You may have seen on the 19th of January that over 170 million U.S. TikTok users were banned, for what they thought was forever, but which turned out to be just for the morning, as the now back-in-office President Trump delayed the ban, restoring the app, for now. Creators were sharing videos crying, in panic and saying their goodbyes for an app that some said had “changed lives.”
But why and how did this happen?
Let’s start with a brief history of TikTok over the years:
It all started when, in 2017, TikTok, previously an app for Chinese users, merged with its competitor Musical.ly. TikTok became a space where things went big and viral fast, with Lil Nas X’s song Old Town Road blowing up and winning Best Music Video at the 2020 Grammy.
TikTok was charged with violating child privacy bans in February 2019 and paid a $5.7 million fine. The controversy sparked in September 2019 when Hong Kong democracy posts were absent on TikTok, but #Trump2020 received over 70 million views. The company claimed it was not responsible for its content moderation and was a space for entertainment, not politics.
This isn’t the first time it’s been banned; it has been banned from military phones and in India since 2020. Trump started considering the ban in 2020, due to China’s mishandling of COVID-19, Joe Biden then postponed the ban when in office, Trump began posting on TikTok in the 2024 election and the decision by the Supreme Court was made that it would be banned unless sold by ByteDance.
What are the legal and political factors which led to this?
Many have called it a ‘PR stunt’ and ‘Pro-Trump Propaganda’ due to the notification American users got declaring that Trump would aim to restore it, which he did. There are debates around whether this is for people to favour Trump, even though he wasn’t in office in the U.S. until the 20th of January.
There are also concerns with national security due to ByteDance’s ties with the Chinese Government, over sensitive information being handed over to Beijing such as location information as well as concerns over China using TikTok content recommendation to fuel misinformation, for example, during the 2024 U.S. election. To resolve this, TikTok has tried to position itself away from ByteDance by having headquarters in LA and Singapore.
After Trump’s failed attempt to ban it in 2020 due to federal courts striking it down, he has now gained over 14 million followers and has credited the app for attracting his young voters.
How did the public and creators react to this temporary ban?
Influencers, content creators, companies and the ‘over 7 million small businesses’, stated on the notification users got when it was resorted, who strive on TikTok were devastated and persuaded people to move to their other platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. Ava Jules, an American influencer, stated that she was hoping more people would start watching her long-form YouTube content again.
Even CapCut, an editing app owned by ByteDance was hit, resulting in Meta releasing a ‘CapCut clone,’ called ‘Edits.’ This is also the case with the app MarvelSnap and TikTok alternative Lemon8. These are also in danger of a ban if in 90 days a purchase isn’t made.
Competing platforms benefit
Days before, TikTok users were preparing for the ban moving over to similar apps such as RedNote, in which they called themselves “TikTok refugees,” with 63,000 posts on this topic. RedNote is an app for young people in China, Taiwan, and other Mandarin-speaking populations.
Clapper is another competing platform, based in Texas, enabling an ad-free experience and monetisation for creators. It had risen to third place in the free iPhone app downloaded charts.
Instagram has also had many updates recently, some of which are like that of TikTok, such as reels which are now three minutes long.
What does this mean for stability in the digital content creator space?
TikTok is arguably the most popular short-form content app, with its monetisation techniques such as the creator fund and TikTok shop, but within a flash, it just vanished, and it could happen again.
TikTok is a powerful platform for influencers, marketing of companies, small businesses, a fast trend-setter, education, and entertainment, despite its flaws. Creators moving to other platforms displays the benefits of having a multi-platform approach, and with the increasing number of competitors, it is ever more important to adopt a multi-platform approach in today’s dynamic digital world.
