The end of TikTok is near… or is it? The ultra-popular social media platform is on the brink of a ban in the United States that would remove it from app stores and quickly render it inoperable on iPhones and Androids. 150 million users could lose access to audiences around the world and five million TikTok businesses could be vaporized in an instant.
But it’s not that simple. Last-minute saviors could emerge, even in the form of those who first tried to banish the Chinese-owned app.
A little history here before we dive into the minute-by-minute machinations that keep TikTok’s future at stake.
TikTok is an almost decade-old social media platform that, in the US, began life as Music.ly and was primarily a lip-syncing app (people made videos dancing and lip-syncing to their songs pop favorites). The app was purchased by ByteDance, a Chinese software company, which quickly combined it with its own social media app and rebranded it as TikTok (in China, the app is called Douyin).
Initially, not many people knew or cared about TikTok, other than teenagers who had used Music.ly before. However, the pandemic changed all that, as families were forced to stay home and, with little else to do, turned to TikTok as a creative outlet and digital community builder. The app’s popularity skyrocketed and it became a cultural phenomenon.
It was also around this time that US relations with China deteriorated and concerns about cyber espionage increased. A Chinese-owned app in the hands of virtually all Americans suddenly seemed like a very bad idea. What was at stake was the Chinese government’s open access to all technology and data of any company operating within its borders.
President Donald Trump then signed an executive order in 2020 to ban TikTok in the United States. The company responded by moving all data and operations related to the US version of the app within the United States. Oracle would host the data, and U.S.-based employees would handle virtually everything else.
However, that was not enough, and President Joe Biden eventually signed a law setting a timeline to force TikTok to be sold by January 19, 2025, or be banned in the US.
Now, the final hours are coming to an end, but this is where things get interesting. We’re about to bring you the latest on the fate of TikTok in the US. Stay with this live blog for all the latest developments.
