TikTok is back online: All you need to know about its US ban rollercoaster

Less than 24 hours after going dark on 19 January, TikTok is back online. In a statement on X, TikTok said that it is in the process of restoring service. The platform also thanked Donald Trump "for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive." 

"It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with president Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States," TikTok added in its statement. 

On 18 January, US users were shut out of TikTok, with the app displaying a message that its services were "temporarily unavailable", reported The Verge. However, the platform's services were restored on 19 January. The app now reportedly displays a "Welcome back" message, as well as a message that thanks Trump for his efforts. 

Don't miss: Duolingo jumps in on TikTok ban talk with subtle but witty social post 

On 19 January, Trump took to Truth Social, an alternative social platform to X, to ask companies "not to let TikTok stay dark". The president-elect said he will issue an executive order on Monday (20 Jan) to extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect. " The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order. Americans deserve to see our exciting inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations," said Trump. 

Trump stated that he would like the United States to have 50% ownership in position in a joint venture in order to "save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up." He emphasised that without the US' approval, there would be no TikTok. However, with the nation's approval, the platform will be worth "hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions." 
 
"Therefore, my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the US gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the US and whichever purchase we so choose," he added. 

The ban on TikTok was scheduled to take place on 19 January 2025. Ahead of the ban, TikTok released a statement on 18 Jan stating that the Biden White House and the department of justice (DOJ) have failed to provide he failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok's availability to over 170 million Americans.  

"Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19," said TikTok. 

Timeline of the ban 

On 5 March 2024, US lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill that gave China's ByteDance 165 days, or the equivalent of six months to divest TikTok or face a ban in the US. If enacted, TikTok will no longer be available in app stores or accessible on US-based web hosting services. This is unless it severs ties to entities such as ByteDance. 

Chairman Mike Gallagher said:

This is my message to TikTok: Break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users.

“America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States. TikTok’s time in the United States is over unless it ends its relationship with CCP-controlled ByteDance,” Gallagher added. 

The bill aimed to address the national security risks posed by other applications controlled by foreign adversary companies. Such apps, according to the lawmakers, allow adversaries to surveil and influence the American public through the data users produce, and the information users share and consume. 

When MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reached out to TikTok in March, a spokesperson said "This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it. This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs." 

Soon after the bill was introduced, the platform urged users in the US to call on Congress to stop a shutdown of the app. The alert from TikTok said, "Congress is planning a total ban of TikTok. Speak up now - before your government strips 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression." It then gave a call to action for users to 'Call now' to "let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO." 

Despite TikTok's efforts, the bill passed on 13 March with 352-65 bipartisan support. 

In July 2024, Trump was seen lending support to TikTok after current president Joe Biden signed the bill. During an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Trump expressed his support for TikTok, saying that competition is needed and that people will be left with only Facebook and Instagram if they don't have access to TikTok. Following which, the president-elect joined TikTok, quickly gaining followers and likes. In one of his TikTok videos, Trump said "I'm going to save TikTok." 

Following the bill's passing, TikTok petitioned to overturn the law. In court documents seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, TikTok said that the divestiture is impractical and that it is "more difficult if not impossible". In addition, TikTok argued that the law singles out TikTok and that a ban would infringe on the First Amendment rights of its users in America. However, the petition was denied by the federal appeals court in December 2024. 

The judges said that the government has offered "persuasive evidence demonstrating that the act is narrowly tailored to protect national security". The judges also disagreed with TikTok's argument that it infringes on the First Amendment rights of American users adding that the law was "carefully crafted to deal with only control by foreign adversary". 

"We recognise that this decision has significant implications for TikTok and its users. Unless TikTok executes a qualified divestiture by January 19, 2025 — or the president grants a 90-day extension based upon progress towards a qualified divestiture, — its platform will effectively be unavailable in the United States, at least for a time," said the judges.

In response to the ruling, TikTok said: 

"The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans' right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue. Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people. The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025." 

The rise of RedNote

Interestingly, leading up to the ban, TikTok users began flocking to Chinese app RedNote. RedNote or locally known as Xiaohongshu is a social networking platform and one of TikTok's competitor. RedNote shot to #1 as the most downloaded app on the App Store in US, with more than 700,000 new US users joining the app, according to Reuters. 

The app functioned similarly to TikTok where users could upload or watch content such as photos, videos and text posts.  The sudden influx of US users on the platform even led to a new term "TikTok refugees". Many Chinese users reportedly began posting selfies and messages saying "welcome TikTok refugees", and responded eagerly to questions from US users on topics such as popular Chinese dishes, city tourist sights and even China's birth policies.

Due to the uptick of US users and English speakers on the app, RedNote began hiring for an English-language content moderator, reported CNN Business. 

What the TikTok ban could have meant for marketers?

In conversation with industry experts, Mike Proulx, VP, research director at Forrester said that a ban on TikTok will hand an effective monopoly to Meta’s Reels — the company’s short-form video product. “Absent of TikTok, users will flock to Reels, period — leaving just YouTube Shorts as its sole competitor. That means Meta is the likely beneficiary of TikTok’s ad revenue in a TikTok-less world, as well,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nimesh Desai, CEO of VML Singapore said that TikTok’s ban would have a deep impact on many within the creator community who use it for a livelihood. “Meta is likely to pounce on the opportunity to push reels and we are likely to see the status quo being disrupted,” he said. Nonetheless, the silver lining, said Desai is that with any disruption the net outcome tends to be better as structures put in place tend to get re-evaluated. This could then mean better ROI for advertising dollars, better experiences and possibly this time better controls that will address security and harmful effects.

Siddharth Surana, chief operating officer, Media360 Communications added that expectedly, some ad dollars will shift towards Meta, Snapchat, and YouTube Shorts for now, and creators will naturally diversify too. 

Agreeing with him is Ranganathan Somanathan, co-founder of RSquared Global Ventures, who said that it's likely one of the tech giants might acquire and help it to decouple from China. “As long as the platform is operational in some form, it will remain a strong contender to get consumer attention and therefore ad dollars,” he added.

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