The US government has set a deadline of January 19, 2025, for the short-form video app TikTok to disconnect from its Chinese parent company. If the app is banned, Facebook and YouTube are expected to benefit the most, as reported by CNBC on January 12, 2025.
The outlet further explained that many creators are now urging their fans to follow them on other social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube. The outlet cited a case of a creator named Jack Nader, who had been posting beauty videos on the app since 2023. Nader stated that his follower count surged in April 2023, prompting him to take his content creation more seriously.
Before his success on the platform, Nader worked as a Starbucks barista in Chicago. He told CNBC:
“This is what I do to make a living. This is how I pay for my groceries. This is how millions of small businesses make their money.”
However, not just creators, several netizens have shared their take on the impending ban. Many have suggested that they should instead ban Snapchat. A user wrote on X:
“Can they delete Snapchat instead of TikTok?”
“Don’t take TikTok.. take Snapchat instead,” added a tweet.
“Take snapchat please i love tiktok 💔,” wrote another netizen.
Several other netizens flooded the social media platform with similar thoughts about Snapchat.
“Can they shut down snapchat instead of tiktok,” mentioned a user.
“What if, instead of tiktok, they ban snapchat public stories because IDGAF ab these influencers,” explained another one.
Donald Trump urged to delay Joe Biden’s decision to implement TikTok ban last month
While incoming president Donald Trump initially supported a ban on the short-form video app, he recently expressed a different take. On Friday, December 27, 2024, Trump urged the Supreme Court to pause the implementation of the ban so that he could come up with a “political resolution” after his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
Donald Trump’s attorney, D. John Sauer, addressed the court, stating:
“President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025.”
On January 10, 2025, the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear arguments from both sides of the case. Meanwhile, Noel Francisco, representing the short-form video app, argued that the ban would be a violation of the platform’s First Amendment rights.
As reported by the Economic Times on January 13, many content creators have also filed lawsuits citing economic troubles due to the ban. As per a report by USA Today dated January 10, 2025, around 170 million people use the platform, with many content creators relying on it as their sole source of income.
For the unaware, the ban could be avoided if the Chinese parent company, ByteDance, decides to sell the platform to any American company.
Edited by Shubham Soni
