If TikTok gets banned, those who already have the app could find themselves holding digital gold.
As initially reported by Wired, these smartphone users are shilling their devices for up to $1,000,000 on eBay, with the search term “tiktok phone” amassing over 56,000 results on the auction site.
While the vast majority of phones are being sold for less, Wired reports that when you select the “sold” filter for these results, you can see a number of sales that have indeed been completed.
But how did we get here?
On Jan. 19, TikTok went dark. But thanks to an executive order by newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump, the app returned just sixteen hours later. The “ban or sell” law, known fully as the ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,’ dictates that apps like TikTok should not be available in app stores.
However, in his executive order, Trump orders the Department of Justice to “take no action to enforce the Act or impose any penalties against any entity for any noncompliance with the Act.”
In theory, that should mean that app stores will receive no consequence if they were to reinstate TikTok — but it looks like the App Store and Google Play are playing it safe. As Wired reports, when you search TikTok on these apps, users are met with statements that claim that legal requirements prevent them from hosting the app in their stores.
While a million-dollar TikTok phone seems unlikely, the high demand indicates that people are prepared to pay a premium to keep the app.
