Trump says he’s giving TikTok another 75 days to find a US buyer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s executive orders have spurred more than 130 lawsuits, but one related to TikTok barely generates a peep. None of those suits challenges the Republican president’s temporary block of the 2024 law that banned the popular social video app after the deadline passed for it to be sold by its China-based parent company, ByteDance. Few of the 431 members of Congress who voted for the law have complained. The director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute says “it’s as if nothing ever happened.” Trump is meeting Wednesday with aides about possible suitors for TikTok, which has headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles. TikTok says it prioritizes user safety.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After TikTok was banned in the United States earlier this year, President Donald Trump gave the platform a reprieve, barreling past a law that was passed in Congress and upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court that said the ban was necessary for national security.

The Republican president’s executive orders have spurred more than 130 lawsuits in the little more than two months he has been in office, but this one barely generated a peep. None of those suits challenges his temporary block of the 2024 law that banned the popular social video app after the deadline passed for it to be sold by ByteDance, its China-based parent company.

Few of the 431 members of the House of Representatives and the Senate who voted for the law have complained.

Despite a bipartisan consensus about the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China, “it’s as if nothing ever happened,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute.

TikTok has stayed online, delighting 170 million users in the U.S.

TikTok continues to function, much to the delight of its 170 million users in the U.S., and the tech giants Apple, Google and Oracle have been persuaded to continue to offer and support the app, on the promise that Trump’s Justice Department would not use the law to seek potentially steep fines against them.

Trump declared he was suspending the law for 75 days, though no provision of the rule would appear to allow for that, to give ByteDance a fresh chance to find a U.S. buyer. The president has suggested he could extend the pause, but he has since said he expects a deal by Saturday, when the reprieve expires. He is meeting Wednesday with aides about possible suitors for TikTok. Oracle and the investment firm Blackstone are among the potential investors.

Trump’s action followed a fast-tracked free-speech challenge by TikTok and its users that ended with a unanimous Supreme Court ruling days before Trump’s inauguration, in which the justices held that national security concerns overcame their usual receptivity to First Amendment claims.

The court’s opinions dealt at length with the potential for China to harvest vast quantities of TikTok users’ data that could allow it to track the locations of federal employees and contractors.

“The record before us establishes that TikTok mines data both from TikTok users and about millions of others who do not consent to share their information,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a brief separate opinion. “According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, TikTok can access ‘any data’ stored in a consenting user’s ‘contact list’ — including names, photos, and other personal information about unconsenting third parties.”

TikTok, which has headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles, has said it prioritizes user safety, and China’s Foreign Ministry has said China’s government has never and will not ask companies to “collect or provide data, information or intelligence” held in foreign countries.

Trump was against TikTok before he was for it

The day after the ruling, TikTok went dark for U.S. users, but it came back online after Trump vowed to stall the ban.

The president’s position has evolved over time. During his first term, he used an executive order to try to ban TikTok on national security grounds. But federal courts blocked it. His administration then tried to negotiate a sale of the platform, but it failed.

Trump changed his tune during his 2024 campaign and said he would “save TikTok,” then credited the platform with helping him win more young voters. He issued the 75-day pause on the first day of his second term.

The law allows for one 90-day reprieve, but only if there’s a deal on the table and a formal notification to Congress.

Trump’s actions so far violate the law, said Alan Rozenshtein, an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota. “The law does not permit the sort of ‘extension’ that Donald Trump has announced,” Rozenshtein said.

But both he and Kreps acknowledged a court challenge or other pushback is unlikely.

“Who’s the constituency? You have 170 million Americans using the app, and they’re pretty happy to see this continue to be available to them,” Kreps said.

It also might be hard for someone to establish the legal right, or standing, to sue, Rozenshtein said. A plaintiff would have to be able to show harm from the delay in enforcing the law, he said.

More importantly, he said, the TikTok executive order was an early “example of the Trump administration not caring about the rule of law.”

While Trump has directed the Justice Department not to seek fines from the tech companies, they still are taking a legal gamble, according to Democratic lawmakers who oppose the TikTok ban but also criticize Trump for his actions. A future administration might have its own reasons to pursue legal claims against Apple, Google and Oracle, they wrote Trump in a letter last week.

Companies could face hundreds of billions of dollars in legal liability for facilitating TikTok’s operations since the law’s effective date of Jan. 19, Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Ed Markey of Massachusetts wrote.

Tech companies initially lacked clear guidance

The companies themselves acknowledged their legally uncertain situation in their initial response to Trump’s order. Oracle continued to provide cloud services to TikTok, the senators said, but “Apple and Google, however, initially came to a different decision and refused to reinstate TikTok in their app stores.”

The companies changed course only after receiving written assurance from the Justice Department.

The Democrats have called for amending the law to extend the deadline for a sale to October. Other opponents of the TikTok ban support a full repeal.

Among the few supporters of the ban to speak out is Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

But rather than take on Trump, Moolenaar has focused his criticism on ByteDance and its ties the Chinese Communist Party. “If ByteDance stays involved in any way, the deal is illegal — plain and simple,” Moolenaar said in remarks to a TikTok event on Capitol Hill last week.

Several potential bidders have stepped forward.

Perplexity AI presented ByteDance in January with a merger proposal that would combine Perplexity’s business with TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Another possibility is a consortium organized by billionaire businessman Frank McCourt, which recently recruited Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as a strategic adviser. Investors in the consortium previously said they offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash for TikTok’s U.S. platform. They had planned to redesign the popular app with blockchain technology they said would provide users with more control over their online data.

Jesse Tinsley, the founder of the payroll firm Employer.com, had also organized a consortium, which included the CEO of the video game platform Roblox, and offered ByteDance more than $30 billion for TikTok.

UNDATED (AP)- TikTok says it’s restoring service to users in the United States just hours after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban. The announcement on X came after President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday (Jan. 19, 2025) that he planned to pause the ban by executive order on his first day in office. Trump says the order would give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer. Millions of U.S. TikTok users were unable to access the TikTok app and platform starting late Saturday. But by Sunday afternoon, a message greeted those who signed on thanking them — and the president-elect — for their support.

UNDATED (AP)- TikTok restored service to users in the United States on Sunday (Jan. 19, 2025) just hours after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban, which President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office.

Trump said he planned to issue the order to give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the ban takes full effect. He announced the move on his Truth Social account as millions of U.S. TikTok users awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform.

But by Sunday afternoon, a message greeted those who signed on thanking them — and the president-elect — for their support.

“As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” the message read.

TikTok said it shut down the platform late Saturday because of a federal law that required parent company ByteDance to sell its U.S. operation by Sunday. Google and Apple also removed TikTok from their digital stores. The law, which passed with wide bipartisan support in April, allows for steep fines.

While the company that runs TikTok in the U.S. said on X that the steps Trump outlined Sunday provided “the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties,” the TikTok app remained remained unavailable for download in Apple and Google’s app stores.

“It was a brilliant marketing stunt for both TikTok and incoming president Donald Trump,” Jasmine Enberg, an analyst with market research firm Emarketer, said. “By abruptly shutting off service, TikTok proved how unpopular the ban was among its users.”

Why was TikTok banned? What can Trump do about it?

The law that took effect Sunday required ByteDance to cut ties with the platform’s U.S. operations due to national security concerns. However, the statute authorized the sitting president to grant a 90-day extension if a viable sale was underway.

Although investors made some offers, ByteDance has said it would not sell. Trump said his order would “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect” and “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how Trump’s promised action would fare from a legal standpoint since the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ban on Friday and the statute came into force the day before Trump’s return to the White House. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin and the bill’s author, said on Fox News Sunday that “there is no extension” for TikTok.

“Let me tell you, as the person who wrote the bill, the extension was within the 270-day window, which closed at 12:01 a.m. this morning,” he said, adding that only if the president certifies there are “legally binding documents” showing a divestiture is on the way would there be an extension.

“I think Trump can at least make an argument that the language is meant to cover any president,” University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said.

Some lawmakers who voted for the sale-or-ban law, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, remain in favor of it. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas warned companies Sunday not to provide TikTok with technical support.

“Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law,” Cotton wrote on X. “Think about it.”

Constitutional and business law attorney Kirk McGill said he thinks Trump lacks the legal authority to suspend the ban but it’s unlikely the question would reach a court in the time it might take TikTok to find a buyer.

It’s also unlikely that Apple or Google will face legal consequences if they move forward with Trump’s demands, given that his administration would have to initiate any prosecutions, McGill said.

“In the next week or two, before the courts have the chance to do anything, this is certainly going to be a political fight, not a legal one,” McGill said.

TikTok shuts off — but only temporarily?

The on-and-off availability of TikTok came after the Supreme Court ruled that the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China outweighed concerns about limiting speech by the app or its millions of U.S. users.

When TikTok users in the U.S. tried to watch or post videos on the platform as of Saturday night, they saw a pop-up message under the headline, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” the message said. “Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”

The app was removed late Saturday from prominent app stores and remained so as of Sunday afternoon. Apple told customers it also took down other apps developed by ByteDance. They included Lemon8, which some influencers had promoted as a TikTok alternative, the popular video editing app CapCut and photo editor Hypic.

“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,” the company said.

Google declined to comment. Apple did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the day’s developments.

Experts had said the law as written did not require TikTok to take down its platform, only for app stores to remove it. Current users expected to continue to have access to videos until a lack of updates caused the app to stop working.

After TikTok was back online Sunday, content creator Tiffany Watson, 20, said she was “pretty hopeful” it would stay up. At the same time, Watson said her dedication “solely” to the platform declined during the months the threat of a ban loomed.

“Overall, I hope that creators will succeed and find community in spite of the unpredictability of TikTok,” she said.

Will the ban’s timing help TikTok?

Trump’s plan to spare TikTok on his first day in office reflected the ban’s coincidental timing and the unusual mix of political considerations surrounding a social media platform that first gained popularity with often silly videos featuring dances and music clips.

During his first presidential term, Trump in 2020 issued executive orders banning dealings with ByteDance and the owners of the Chinese messaging app WeChat, moves that courts subsequently blocked.

Trump has since credited TikTok with helping him win support from young voters in last year’s presidential election. TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration with a prime seating location.

Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Michael Waltz, told CBS News on Sunday that the president-elect discussed TikTok during a weekend call with Chinese President Xi Jinping “and they agreed to work together on this.”

The Biden administration has also stressed in recent days that it did not intend to implement or enforce the ban before Trump takes office on Monday.

Who are possible buyers of TikTok?

ByteDance has publicly insisted it would not sell TikTok, and no likely buyer has emerged.

On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok’s U.S. business, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Perplexity is not asking to purchase the ByteDance algorithm that feeds TikTok user’s videos based on their interests.

In Washington, lawmakers and administration officials have long warned that the algorithm is vulnerable to manipulation by China. To date, the U.S. has not publicly provided evidence of TikTok providing user data to Chinese authorities or tinkering with the algorithm to benefit Chinese interests.

Another unknown is whether Trump will remain a TikTok fan.

“He’s flip-flopped on his stance toward TikTok before, and there’s no guarantee he won’t do so again,” EMarketer’s Enberg said.

UNDATED (AP)- President-elect Donald Trump says he plans to issue an executive order that would give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the popular video-sharing platform is subject to a permanent U.S. ban. Trump announced the decision in a post on his Truth Social account on Sunday (Jan. 19, 2025) as millions of TikTok users awoke to discover they couldn’t access the TikTok app or platform. Google and Apple removed the app from their digital stores to comply with a federal law that required them to do so if TikTok’s U.S. operation wasn’t sold by Sunday. Trump says his order would “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect.”

UNDATED (AP)- President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday (Jan. 19, 2025) that he plans to issue an executive order that would give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the popular video-sharing platform is subject to a permanent U.S.ban.

Trump announced the decision in a post on his Truth Social account as millions of TikTok users in the U.S. awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform. Google and Apple removed the app from their digital stores to comply with a federal law that required them to do so if TikTok parent company ByteDance didn’t sell its U.S. operation by Sunday.

He said his order would “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect” and “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,” Trump wrote.

The law gives the sitting president authority to grant a 90-day extension if a viable sale is underway. Although investors made a few offers, ByteDance previously said it would not sell. In his post on Sunday, Trump said he “would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture,” but it was not immediately clear if he was referring to the government or an American company.

“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up,” Trump wrote. “Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions.”

The federal law required ByteDance to cut ties with the platform’s U.S. operations by Sunday due to national security concerns posed by the app’s Chinese roots. The law passed with wide bipartisan support in April, and U.S. President Joe Biden quickly signed it. TikTok and ByteDance sued on First Amendment grounds, and the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the statute on Friday.

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.,” a pop-up message informed users who opened the TikTok app and tried to scroll through videos on Saturday night. “Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”

The service interruption TikTok instituted hours early caught most users by surprise. Experts had said the law as written did not require TikTok to take down its platform, only for app stores to remove it. Current users had been expected to continue to have access to videos until the app stopped working due to a lack of updates.

“The community on TikTok is like nothing else, so it’s weird to not have that anymore,” content creator Tiffany Watson, 20, said Sunday.

Watson said she had been in denial about the looming shutdown and with the space time on her hands plans to focus on bolsering her presence on Instagram and YouTube.

“There are still people out there who want beauty content,” Watson said. The company’s app was removed late Saturday from prominent app stores, including the ones operated by Apple and Google. Apple told customers with its devices that it also took down other apps developed by TikTok’s China-based parent company, including one that some social media influencers had promoted as an alternative.

In upholding the law on Friday, the Supreme Court decided that the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the United States.

Trump’s plan to issue an executive order to spare TikTok on his first day in office reflected the ban’s coincidental timing and the unusual mix of political considerations surrounding a social media platform that first gained popularity with often silly videos featuring dances and music clips.

Despite its own part in getting the nationwide ban enacted, the Biden administration stressed in recent days that it did not intend to implement or enforce the ban before Trump takes office on Monday.

During his first term in the White House, Trump issued executive orders in 2020 banning TikTok and the Chinese messaging app WeChat, moves that courts subsequently blocked. When momentum for a ban emerged in Congress last year, however, he opposed the legislation. Trump has since credited TikTok with helping him win support from young voters in last year’s presidential election.

“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned,” read the pop-up message the app’s users now see under the headline, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”

The only option the message gives U.S. users is to close the app or click another option leading them to the platform’s website. There, users see the same message and are given the option to download their data, an action that TikTok previously said may take days to process.

Apple said in a statement on its website that three TikTok apps and eight other ByteDance-created apps were no longer available in the U.S., while visitors to the country might have limited access. The removed apps included video-editing program CapCut, art editing program Hypic and Lemon8, a video-sharing app that includes some of the same features as TikTok.

“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates,” the company said.

Apple said the apps would remain on the devices of people who already had them installed, but in-app purchases and new subscriptions no longer were possible and that operating updates to iPhones and iPads might affect the apps’ performance.

In the nine months since Congress passed the sale-or-ban law, no clear buyers emerged, and ByteDance publicly insisted it would not sell TikTok. But Trump said he hoped his administration could facilitate a deal to “save” the app.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration with a prime seating location.

Chew posted a video late Saturday thanking Trump for his commitment to work with the company to keep the app available in the U.S. and taking a “strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.”

Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Michael Waltz, told CBS News on Sunday that the president-elect discussed TikTok going dark in the U.S. during a weekend call with Chinese President Xi Jinping “and they agreed to work together on this.”

On Saturday, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI submitted a proposal to ByteDance to create a new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok’s U.S. business, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Perplexity is not asking to purchase the ByteDance algorithm that feeds TikTok user’s videos based on their interests and has made the platform such a phenomenon.

Other investors also eyed TikTok. “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary recently said a consortium of investors that he and billionaire Frank McCourt offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash. Trump’s former treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, also said last year that he was putting together an investor group to buy TikTok.

In Washington, lawmakers and administration officials have long raised concerns about TikTok, warning the algorithm that fuels what users see is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities. But to date, the U.S. has not publicly provided evidence of TikTok handing user data to Chinese authorities or tinkering with its algorithm to benefit Chinese interests.

After TikTok’s service started going dark, some in China slammed the U.S. and accused it of suppressing the popular app. In a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, Hu Xijin, a former editor-in-chief for the Chinese Communist Party-run newspaper Global Times, said “TikTok’s announcement to halt services in America marks the darkest moment in the development of internet.”

“A country that claims to have the most freedom of speech has carried out the most brutal suppression of an internet application,” said Hu, who is now a political commentator.

TikTok does not operate in China, where ByteDance instead offers Douyin, the Chinese sibling of TikTok that follows Beijing’s strict censorship rules.

UNDATED (AP)- With a possible TikTok ban just days away, many U.S. users are looking for alternative social media platforms to help them keep up with pop culture or provide the type of entertaining videos that popularized the short-form video app. TikTok has more than 170 million users in the U.S., and if it does get banned, it’s not clear which competitors will benefit the most. Some experts think established social media platforms, such as Instagram and YouTube, could see the biggest influx of users. But some users are looking for something different and could turn to other apps.

UNDATED (AP)- With a possible TikTok ban just days away, many U.S. users are looking for alternative social media platforms to help them keep up with pop culture or provide the type of entertaining videos that popularized the short-form video app.

TikTok, which has been a cultural phenomenon, could be banned on Jan. 19, 2025, under a law that forces the platform to cut ties with its China-based parent company, ByteDance, or shut down its U.S. operation.

The fate of social media platform will be decided by the Supreme Court, which last week heard oral arguments in a legal challenge to the statute and seemed likely to uphold the law. The court could rule on the case as soon as this week. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has asked the justices to put the law on hold so he can negotiate a “political resolution” to the issue after he takes office.

TikTok has more than 170 million users in the U.S., and if it does get banned, it’s not clear which competitors will benefit the most. Some experts think established social media platforms, such as Instagram and YouTube, could see the biggest influx of users. But some users are looking for something different and could turn to other apps.

Here are the different alternatives and what to know about them:

Xiaohongshu, or “RedNote”

Recently, some U.S. TikTok users have flocked to the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu in protest of the looming ban. Like TikTok, Xiaohongshu, which in English means “Little Red Book,” combines e-commerce and short-form videos.

The app has gained traction in China and other regions with a Chinese diaspora — such as Malaysia and Taiwan — racking up 300 million monthly active users, a majority of whom are young women who use it as a de-facto search engine for product, travel and restaurant recommendations, as well as makeup and skincare tutorials.

On Tuesday, the Xiaohongshu, called “RedNote” by American users and on some app stores, was the top downloaded free app in Apple’s U.S. app store.

Lemon8

Lemon8, also owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, is a lesser-known lifestyle app that allows users to post pictures and short-form videos. Though the platform lets users post TikTok-like videos, it leans more into pictures and has been described as a mixture of Instagram and Pinterest.

In the past few weeks, many creators have hailed Lemon8 as the place to go if TikTok is banned under federal law. Some have also recommended it through paid sponsored posts tagged #lemon8partner, indicating a recent corporate push to generate more users.

But the law that targets TikTok also states the divest-or-ban requirement for ByteDance applies generally to apps that are owned or operated by the two companies or any of their subsidiaries. That means even though Lemon8 is not explicitly named in the statute, its future in the U.S. is also in jeopardy.

Meta’s Instagram

Instagram launched Reels in 2020, a TikTok-like feed of short videos users can create or scroll through. The feature has proven to be massively popular and some experts say creators are likely to set up shop there if a TikTok ban does happen. As of 2022, Instagram had 2 billion active monthly users. Meta no longer discloses user numbers for its individual platforms.

But could it replace TikTok? That depends. While many creators currently post on both platforms, some experts say the youngest users are unlikely to migrate to a service made popular by their millennial parents. And while Meta’s algorithm is addictive, it’s still not TikTok.

In the past, some TikTok users have also blamed the surge of scrutiny on the platform on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pointing to a Washington Post report from 2022 that said the tech behemoth paid a Republican consulting firm to undermine TikTok through a nationwide media and lobbying campaign.

YouTube

Though TikTok dominates headlines as a driver of internet trends, Pew Research Center says YouTube is actually the most widely-used platform among teens and adults.

YouTube users can scroll through Shorts just as they can on TikTok or Reels on Instagram and Facebook, allowing them to watch hours of bite-sized videos. Many of the videos featured on YouTube are from TikTok or creators who post to several platforms. That said, YouTube is still known for its longer-format videos so it may not have the variety of content that TikTok users are looking for — at least not yet.

Snapchat

Snapchat, launched in 2011 with its infamous disappearing videos, remains popular among teens and younger adults. The platform gained so much traction that Meta designed a similar feature in Facebook and Instagram called “Stories” that lets users post photos or videos that disappear within 24 hours. In 2020, Snapchat launched another feature that lets users “shine a light on the most entertaining Snaps, no matter who created them.”

The platform is estimated to have roughly 692 million global monthly active users last year, according to eMarketer.

Twitch

For TikTok users who enjoy the “TikTok Live” feed that features livestreamed videos, Twitch could be a good alternative. The Amazon-owned platform is a leader in the streaming industry and allows users on the platform to watch some of the internet’s most popular streamers, such as Kai Cenat. Twitch says it has 105 million monthly visitors.

Clapper

Clapper, a TikTok clone, has also been gaining some traction amid the looming ban. The app was launched in 2020 by Dallas-based entrepreneur Edison Chen, and focuses on Gen X and millennial users. In September of that year, the company described itself in a Facebook post as a “free speech” platform that did not “censor posts and comments.” But in blog post on its website from 2021, the company wrote it “stopped being a ‘Free Speech’ platform” in September 2020 and “changed its mission and goals” to focus on “community”.

Other little-known apps

For TikTok users who want to get away from the overcrowded spots, there are lesser-known apps like Triller, which is popular for music videos, and Zigazoo, which was designed with kids in mind.

If none of these apps tickle your fancy, it’s also possible that other platforms could emerge in the next few months as companies attempt to attract users looking for a new place to go.

UNDATED (AP)- A federal appeals court on Friday (Dec. 13, 2024)  left in place a mid-January deadline in a federal law requiring TikTok to be sold or face a ban in the United States, rejecting a request made by the company to halt enforcement until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge of the statute.

Attorneys for TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.

It’s unclear if the nation’s highest court will take up the case, though some legal experts have said they expect the justices to weigh in due to the types of novel questions it raises about social media, national security and the First Amendment. TikTok is also looking for a potential lifeline from President-elect Donald Trump, who promised to “save” the short-form video platform during the presidential campaign.

Attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance had requested the injunction after a panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the U.S. government and rejected their challenge to the law.

The court rejected that request on Friday, calling it “unwarranted.”

“The petitioners have not identified any case in which a court, after rejecting a constitutional challenge to an Act of Congress, has enjoined the Act from going into effect while review is sought in the Supreme Court,” said the court’s order, which was unsigned.

The statute, which was signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year, requires ByteDance to sell TikTok to an approved buyer due to national security concerns or face a ban in the U.S.

The U.S. has said it sees TikTok as a national security risk because ByteDance could be coerced by Chinese authorities to hand over U.S. user data or manipulate content on the platform for Beijing’s interests. TikTok has denied those claims and has argued that the government’s case rests on hypothetical future risks instead of proven facts.

In the request filed this week, attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance had asked for a “modest delay” in enforcement of the law so that the Supreme Court could review the case and the incoming Trump administration could “determine its position” on the matter.

If the law is not overturned, the two companies have said that the popular app will shut down by Jan. 19, just a day before Trump takes office again. More than 170 million American users would be affected, the companies have said.

The Justice Department had opposed TikTok’s request for a pause, saying in a court filing this week that the parties had already proposed a schedule that was “designed for the precise purpose” of allowing Supreme Court review of the law before it took effect.

The appeals court issued its Dec. 6 ruling on the matter in line with that schedule, the Justice Department filing said.

UNDATED (AP)- More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia have filed lawsuits against TikTok. They are alleging the popular short-form video app is designed to be addictive to kids and harms young people’s mental health. At the heart of each lawsuit is the TikTok algorithm, which powers what users see on the platform by populating the app’s main “For You” feed with content tailored to people’s interests. The lawsuits also emphasize design features that they say make children addicted to the platform. TikTok says it strongly disagrees with the claims. It says many of the allegations in the lawsuits are wrong and misleading.

UNDATED (AP)- More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday, saying that the popular short-form video app is designed to be addictive to kids and harms their mental health.

The lawsuits stem from a national investigation into TikTok, which was launched in March 2022 by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from many states, including New York, California, Kentucky and New Jersey. All of the complaints were filed in state courts.

At the heart of each lawsuit is the TikTok algorithm, which powers what users see on the platform by populating the app’s main “For You” feed with content tailored to people’s interests. The lawsuits note TikTok design features that they say addict children to the platform, such as the ability to scroll endlessly through content, push notifications that come with built-in “buzzes” and face filters that create unattainable appearances for users.

“They’ve chosen profit over the health and safety, well-being and future of our children,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a news conference in San Francisco. “And that is not something we can accept. So we’ve sued.”

The latest lawsuits come nearly a year after dozens of states sued Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc. in state and federal courts for harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing addictive features that keep kids hooked on their platforms.

Keeping people on the platform is “how they generate massive ad revenue,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in an interview. “But unfortunately, that’s also how they generate adverse mental health impacts on the users.”

The legal challenges, which also include Google’s YouTube, are part of a growing reckoning against social media companies and their effects on young people’s lives. In some cases, the challenges have been coordinated in a way that resembles how states previously organized against the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries.

TikTok, though, is facing an even bigger obstacle, as its very existence in the U.S. is in question. Under a federal law that took effect earlier this year, TikTok could be banned from the U.S. by mid-January if its China-based parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t sell the platform by then. Both TikTok and ByteDance are challenging the law at an appeals court in Washington. A panel of three judges heard oral arguments in the case last month and are expected to issue a ruling, which could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In its filings Tuesday, the District of Columbia called the algorithm “dopamine-inducing,” and said it was created to be intentionally addictive so the company could trap many young users into excessive use and keep them on its app for hours on end. TikTok does this despite knowing that these behaviors will lead to profound psychological and physiological harms, such as anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia and other long-lasting problems, the district said.

TikTok is disappointed that the lawsuits were filed after the company had been working with the attorneys general for two years on addressing to the issues, a spokesman said.

“We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading,” the TikTok spokesman. Alex Haurek, said. “We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product.”

The social media company does not allow children under 13 to sign up for its main service and restricts some content for everyone under 18. But Washington and several other states said in their filings that children can easily bypass those restrictions, allowing them to access the service adults use despite the company’s claims that its platform is safe for children.

The District of Columbia alleges TikTok is operating as an “unlicensed virtual economy” by allowing people to purchase TikTok Coins – a virtual currency within the platform – and send “Gifts” to streamers on TikTok LIVE who can cash it out for real money. TikTok takes a 50% commission on these financial transactions but hasn’t registered as a money transmitter with the U.S. Treasury Department or authorities in the district, according to the complaint.

Officials say teens are frequently exploited for sexually explicit content through TikTok’s LIVE streaming feature, which has allowed the app to operate essentially as a “virtual strip club” without any age restrictions. They say the cut the company gets from the financial transactions allows it to profit from exploitation.

The 14 attorneys general say the goal of their lawsuits is to stop TikTok from using these features, impose financial penalties for their alleged illegal practices and collect damages for users that have been harmed.

The use of social media among teens is nearly universal in the U.S. and many other parts of the world. Almost all teens ages 13 to 17 in the U.S. report using a social media platform, with about a third saying they use social media “almost constantly,” according to the Pew Research Center.

High school students who frequently use social media more commonly have persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, according to a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted last year in which about 20,000 teenagers participated.

Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued TikTok, alleging the company was sharing and selling minors’ personal information in violation of a new state law that prohibits these practices. TikTok, which disputes the allegations, is also fighting against a similar data-oriented federal lawsuit filed in August by the Department of Justice.

Several Republican-led states, including Nebraska, Kansas, New Hampshire, Kansas, Iowa and Arkansas, also previously sued the company, some unsuccessfully, over allegations it is harming children’s mental health, exposing them to “inappropriate” content or allowing young people to be sexually exploited on its platform.

UNDATED (AP)- TikTok creators across the country are expressing frustration over a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives (March 13, 2024) that would lead to a nationwide ban of the app if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake. The proposal is awaiting Senate input. Content creators say a ban would hurt countless people and businesses that rely on the app for a significant portion of their income. TikTok supporters also say the app is unrivaled platform for dialogue and community. The push to remove TikTok from Chinese authority follows concerns about the security of user data, interference in U.S. elections and the suppression of content unfavorable to Beijing, all of which TikTok denies.

UNDATED (AP)- Alex Pearlman shut the door on dreams of a standup comedy career almost a decade ago, pivoting from the stage to an office cubicle where he worked a customer service job.

Then he started posting random jokes and commentary about pop culture and politics on TikTok. Just over 2.5 million followers later, he quit his nine-to-five and recently booked his first nationwide tour.

Pearlman is among the many TikTok creators across the U.S. outraged over a bipartisan bill passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday (March 13, 2024) that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app if its China-based owner, ByteDance, doesn’t sell its stake. The bill still needs to go through the Senate, where its prospects are unclear.

Content creators say a ban would hurt countless people and businesses that rely on TikTok for a significant portion of their income, while also arguing TikTok has become an unrivaled platform for dialogue and community.

Pearlman, who lives outside Philadelphia, said TikTok has transformed his life, allowing him to live a dream, provide for his family and spend the first three months of his newborn son’s life at home. His customer service job only offered paternity leave equivalent to three weeks off, with two weeks paid.

“I don’t take a day for granted on this app, because it’s been so shocking,” said Pearlman, 39. “In reality, TikTok has been the driver of American social media for the last four years. Something will step into that place if TikTok vanishes tomorrow. Whether or not that will be better or worse, Congress has no way of knowing.”

TikTok, which launched in 2016, has skyrocketed in popularity, growing faster than Instagram, YouTube or Facebook. The push to remove the app from Chinese authority follows concerns from lawmakers, law enforcement and intelligence officials about the insecurity of user data, potential suppression of content unfavorable to the Chinese government and the possibility that the platform could boost pro-Beijing propaganda, all of which TikTok denies.

To date, the U.S. government hasn’t provided any evidence showing TikTok shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities.

The move comes as the pandemic saw huge growth in digital marketing as people were stuck at home consuming — and creating — content at levels not seen before.

Jensen Savannah, a 29-year-old from Charlotte, began making TikToks of her travels around the Carolinas during the pandemic. Now a full-time influencer, she has tripled her income since leaving her telecommunications sales job.

“’Social media Influencer’ is almost to be looked at as the new print and the new form of radio and TV advertising,” she said. “It’s going to bring your dollar much farther than it is in traditional marketing.”

Some creators describe it as a digital equalizer of sorts, providing a platform for people of color and other marginalized groups to get opportunities and exposure.

“I’ve always had Twitter, I’ve had Facebook, I’ve had Instagram. But TikTok was the first one where, if you want to find somebody who looks like yourself and represents you in any type of way, you can find it,” said Joshua Dairen, a Black, 30-year-old content creator in Auburn, Alabama. Dairen makes videos about his state’s ghost stories, urban legends and history.

Growing up, he loved researching everything paranormal, but he didn’t see a lot of Black representation in the field. Exposure on TikTok has led to jobs writing freelance pieces and contributing to documentaries about paranormal occurrences and unsolved mysteries. The app also gave Dairen the flexibility and confidence to open his own coffee shop, where he gets visits at least once a day from fans of his work.

He thinks banning TikTok sets “a dangerous precedent about how much power our highest levels of government can wield.”

Others say the app is both a financial and social safety net.

Chris Bautista, a food truck owner in Los Angeles catering to television and movie sets, started using TikTok during the pandemic to connect with members of the LGBTQ+ community and show support for those who might be having a hard time.

Bautista, 37, grew up in a conservative Christian community outside LA and didn’t come out until his late 20s. As a young person, he struggled with his mental health and considered suicide. He wanted to create a platform he could have used as a teenager, one showing that someone like him could go to that dark place and come out the other side a “well-adjusted, confident person.”

“I just find the corners of TikTok that I find myself in to be so wildly important and profound,” according to Bautista, who said it would be “heartbreaking” if the app was banned.

Bautista didn’t start posting with the intention of monetizing the experience, but money from projects tied to the app came at the right time: If it wasn’t for the extra income he earned through TikTok during the pandemic and then the Hollywood strikes last year, his business would have shut down.

Almost since its inception, concerns have been raised about the addictive nature of the app, especially for young audiences whose minds are still developing. Marcus Bridgewater, a former private school teacher and administrator who owns his own business and posts TikTok gardening videos, wants Congress to be focused on those issues, and not whether the app is Chinese-owned.

“Social media is a powerful tool,” said Bridgewater, who lives in Spring, Texas. “And powerful tools are just that: They are capable of helping us transcend ourselves, but in their transcendence, they’re also capable of completely severing us from those we love.”

Pearlman said he has long feared politicians would come after TikTok. He compared the experience of finding out about the House vote to finally getting the call that an ailing loved one has died.

“The part that’s disturbing to me is, I feel like for a lot of Americans, TikTok and social media in general is a release valve — it’s kind of become a default complaint box,” he said. “So to many people, it feels like they’re trying to ban the complaint box instead of dealing with the complaint.”