Microsoft has emerged as a saviour to young users of TikTok, who praised the tech industry giant for trying to buy parts of the social media company's operations, in hopes of avoiding a US shutdown.
Bearing hashtags like #SaveTikTok and #Microsoft, which have attracted nearly 1 billion views combined, TikTok'ers – an overwhelmingly young group that uses the app to create short dance, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos – embraced a company founded by people their grandparent's age and whose former chief executive's pre-Internet-era onstage outbursts and profuse sweating are now a YouTube meme.