Will TikTok still be available in the US after this weekend? Deadline for possible ban is approaching

TikTok ban

This article was last updated on January 17, 2025

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Will TikTok still be available in the US after this weekend? Deadline for possible ban is approaching

Will TikTok still be available in the United States after this weekend? It will be an exciting weekend for the 170 million American users and for ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the app. As of Sunday, the app will be banned by law unless the highest American judges stop it.

According to ByteDance, the law goes against freedom of expression, not only for itself, but also for all American users of the video app. The company went to the highest court to challenge the ban. The Supreme Court has yet to make a decision as the January 19 deadline approaches, leaving ByteDance in increasing uncertainty.

The fact that TikTok is owned by the Chinese company is precisely the reason that the law was passed last year. The US sees China as a hostile state. The country could spy on American users or influence their worldview through the videos TikTok shows in its feed. There is no hard evidence that this actually happens.

Power shift

The ban hanging over TikTok coincides with a shift in political power when Donald Trump takes office on Monday. He has said he wants to “save” TikTok, but his second term as president starts the day after TikTok would be banned. He has asked the Supreme Court for a postponement, but it has not yet responded.

On his last day as president, Biden still has an option to avert the ban for the time being by postponing the deadline by 90 days. But that is only possible if there is a solid plan to sell TikTok to an American party.

ByteDance could sell its US TikTok business to comply with the law, keeping the video app available in the US. But the Chinese company has previously said TikTok is not for sale.

TikTok possibly on black

It is uncertain what ByteDance will do if the Supreme Court decides that the TikTok ban can continue. At a hearing, the company said the video app will be retired. “In effect, the platform is being shut down.”

It is unclear whether this means that TikTok will immediately become inaccessible on Sunday. TikTok may remain available to Americans who have downloaded the app, but TikTok will disappear from the Google and Apple app stores. New users cannot download the app. ByteDance also cannot update the app for existing users.

This means that TikTok is not immediately unusable, but without new creators and viewers, the company runs the risk of slowly but surely becoming less attractive.

Users ‘flee’ to new app

In the meantime, many tiktokers are switching to another video app from China: REDnote. In two days, the platform welcomed 700,000 new users, the news agency reported Reuters early this week, according to a source at the company. Under the hashtag tiktokrefugee (‘TikTok refugee’), users post videos about the switch to REDnote.

Then there is another option: that the new Trump administration will not enforce the ban. This week, the newly appointed Minister of Justice did not want to promise that she would enforce the TikTok ban from day one. This would mean that TikTok is operating in legal uncertainty and it is uncertain whether ByteDance would dare to do so. The same goes for Apple and Google, who are responsible because they offer TikTok through their app stores.

The most certain outcome for TikTok’s future in America is if the law passed under Biden is repealed. This will require convincing the American Congress, which will not be easy: the law was adopted last year by a large majority of both Democrats and Republicans.

TikTok

The Chinese company ByteDance bought the popular social media app Musical.ly in 2017. and merged it with TikTok to become even bigger.

On TikTok, users can post videos such as dances, challenges and vlogs. In the early years you could only make fifteen-second videos, but now they can last a maximum of ten minutes.

TikTok says it has about 170 million users in the United States. In the Netherlands, six million users are active per month.

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