Fans of K-pop supergroup BTS took credit for crashing TikTok in the wake of their album release - but the company says a faulty link was to blame

• K-pop boy band BTS dropped their new single via TikTok on Thursday - and a search function on the platform promptly stopped working.
• BTS fans, often called the BTS Army, took credit for "crashing" part of the app, suggesting an overload of searches for the new track "ON" caused the search feature to break.
• While K-pop fans have crashed websites and apps in the past, a representative for TikTok said the error was simply a result of a broken URL.
• Once the URL was replaced, the BTS army took to uploading thousands of videos to the song.
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The world K-pop fandom descended into chaos on Thursday when the iconic boy band BTS dropped a new single on TikTok - and a search function on the platform promptly crashed.

Shortly after the group released "ON," a song from their new album "Map Of The Soul: 7," the app's function that allows users to search for 'sounds' displayed an error message when fans typed in the name of the track.

The self-described "BTS Army" immediately took credit for the platform's malfunction, suggesting their deluge of searches crashed the feature.

This would not be the first time K-pop fans disrupted an online platform. When BTS member Kim Tae-Hyung (who goes by the stage name V) answered a fan question about his evening plans on the WeVerse app, users flooded the platform causing it to crash. The BTS army also overloaded a ticketing site back in 2018 when tickets for the group's Love Yourself World Tour went on sale.

However, this particular issue with TikTok was due to a faulty URL link to the track, The Verge reported. The link needed to be updated, a representative from TikTok told explained; the error was not "an app crash."

Once the appropriate link put in place, the devoted fan activity resumed. Videos using the group's #onchallenge hashtag have racked up over 30 million views in just one day.

"Map of the Soul: 7" is now available to stream and purchase.

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TikTok hit 1.5 billion downloads, and is still outperforming Instagram

WE BROKE IT- pic.twitter.com/KyC1MEOZ6N

- DADDEH⁷ (@vminggukx) February 20, 2020

bro did we crash tiktok come on now

- JUNGKOOK R&B KING⁷ (@GIRLMEETSEVlL) February 20, 2020

We are going to crash YouTube tomorrow �������� pic.twitter.com/XBMCIjt3Ry

- BambiV (@Bambiiv7) February 20, 2020

@bts_official_bighit

MAP OF THE SOUL : 7 의 타이틀곡 'ON'을 틱톡에서 미리 만나보세요. #ONchallenge

♬ ON (30 sec) - BTS

@justmaiko

the goats are comin back so yall already know i gotta support�� #ONChallenge

♬ ON (30 sec) - BTS

@yaya.villanueva

OMG ITS SO GOOD #ONchallenge #bts #btsarmy #ONbts #fyp #foyoupage

♬ ON (30 sec) - BTS

@byeblossom

PLS TIKTOK IM JUST TRYING TO DO THE #ONchallenge !!! bts_official_bighit #bts #btsarmy #방탄소년단 #kpop #rosa #dayattheoffice #BeatTheZombieFunk

♬ 180 for the indecisive - alexawollney