“Bruh why isn’t TikTok working for me I’m in Canada?”: Canadian users report TikTok glitches amid U.S. ban

January 19, 2025. Mark it down because this is the day when the U.S. decided to ghost TikTok, at least for a brief period. After years of heated debates and serious discussions about national security and data privacy, Uncle Sam finally dropped the ban hammer on the Chinese-owned app, TikTok.

While the future of the app hangs in the balance, guess what? Somehow, our neighbors to the north, the innocent Canadians, got dragged into the drama. The ban, meant to safeguard Americans from data goblins (or so the government says), also left Canadians scratching their heads and tapping furiously on their screens.

The situation got real when dozens of frustrated Canadian TikTokers took to X (formerly Twitter) to air their grievances.

One bewildered user screamed into the void:

“BRUH WHY ISNT TIKTOK WORKING FOR ME IM IN CANADA????”

The confusion and collective rage bubbled up in another tweet:

“MY TIKTOK IS BANNED AND I LIVE IN CANADA WHAT KIND OF S*** IS THIS.”

With a GIF that says “Let me in”, a user captioned:

“How it feels not being able to use tiktok because of the ban WHEN YOU’RE IN CANADA!”

“america taking canada’s tiktok down too….”, a user mentioned.

A user mentioned: “i bought my phone in canada, my region is canada, i live there right now but tiktok is STILL BANNED FOR ME BECAUSE OF PRESIDENT TRUMP???”

A user hilariously wrote: “my toktok is blocked. I'm canadian, my phone is canadian & I made my account in canada. tiktok please, I'll send you all the maple syrup you want. just give me my brainrot back.”

As one user put it: “this is like when ur parents yelled at you because u happened to be in the room when ur sibling was getting yelled at omg i didnt even do anything.”

A user hilariously called it “Collateral damage."

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TikTok inaccessible in Canada

Donald Trump's recent quip about Canada potentially becoming the "51st state" has set social media abuzz, especially amid the ongoing TikTok ban that’s now affecting some users.

After January 19th, 2025, TikTok was banned strictly for Americans and many Canadians also reported the problem stating the application is no longer available for them.

This has created a lot of laughter and teasing from social media users who took it as a chance to roast the situation.

A user humorously mentioned: “Oh, you didn't know that Trump made Canada the 51st state? Of course not, you were on TikTok.”

“Well I guess it’s that time”, a user mentioned.

A user went on to say: “This is how you’re finding out you’re the 51st state.”

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TikTok ban in the U.S.

The ban followed a Supreme Court ruling on a decision that upheld a law demanding ByteDance to sell its American operations or to shut down TikTok.

This push for the legislation was sparked by allegations that China exploited the application to gather users' data and influence what individuals view.

This further darkened the future of the app in the U.S. as the issue of national security forced Congress to mandate the removal of TikTok from the Apple and Google app stores with stiff penalties for non-compliance.

As the ban rolled out, millions of American users confronted a "Sorry, TikTok is not available now" message, which resulted in an 85% loss in traffic to TikTok-related sites.

The impact wasn’t limited to TikTok alone; other ByteDance apps like CapCut also became inaccessible, showing a wider shutdown of the company’s services in the U.S.