TikTok just locked out a ton of users, and people can’t take it

When life gives you lemons, make sure to squeeze all that lemon juice straight into your eyes and then rage about it on Twitter.

That seems to be the thinking of scores of TikTok users who, on Feb. 27, found themselves suddenly locked out of the looping video app following the company’s FTC-inspired effort to temporarily suspend accounts belonging to people under the age of 13. 

What no one appears to have first considered, however, is the fact that some now-exiled users entered fake birthdays when creating their accounts — meaning many of those suspended accounts belong to actual adults. 

Or, if not adults, at least not kids. 

And so, like with any good doubling down of online self-righteous indignation, scorned users took to the one social media platform they could still crawl their way onto to tweet accusations that the company which had for so long given them viral-content life was now capriciously ripping it all away. 

And lo, there was beauty in the madness. Exasperated users expressed their skepticism in response to a TikTok tweet offering — admittedly absurd — instructions on how to restore locked accounts. 

“We’re hearing that a few people are having trouble accessing TikTok today,” read the tweet in question. “If you typed the wrong birthday, head to the ‘Report a Problem’ section of the app and provide confirmation that you’re age 13 or older by submitting a copy of your government ID.”

That’s right, TikTok — which on Feb. 27 got hit with a $5.7 million civil penalty from the FTC for illegally collecting data on children under the age of 13 — asked users to fork over their government IDs. In order to continue making and consuming viral video content. 

The reaction was swift.

Others simply pointed out that, while locked out of their account, they were unable to use the app to submit the requested ID. 

When reached for comment, a TikTok spokesperson told Mashable that the company knows things aren’t going so well. 

“We are aware that some users are experiencing issues accessing the app,” the spokesperson wrote via email. “Our support teams are working to provide users guidance, and @TikTok_US will provide further information.”

So TikTok promises it’s working to sort this mess out. In the meantime, we might suggest that locked out users move over to Vine to get their looping video fix. 

Oh, wait.