The TikTok shutdown is locking out non-US users, too

TikTok’s closing of the United States last night it seems to be affecting users outside the country as well. People took to social media in the following hours, complaining that they cannot access the app despite living in non-US countries, and it is not always clear why.

In some cases, the problem appears to be using a VPN that routes traffic through the United States. A user on Reddit says they are based in the UKsaw the message that it should only show up in the US overnight, and found that a quick location change in his VPN app fixed it:

I got that message myself in the UK, I immediately thought to check my Vpn, yes, it was going through Miami once I changed that TikTok is fine.

This does not work in all cases, however. The original creator of that thread they also say they live in the UK but they say they don’t use a VPN. Instead, they suspect that the problem is that they were live in the United States when they created their main account. Other people who signed up in the US have also reported that they are unable to access the app, despite now living in countries such as Canada, Germany, Australia, Greeceand Poland.

But some users, who call their place as the United Kingdom, Canadaand Australiathey say that they did not create their account in the United States – and in some cases that they have never been at all. Still others complain that the app is blocked for them in countries like Morocco o Ireland. One user, who says they are Mozambican, speculates that it is because he has circumvented the monetization laws of his country by setting his account region to the United States.

TikTok did not immediately respond to our request for comment on what could cause people living outside the United States to lose access.