Gerrard Kaonga
With TikTok’s future still in limbo, people are going to extreme lengths to ensure they can get it on their phones now.
In case you hadn’t found this out ahead of the ban of the social media app, but TikTok fans are well.... REALLY big fans of the platform.
As if the scores of ‘farewell’ and ‘final TikTok’ videos weren’t indication of the love for the video app, some are certainly putting their money where their mouth is.
But even though the ban is currently on hold while the company and the Donald Trump-led government try to workout a deal, some people haven't been able to get access to the platform.
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If users were unfortunate enough to have never downloaded the app, or worse, deleted it before January 19, then they might be quite stuck since it is no longer available on the Apple App Store and Google Play store.
But some savvy eBay users have been looking to take advantage of the massive demand to have phones with the app on it.
On the website, some iPhones with the app installed are selling for millions... yep millions of dollars.
Thankfully, if you don’t feel like spending that much you can still get your hands on one, but you might still have to shell out thousands of dollars.
Apple is aware that some people are kind of in limbo but said that despite Trump giving TikTok an extension to find a buyer, they would comply with the law and ban the app.
TikTok has appeared confident that the issue will be resolved and has already praised Trump for his efforts to see this happen.
When TikTok 'went dark,' users were faced with the pop-up message: "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now.
"We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!"
When it returned, they issued another statement saying: “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over seven million small businesses to thrive.”
Who knows if things will go back to normal but imagine if the app does get restored to the app store and you were the person who panicked and spent 1 million dollars to get a phone with it installed... you’d be kicking yourself.