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Journalism of Courage
As the deadline for the TikTok ban approaches, the Chinese social media company ByteDance has proactively removed the app from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. For existing users, the app has gone dark, displaying the message: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” This strongly suggests the imminent disappearance of TikTok from the United States of America.
Oracle has begun shutting down TikTok servers in the country, according to The Information. Meanwhile, US President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering a 90-day reprieve from the ban upon taking office, as per NBC News. This potential delay could offer temporary relief for TikTok’s 170 million users and the platform itself.
At present, the app’s removal from major app stores and restricted access for existing users appear to be temporary measures. However, given the current legal scenario, TikTok may soon vanish from the US, mirroring its 2020 ban in India, which saw millions of users migrate to competitor platforms like Instagram.
In April 2024, the US Congress passed “The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which mandated ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations to a non-Chinese owner or face a complete shutdown. This was recently upheld by the Supreme Court. TikTok, however, has consistently maintained that such a sale “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally.” This situation dates back to 2020, when President Donald Trump, during his first term, proposed a ban on TikTok, but the law was not passed.
This development has left millions of TikTok users in limbo. While some are exploring alternative platforms like REDnote, many remain uncertain about their next steps, hoping for a potential repeal of the ban. Existing TikTok users will have a limited window to download their data before the platform ceases operations. Many are expected to migrate to Instagram, which has over 700 million users. However, unlike TikTok, which is primarily a short-video platform, Instagram’s format differs, and no direct alternative exists at TikTok’s scale in the US, especially in terms of scale.
According to a report by eMarketer analysis, out of 170 million TikTok users in the U.S., the average adult spends 53.8 minutes per day on the platform, which receives over 34 million new videos every day. Meanwhile, the average time spent by US adults on Instagram Reels is around 33 minutes a day, according to the same report.
The ban also impacts thousands of TikTok creators who relied on the platform for their livelihoods, along with employees who worked for the company. Even if Trump grants a 90-day reprieve, TikTok’s fate remains uncertain unless ByteDance agrees to sell its US operations.
According to a report by Reuters, Perplexity AI is said to be one of the potential buyers, while high-profile individuals like Elon Musk and MrBeast (James Stephen ‘Jimmy’ Donaldson) are also considered possible buyers of TikTok.
