This Week In TikTok News: A Recap From Ban to Boom

by | Jan 20, 2025 | E-commerce News

On Saturday night, the US TikTok users (along with US citizens living outside the country like myself) woke up to a message from TikTok informing them that the app was no long available.

The message read: 

“Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”

Other Bytedance apps including CapCut, Lemon8, Gauth, and Marvel Snap displayed similar messages and also became unavailable to many US users Saturday evening.

By Sunday afternoon, US TikTok users had regained access to the app and a new message greeted them: 

“Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the US! You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.”

So much has gone down (and is still going down) with TikTok over the past few days that it's been hard to keep up!

Here's a brief look at recent TikTok-related happenings: 

  • Everything kicked off on Friday when the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal law mandating that TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, divest its US operations by January 19, 2025, or face a ban in the United States.
  • US lawmakers who voted in favor of the bill to ban TikTok began facing fierce backlash online, with users flooding their TikTok posts with angry comments, rightfully accusing them of hypocrisy.
  • By Saturday, all of ByteDance's owned apps had been shut down in the US. 
  • Web searches for “VPN” spiked in the minutes after US users lost access to TikTok, according to Google Trends.
  • TikTok users flocked to the Chinese social app RedNote in defiance of the TikTok ban, an exodus that was apparently fueled by RedNote teaming up with US influencers to promote the app.
  • Apple published a statement and a support document listing all affected apps that are inaccessible in its US App Store.
  • Michael Longfellow joined SNL “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che to offer a final plea to save TikTok after the app officially went dark. In response to there being data privacy concerns with the app, Longfellow said, “Who cares about my data? Oh no, China knows I like thick Latinas. Who doesn’t? Give me a break.”
  • YouTubeMetaSnapchat, and other digital platforms began racing to claim TikTok's ad dollars with incentives and discounts.
  • Instagram announced a video editing app called Edits that is meant to rival CapCut, which went offline along with TikTok on Saturday. Edits is available for preorder on the iOS App Store.
  • Mark Cuban said he’d be open to financing an alternative video-sharing platform that is built off the protocol developed by microblogging site Bluesky.
  • Everyone and their brother began clamoring to make a bid for TikTok (even though it's never been for sale) including Perplexity AIFrank McCourt (who hasn't shut up about it for months), Activision Blizzard's former CEO Bobby Kotick, and even MrBeast.
  • Rumors circulated that Chinese officials were plotting a secret plan to sell TikTok to Elon Musk — however TikTok quickly denied the report, calling it “pure fiction.”
  • It was revealed that Meta spent a record high $7.6M on lobbying the federal government in the first quarter of the year to advance the legislation that would later ban TikTok.
  • Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok's threat to “go dark” ahead of the inauguration a “stunt” and said there was no reason for TikTok to shut itself down before President Trump was sworn in.
  • Trump said on Saturday during an interview with NBC News's moderator Kristen Welker that he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension to avoid a ban, but had not made a final decision.
  • By Sunday, TikTok began restoring its services after Trump said he would revive the app's access in the US when he returns to power on Monday. Trump said he would “extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”
  • The President-elect also said that his executive order would protect from liability any companies that helped keep TikTok accessible before the order is issued.
  • However there's apparently a catch: Trump wants TikTok to operate under 50% US ownership in a joint venture.
  • TikTok advertisers started seeing their US campaigns resume on Sunday after traffic had plummeted to zero on Saturday.

Now what? For the moment, we celebrate! 🎉

TikTok remaining available in the US is a major win for creators and small businesses around the country, and I celebrate their victory alongside them. TikTok is hands down the best social media and entertainment platform by a landslide, and opened a new era of organic virality for small business owners and creators, after Meta and Google made social media pay-to-play.

All I can really say now is — follow me on TikTok! I mostly post videos of my adorable baby girl, Mia, along with some videos about living in Ecuador, but who knows — maybe now that TikTok is here to stay, I'll start posting more often. See you there!

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