• Barring a stay of execution from the US Supreme Court, TikTok could be banned in the US this time next week.
• The bad news is that the ban could see TikTok banned from Apple and Google’s app stores which could translate into a global issue.
• With the ban looming, many creators are turning to other platforms to continue their content stream.

This coming Sunday, US-based internet denizens could find themselves locked out of TikTok entirely. This as the application faces a ban in the US despite efforts to prevent that from happening.

In the US, roughly 170 million people us TikTok and while having nearly half of the country’s population on its platform is great news of ByteDance (TikTok’s owner) its a growing concern for the US. Despite having no smoking gun, US lawmakers continue to maintain that TikTok represents a massive security threat to US citizens because TikTok is beholden to ByteDance which is alleged – but has never been proven – to have ties to the Chinese government.

Last week TikTok went to the US Supreme Court to argue that it shouldn’t be banned nor should it have to sell its business to another entity in order to remain operational in the US. Lawyers for the social platform argued that a ban would impede on the free speech protections of the 170 million users.

The court meanwhile argued, as many others have, that the Chinese government could use TikTok to spy on US citizens. Mind you, there is no evidence that the Chinese government could do this, nor that it even wants to but the US is concerned nonetheless.

The ban comes into effect just one day before Donald Trump is inaugurated as the new US President. Trump has previously said that he would overturn Joe Biden’s ban on TikTok but as he only gets into the Coke Light Delivery cubicle Oval Office after the ban comes into effect, it’s unclear what will happen in the interim.

While the ban would prevent US citizens from accessing TikTok, it could also affect other countries. This is because the ban would force app stores to remove TikTok from their storefronts and as the two major mobile app stores are US-based firms (Apple and Google) users in other parts of the world would have a near impossible time downloading the TikTok smartphone app or updating the app if it is already on their smartphone.

The next TikTok?

With the ban looming, many creators are behaving as if TikTok will definitely be banned even though the Supreme Court is yet to publish its decision. This as the Supreme Court’s understanding of the matter boils down to China bad, America good. Again, there is no evidence that TikTok passes information to China but lawmakers keep hammering this point, seemingly in hopes that eventually it will do what it is accused of.

With that in mind, creators are preparing for a potential ban this coming weekend but where are they moving to?

There are at present two options – Meta Reels and YouTube Shorts. However, recent moves by Meta have left a sour taste in the mouths of internet denizens. There are fears that Meta platforms including Threads and Facebook will eventually resemble X which is seen as a hive of misinformation, propaganda and engagement bait.

That leaves YouTube Shorts which has some failings of its own. For one, TikTok videos can be up to an hour long while Shorts top out at three minutes. Granted, long form videos can be uploaded to YouTube’s main website but the head room offered by TikTok’s maximum length is a nice buffer for some. YouTube’s limitation also makes it harder to move content from TikTok as if content is over three minutes it won’t work as a short.

Shorts also doesn’t have TikTok’s magical algorithm. Make no mistake, YouTube is very good at suggesting content but it lacks the almost scary intuition that TikTok does. With that having been said, with no other options, we suspect that creators and users will flock to which ever platform is most popular in hopes of drawing an income through sponsorships and advertising revenue sharing.

YouTube also doesn’t allow folks to download videos unless they created those videos. This seems like a small thing but its a key feature of TikTok that enables easy sharing on other platforms and remixing or recreating the content.

To our mind that platform is YouTube and not because of Meta’s recent mistakes. No, Meta’s platforms are just antiquated. Discovering new content is next to impossible when the company’s main income driver is advertising and one sees more advertising than anything else.

For example, Reels embeds advertising in the lower third of a video which makes the viewing experience incredibly messy. We’ve tapped ads we had no intention of tapping multiple times in Reels, so much so that we hardly watch Reels anymore.

Meta’s platforms are also incredible restrictive in terms of what can and can’t be posted. While Mark Zuckerberg’s newly found right-wing state of mind now rejects fact checkers we very much doubt Thirst Trap Thursdays and true crime content that flourished on TikTok will be shared by the Reels algorithm.

What should viewers do?

As mentioned, if a TikTok ban is indeed implemented, app stores would have to stop allowing users from downloading the app. Of course, nothing can be done if the app is already downloaded on a device.

As such, we recommend that users download the app this week and make sure it is updated on Friday ahead of the potential ban. While you may not be able to download future updates, having the app and an active account could at least by pass the initial stage of the TikTok ban.

As the ban wears on though, the risk of having the TikTok app un-updated on your phone could be a security risk, especially if bad actors find a way to exploit the older app. While we recognise the irony here, we don’t think the octogenarians that make the laws in the US recognise it.

We also recommended that users find their favourite creators on other platforms before the ban comes into effect if only to make sure you don’t miss content you enjoy.

The US Supreme Court is expected to make a decision about the ban this week and we wait in anticipation to see if we can continue enjoying Hopecore videos.