US TikTok Ban? Here’s All You Need To Know

As of right now, a TikTok ban is set to come into place in the US on Sunday, January 19. Why is this happening? What will be the alternative app for your favourite American content creators to post GRWMs, lip-syncing videos, and make-up tutorials on?

The app TikTok is owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance. ByteDance was founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo. Earlier this year, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that protected the data of Americans from foreign establishments. Many US government officials were concerned that TikTok could give the Chinese government access to the private data of American users.

Owners ByteDance are now facing a dispute with the US Supreme Court, in the hope to prevent losing 170 million American users.

On December 27 2024, Donald Trump filed a legal report asking the Supreme Court to extend the decision on the ban until he is inaugurated on January 20, 2025. If The Supreme Court does not come to a decision before January 19, TikTok will be banned but it may not be permanent.

“Congress and the president were concerned that China was accessing information about millions of Americans, tens of millions of Americans, including teenagers, people in their 20s, that they would use that information over time to develop spies, to turn people to blackmail people,” said Brett Kavanaugh, associate justice of the Supreme Court. 

ByteDance’s lawyer Noel Francisco has argued to the Supreme Court that it is a “private company”. However, it seems that the only way the ban can be fully prevented is if ByteDance sells TikTok before January 19.

 

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This will be a huge financial loss to TikTok, but it will also be a huge loss to us users. Some of the most loved and popular creators on TikTok are American. People like Alix Earle, Emma Chamberlain, Charli Damelio, Chris Olsen and so much more, are what keeps TikTok fun and entertaining for users.

It is safe to say that this will be the end of an era for a lot of American creators, but where can you watch their content after January 19?

Many TikTok creators from the US are asking followers to go follow them on Instagram as they are now going to be posting content on IG Reels.

While TikTok is potentially in its downfall, Instagram might be entering a renaissance era. The sudden growth of TikTok between 2019 and 2020 led to the migration of many users from the Meta app.

But it seems that 2025 is going to be a great year for Instagram as the app will be gaining a lot more daily viewers.

What’s more is that the absence of TikTok might cause American influencers to begin posting more vlogs and shorts on YouTube. Like Instagram, when TikTok was created, YouTuber culture shifted.

As a result of TikTok having such short videos (some are just 15 seconds long), social media users’ attention span got a lot shorter. Therefore, many people had less interest in watching long vlogs on YouTube.

Celebrities like Khloe Kardashian are already posting a lot on Snapchat, and it is likely that creators will start using this app to post in 2025.

Snapchat was very popular between 2011-2018 for celebrities to post daily updates for followers but in recent years, it has been mostly used for just messaging. Snapchat also has a feature called Spotlight, which is quite similar to TikTok.

So, will the infamous ‘doggy ears’ filter be making a comeback in 2025?

Words by Phoebe Burke