Piglet, you better try one last time before it’s too late. TikTok reportedly plans to shut down its app for US users on Sunday, until the Biden administration’s legislation forces the company to sell itself not stopped by the Supreme Court or Congress.
Information is reporting that TikTok made the decision to turn off the lights on January 19 instead of limping along as some expected.
Technically speaking, TikTok could continue to work for users who already have the app installed. Using TikTok will not be illegal, but service providers in the United States will not be allowed to work with the social media company. That means Apple and Google will have to remove TikTok from their app stores, and cloud hosting providers like Oracle—which tried to help TikTok isolate its U.S. data from employees in China—will have to stop operating its servers.
TikTok has not been banned in other parts of the world, and the company told US employees in a recent memo that it would after the ban they still have work to do. After all, TikTok is extremely popular around the world, not just in America, and will continue to operate as normal outside the country. In theory, it could continue to run the app for US users from a foreign infrastructure. But again, it would be difficult for TikTok to continue in the United States when it is not available for download or updates.
Still, there were people who believed the app would continue to run until it became too outdated to function. But according to InformationTikTok decided to come out as a martyr, allowing users to see the consequences of the ban immediately. The in-app pop-up will reportedly give users more information about why the app they know and love is no longer working.
Gizmodo reached out to TikTok for comment, but did not hear back.
A complete ban on TikTok could be a net positive if you believe the research that suggests social media is harmful to adolescents. But one of the other social media giants is likely to take its place — YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat all have their own competing versions of short-form video products. And in recent days, some TikTok users have protested the impending ban by signing up for a similar Chinese short-form video app called RedNotewhich was already a source some amazing content— which is all to say, banning TikTok probably won’t stop Zoomers from frying their brains with pointless scrolling. They will simply do it elsewhere.
Perhaps one of the funniest outcomes of the TikTok ban is the eventual release of Zoomer online longing for his “Chinese spy”, a reference to the claim that China is using TikTok to surveil Americans.
Holy cow, I’m just now realizing that this app is responsible for the video in 2024 pic.twitter.com/NPdBCc3sSO
— rat king 🐀 (@MikeIsaac) January 14, 2025
TikTok has not been banned, but the US government wants it to change hands, fearing that its Chinese parent company ByteDance could be forced to comply with demands there to influence the content Americans see or hand over private information. If TikTok ends up being sold to a new owner, like Elon Musk, it could continue to operate. In 2020, the US government similarly forced the Chinese owner of gay dating app Grindr to sell the app to US investors for national security reasons. TikTok has repeatedly insisted it will not sell to a new owner, saying in part that such a move to break away from the global app would be too technically complex. The Chinese government probably wouldn’t be happy about it either.
TikTok has long denied that the Chinese government has any control over its operations, but has failed to assuage the concerns of US officials. Recent reports suggest that the Chinese government is considering a selling TikTok to Elon Muskwhich undermines the idea that the Chinese government has no influence over it. President-elect Donald Trump has appealed to the Supreme Court to put the ban on hold until he can take office and negotiate a deal, and influencers are worried the ban could dramatically hurt their bottom line. For its part, TikTok has been adamant that it would rather close the app to Americans than sell it; may ultimately decide to surrender.
Ironically, the Biden administration reportedly allowed some State Department employees to keep using TikTok for the purpose of international diplomacy. Ban for you, not for me.