In December of 2024, the United States government announced that TikTok would potentially be banned and shut down in the US. Although different attempts were made to put a stop or pause on the impending ban, TikTok completely went dark on January 18th.
For 14 hours.Â
Many Americans across the platform held varying opinions before the ban went into place. Some truly did not believe the app would be allowed to go completely dark. Many – such as myself – tried to figure out a way around it: changing our connected phone number to a UK one, making sure locations were set to outside the US, VPN, everything.Â
Prominent influencers and small businesses ushered followers to meet them on other social media apps in order to keep up content for their platforms and connections with fans. The biggest trend to come out of this was the Chinese app Xiaohongshu, or RedNote (its English name). Many American TikTok users began to migrate to the similar app, calling themselves “TikTok Refugees”. RedNote carries a similar design and style to TikTok, making it seem like a solid second-choice for Americans who were afraid they would never be able to access TikTok again.
In the last few days before the ban took place, videos were even posted giving tutorials on how to save people’s saved collections of videos they did not want to lose after the app was gone (such as tutorials, style inspiration, etc.). Even I found myself rapidly saving my favorite videos to my camera roll. It makes one think about not just the fact that millions of people depend on Tiktok, but also just how easily accessible so many kinds of information are. TikTok, regardless of varying opinions, became in just a few years one of the most popular apps with almost any kind of information and content, making it applicable to anyone’s lives and interests in general.Â
When I woke up January 19th here in Scotland, I’ll admit I was surprised to see the app shut down, even with all the preparations people had done before. Like many others, my other social media accounts were full of people posting their shocking reactions to the app disappearing.Â
The most surprising thing was seeing all the loops Americans tried to go through not work. Even though I am currently located here in St Andrews and changed the number on my TikTok account to my UK number, the app was still dark for me. Friends who bought VPNs, people with UK SIM cards, nothing seemed to work! For the most part, it seemed only Americans who made their accounts outside the country were safe.
I, like others, admittedly found myself constantly clicking on the app over and over again, almost like muscle memory. Instagram Reels didn’t seem to scratch the itch. Although it may sound dramatic to some, American TikTok users – including me – quickly realized just how unique and compelling TikTok is with its endless content and easy features. People went to great lengths with the loss of the app, with some even selling phones online for extreme amounts of money that still had the working app downloaded.Â
The funny part is that before anyone could fully process its disappearance, the app returned only 14 hours after the ban first took place. It was almost like whiplash. Many phones lit up with this notification from TikTok, announcing the app’s official return to America. Everything seemed to be completely back to normal, with everyone’s drafts and saved videos returned.Â
Except, those who had deleted the app from their phone completely, found that they could not get it back (and still can’t, according to some!). This is due to the ban-lift being simply a 75 day extension, not complete reversal of the ban, according to USA Today’s article. TikTok’s future for American users is still up in the air for now, it seems. Will it get extended? Banned for good? Or the opposite? For now, only time will tell as things continue to change politically in America.Â
What we do know from this 14-hour chaos is just how much of an impact TikTok has had on its users, specifically Americans. Most people I spoke to personally about the disappearance of the app were mainly worried about missing big trends and behind on certain things, such as pop-culture news. It just goes to show how prevalent the social media platform is when it comes to content about all sorts of information.
On the other hand, everyone’s reactions (including mine, to be honest) also highlighted the dependence on the app that is just so easy to doomscroll on. Even in such a small time frame of 14 hours, I found myself with more free time than before. Dramatic, I know, I know! But it’s true, and honestly quite scary when you realize just how much time out of our days is spent scrolling mindlessly.Â
Whether American or not, or TikTok users or not, these chaotic times with social media platforms affect most people everywhere, and it is definitely worth having a think about the impact of social media overall.