TikTok has become one of the most prominent social media platforms in the United States, particularly among young people who use it for short-form videos, including many who use it as a platform for small businesses.
Some users reacted with shock that the ban could actually happen.
“Oh my god, I’m speechless,” said Lourd Asprec, 21, of Houston, who has amassed 16.3 million followers on TikTok and makes an estimated US$80,000 a year from the platform.
“I don’t even care about China stealing my data. They can take all my data from me. Like, if anything, I’ll go to China myself and give them my data.”
The company’s powerful algorithm, its main asset, feeds individual users short videos tailored to their liking. The platform presents a vast collection of user-submitted videos, often under a minute in duration, that can be viewed with a smartphone app or on the internet.
As the Jan 19 deadline approached, millions of users jumped to other Chinese-owned apps like Xiaohongshu or RedNote, finding they had to decipher its all-Mandarin platform to kickstart their feeds.
“China is adapting in real-time to the ruling,” said Craig Singleton, a China expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, which submitted a brief in the case against TikTok.
“Beijing isn’t just building apps; it’s building a discourse power ecosystem to shape global narratives and influence societies.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement the ruling affirmed that the law protects US national security.
“Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to millions of Americans’ sensitive data,” Garland added.
