Summary
- TikTok was taken down from US app stores just hours before the January 19 deadline, with app users getting notified of the shutdown.
- There is some hope that President-elect Trump may reinstate TikTok temporarily following his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
- Using workarounds like VPNs or sideloading the TikTok APK on Android has proven ineffective.
The clock has been ticking on ByteDance-owned TikTok over the last few days, with the writing pretty much on the wall after the US Supreme Court upheld the ban on the platform as part of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act passed by Congress last year. Well, the inevitable has now happened, with TikTok being taken down from app hubs, including the Google Play Store.
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TikTok users are rushing to stake their claim on Chinese social e-commerce app RedNote
There’s no guarantee it won’t get banned, too
Hours before the ban was set to go into effect, users on both Android and iOS started seeing in-app notices stating that “a law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US.” However, there’s also some positive news for creators and app users with the notice saying that President-elect Donald Trump “has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office,” which is just a day away now (via NPR).
TikTok may return to the US temporarily
The in-app notice sent to TikTok users in the US
President-elect Trump suggested to NBC yesterday that the ban may be short-lived. “The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate.” This extension, as NBC notes, will require certification to Congress showing that the process of divesting has begun, among other requirements.
Apple has already published a support page explaining the TikTok ban in the US while revealing all the ByteDance-owned apps that will be affected. Meanwhile, searching for the app on the Google Play Store returns a banner explaining that TikTok is unavailable. And as we learned last week, sideloading the TikTok APK is not a viable option, either.
Many users have also wondered whether using one of the popular VPN apps could get TikTok back on their devices. However, as USA Today reports, this hasn’t proven to be a reliable solution. So, for all intents and purposes, TikTok is fully gone from the US. But for how long? To return and operate long-term in the US will require ByteDance to find a suitable buyer for TikTok’s US operations, even if the 90-day extension suggested by President-elect Trump goes through.
Some users have already flocked to the China-based app RedNote, which isn’t exactly a like-for-like TikTok replacement but has similar elements. However, as we have learned, RedNote’s data storage practices aren’t clean either, so it’s not a suitable alternative to TikTok, particularly if you value data privacy.
