What to know about the TikTok ban | What the Tech?
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — TikTok is set to be banned in the U.S. come Jan. 19 unless the Supreme Court decides otherwise so what does that mean for millions of users?
Let’s get the first question out of the way. If you already have the TikTok app on your phone, it will not suddenly disappear or be deleted. At least, it shouldn’t.
The thing is no one knows for certain. The United States has never banned a foreign smartphone app before.
What we do know is that TikTok will be removed from both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. If you don’t already have it on your phone, you won’t be able to download it.
If you do have the app on your phone now, it should continue to work. And creators will most likely still upload some content, at least for a while.
Since the app will be gone from the app stores, there will be no future updates. It will get buggy, probably crash a lot and, as Android and Apple release their updates, the TikTok app will stop working.
Can you still access it from a website? Most likely.
The app, even if you have it on your phone, will never be the same. Creators will stop posting TikToks because, with fewer users, there won’t be as much money coming to them.
Where are the creators going? There are two TikTok alternatives at the top of the app store
charts now: Lemon8 and RedNote. Both Chinese apps. Lemon8 is even owned by TikTok.
Other users will likely go to YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels for short form videos.
If you’re a creator, you will want to download your content before the ban goes into effect Jan. 19. Barring a last minute ByteDance decision to sell off its U.S. operation, the TikTok era will end.
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