chinese owner ByteDance intended to shut down the app for its 170 million U.S. users by Sunday.

Business Insider's scan of platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace showed hundreds of listings touting phones with TikTok and CapCut installed.

The TikTok ban took another twist on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025, when Trump signed an executive action that delays enforcement of the TikTok ban for 75 days. Some have observed that Trump thinks well of TikTok presumably because TikTok delivered a lot of youth votes on November 5.

A viral social media video on X features a man going around and deleting TikTok off of people's phones in Atlanta. This comes after TikTok was banned at 10:30 pm on January 18, following a U.

Meta's attempt to lure creators to its platforms comes as questions remain over the future of its main rival in the US.