By Genesis Oquendo
On Sunday, Jan. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court marked the official deadline for TikTok to either be sold or banned in the U.S. If banned, American users would lose access to updates or be unable to download the app. TikTok receives updates about every two weeks to fix bugs, and without support services, the app would eventually be rendered unusable.
On April 13, 2024, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The bill claims that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has ties to China and poses a national security risk if user data is shared with the Chinese government. Despite numerous congressional hearings to resolve concerns about ownership, no consensus has been reached.
ByteDance has argued that the law effectively banning TikTok violates First Amendment rights.
Organizations like Project Liberty, led by billionaire Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in buying TikTok’s U.S. assets and have secured over $20 billion in capital. The organization aims to help people take control of their digital lives and “reclaim a voice.”
TikTok became widely popular for its user-friendly community, particularly during the quarantine, allowing users to connect with like-minded individuals and launch online careers. Its short, entertaining videos keep users scrolling, triggering a dopamine rush. However, this has been linked to a decrease in attention span.
Many users have expressed disappointment over the TikTok ban and are seeking ways to bypass it. Some are turning to virtual private networks (VPNs) to hide their location. However, popular VPNs are likely to be blocked, and users caught using TikTok with a VPN could face consequences. This also puts content creators and small business owners at risk of losing income.
Several American users have migrated to similar apps like RedNote (Xiaohongshu), which became the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store in the U.S. since Monday, and Lemon8. On RedNote, the hashtag #TikTokRefugee has garnered nearly 250 million views, and within two days, around 700,000 new users joined the platform.
However, despite TikTok users flocking to these apps, TikTok’s algorithm, which accurately predicts user interests to curate their "For You" page, remains unmatched.
UPDATE: On Jan. 19, users woke up to suspended service of their TikTok accounts. The outage lasted for 12 hours, prompting much speculation about it being a PR stunt designed to create panic among its users and content creators. The Orange will continue to update this story as more news becomes available.
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