TikTok disappearance sparks Polymarket petition

What precisely happened to TikTok?

It’s a $120 cardinal question, and it’s formed different harsh airy connected Polymarket and its crypto-based attack to settling bettors’ disputes.

As of Tuesday, Polymarket users had bet astir $120 cardinal connected a seemingly straightforward question: would TikTok beryllium banned successful the US earlier May 2025?

When TikTok stopped working for US users Saturday evening, the question appeared settled — TikTok said it had gone acheronian due to the fact that “a instrumentality banning TikTok has been enacted.”

Polymarket users who had stake “yes” won. UMA, a spouse DeFi protocol that acts arsenic a last arbiter of arguable markets connected the betting website, affirmed the outcome.

Some users are furious.

The instrumentality wasn’t acceptable to instrumentality effect until Sunday — the aforesaid time TikTok came backmost online successful the US, citing comments made by incoming president Donald Trump. To some, that means TikTok was ne'er banned.

“While the instrumentality banning TikTok was upheld and signed into power, its enforcement has been delayed by Biden’s medication and execution was passed onto Trump’s administration,” a professional wrote successful a petition posted to change.org.

“Thus TikTok continues to run owed to negotiations, imaginable extensions, and the engagement of the incoming administration.”

Other Polymarket users enactment it much bluntly connected the website, penning “scam” successful the comments.

It’s the latest incidental to item Polymarket’s occasional conflict to grip things the crypto mode — by leaving the result of multimillion-dollar bets to a radical of token holders led by crippled theory.

That has repeatedly led to charges, nevertheless dubious, that those UMA token holders person rigged bets successful their ain favour.

Decentralised truth

UMA tokenholders ballot to settee questions of fact,. The thought is that corporate contented is the champion mode to get astatine the truth. UMA’s website calls it a “decentralised information machine.”

Votes are formed successful concealed and lone revealed aft polling ends. And if the bulk of tokenholders ballot that A is true, those that said B is existent get penalised — a mode to discourage voting for evident untruths.

UMA has resolved thousands of disputes without incident. But immoderate person brought the protocol crisp criticism.

In June, Polymarket slammed 1 of UMA’s decisions regarding the motorboat of a token called DJT and its purported ties to Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son.

Polymarket said it would refund immoderate bettors and present a “near-term solution” to “uphold the integrity of the marketplace and pricing.”

It is unclear whether Polymarket has made immoderate changes since. Polymarket did not instantly instrumentality DL News’ petition for comment.

A twelvemonth earlier, immoderate Polymarket users fumed erstwhile UMA said the US Coast Guard had so “found” the Titan submersible, which had imploded heavy successful the Atlantic Ocean.

Officials were capable to retrieve pieces of the submersible, but not the cabin, arsenic stipulated successful the good people of the bet.

Was TikTok banned?

US lawmakers from some parties voted successful 2024 to prohibition TikTok implicit fears the institution was sharing delicate idiosyncratic information with its China-based genitor company, ByteDance.

The instrumentality made it amerciable for companies successful the US to service TikTok unless ByteDance sold the societal media level to an American company.

TikTok took itself offline successful the US preemptively, and the app was removed from the Apple and Google app stores.

On Sunday morning, however, Trump said he’d motion an enforcement bid confirming “there volition beryllium nary liability for immoderate institution that helped support TikTok from going dark.”

TikTok came back online soon thereafter, and it doesn’t look the Biden medication did thing during its last time successful bureau to punish the institution for flouting the law.

While users who had downloaded TikTok earlier Sunday person been capable to entree the app since it came backmost online, the societal media level has yet to instrumentality to app stores.

This is perchance due to the fact that ineligible scholars doubt that Trump has the authorization to unilaterally overrule laws passed by Congress.

In the Discord messaging platform, UMA members said the result of the $120 cardinal marketplace was clear. A instrumentality had been passed efficaciously banning TikTok, and that instrumentality took effect Sunday. Whether it was being enforced was moot.

“Can you spell connected [the] thoroughfare and termination someone? It’s illegal. Does that mean it’s intolerable to bash it?” 1 wrote. “In [the] US successful galore places jaywalking is simply a crime. But it’s seldom enforced. Doesn’t mean it’s not amerciable wherever determination is simply a law.”

Others argued that the deficiency of enforcement meant the prohibition hadn’t “gone into effect,” per the connection of the Polymarket bet.

And immoderate claimed, without evidence, that almighty UMA voters, oregon whales, had besides placed bets connected Polymarket, a assertion 1 UMA typical disputed connected Discord.

“A batch of sizeable voters are unit and are prohibited from doing so,” an UMA typical who goes lone by Benni said connected Discord.

“Also it conscionable doesn’t marque sense, there’s ne'er been immoderate grounds of immoderate of the whales doing so.”

Nevertheless, frustrated bettors flooded the comments conception connected Polymarket, and are present demanding an probe into the UMA vote.

As of Friday morning, their petition had garnered 77 signatures.

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You tin interaction him astatine [email protected].