Emergency services receive calls from distraught TikTok fans
Multiple distressed TikTok fans contacted 9-1-1 after the app was banned in the United States, with the app ceasing to function and being removed from the App Store/Google Play.
After a protracted legal process, the United States’ TikTok ban was enacted on January 18, leaving some users distraught at losing their favorite app.
Finding themselves suddenly without access, reports of former users contacting emergency services seeking assistance have circulated online and subsequently gone viral.
One such call was widely circulated on January 19. The shared audio clip was originally posted by Twitter/X crime monitoring account CrimeWatchMpls, before gaining traction when posted by Journalist Nick Sortor.
In the recording, an Anoka County dispatcher requests a welfare check on a “very incoherent” caller who “loves TikTok”.
Audio for another call, seemingly originating from the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office, was also posted on social media on January 18.
In the recording, a conversation between two individuals share their disbelief over receiving an emergency call regarding the shutting down of TikTok. One participant of the call can be heard saying “10-4. He said he needs it back. [Indecipherable].”
The other replies, “Copy… I’ll gain my composure and figure it out.”
“10-4, he said I need it back and I asked him if he was seriously calling 9-1-1 because TikTok was down? That was affirmative.”
“Affirm, she went down at 2100 [hours],” the call concluded.
It’s clear that some TikTok enjoyers are having trouble letting go of their favored app after its ban in the United States. In preparation for the ban, United States users flocked to the Chinese app RedNote (aka Redbook or Xiaohongshu) in an attempt to fill the void left by TikTok’s demise. Sadly that reprieve may be short-lived as legal experts warned that RedNote may face the same fate.