TikTok Banned: The Addictive App Goes Dark, Fans Grieve. Can Trump Step In to Save It?
With the flip of a switch, TikTok went dark in the U.S.
At about 10:30 p.m. ET—just 90 minutes before the shutdown deadline—TikTok users across the country were greeted with a pop-up message: “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”
everyone rushing to twitter because tiktok is gone pic.twitter.com/oQQFESfjr4
— juju 💰 (@ayeejuju) January 19, 2025
The message continued: “A law banning TikTok has been passed in the U.S. Sorry, that means you can’t use TikTok until further notice. We are lucky President Trump has expressed his willingness to work with us on a fix to restore TikTok once he is sworn into office. Hang tight!
Under the ban, Apple, Google, and internet hosting services are facing heavy fines for allowing TikTok to stay up. The app is also yanked off both Apple and Google’s respective app stores, and cloud provider Oracle has also instructed staff to shut down servers that are hosting TikTok.
How to use TikTok after the ban: Do VPNs and other workarounds work?
The sudden disappearance of TikTok left more than 170 million monthly users stranded, many of whom had made the wildly addictive short-form video app an integral part of their daily routines-from teens following friends and trends to creators building careers and gaining internet fame.
Now, these users are scrambling to adjust to life without TikTok.
Before the shutdown, one user posted a video wearing a bathrobe and cowboy boots, carrying a carry-on and laundry detergent for his 300,000 followers. “Me arriving to China Jan. 19 so I can still use TikTok,” he joked.
“It’s like summer camp is over and we will never see our camp friends again,” one commenter wrote on the video, which went viral. Another added, “I’m literally best friends with a whole bunch of strangers and I’m going to miss all of you so damn much.”
Late Saturday night, fans took to other social media platforms to mourn.
“Just watched TikTok shut down in real time. First, the likes and comments stopped working, then saving was disabled, then no new videos would load, then I was kicked out,” one user posted on X. “The last TikTok I could see was someone peacefully bopping along to ‘If I Were a Fish.'”
TikTok ban: The long goodbye
TikTok’s death had been a long time coming. Worries about Beijing’s influence over content on the app and how it collects data led to a congressional ban unless the company divested its U.S. operations. The Supreme Court sealed off TikTok’s legal avenues Friday by upholding the ban.
President-elect Donald Trump is said to be considering ways to push off the ban, but TikTok will not be waiting for a last-minute reprieve and has instead opted to shut down itself.
CEO Shou Chew recorded a video thanking Trump and promising “more to come.”
“We believe behind the scenes there is significant activity from both financial and strategic tech buyers for the golden TikTok asset,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.
James A. Lewis, a technology policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said TikTok may soon regret its early exit.
“Once they do that, their market value goes way down and they are never getting those users back,” Lewis said. “What’s a big deal is TikTok’s user base—those 170 million fanatical users—and that’s what people want to get their hands on before it blows up. So it’s really a big gamble for TikTok to do this.”
TikTok was America’s pop culture capital
TikTok could still spring back to life in the United States if Trump finds a loophole or if the company divests its US business. Officials from China have also reportedly mulled over giving Elon Musk the rights to the US branch of TikTok. Trump said he’s weighing his option to place a 90-day hold on this matter.
But for now, these possibilities hardly give comfort to die-hard TikTok fans, who include those who have grown up using the app.
For an app with Chinese roots, TikTok ruled America as its pop culture capital.
Unlike Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat, TikTok did not build around social connections but instead relied on raw, random videos from strangers that users couldn’t wait to share.
Driven by a mysterious algorithm, TikTok’s popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic only accelerated and never let up. Americans were addicted to everything from trending opinions to news, skincare tips, and sports. Many joked that their “For You” page knew them better than they knew themselves.
That devoted audience made TikTok a significant player in Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and even retail, where viral products flew off the shelves.
While TikTok brought good in the form of fundraising for those in need, laughs from office comedians, and support for the grieving, it also gave young people a sense of belonging when they struggled to find acceptance in their families or communities.
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