TikTok went dark for millions of Americans on Saturday night, one day after the Supreme Court upheld a law effectively banning the app in the U.S.
Owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, the short-form video app had roughly 170 million American users before Saturday. Congress passed the bill leading to its ban last year, determining that the app had “well-supported national security concerns.”
There are still plenty of questions about the app’s future in the U.S. as politicians and investors voice interest in reviving the app. Here’s what we know so far.
Why was TikTok banned?
National security concerns that Beijing could manipulate content to shape U.S. opinion and gather sensitive data on American users through the Chinese-owned app triggered a congressionally mandated ban if TikTok did not sell off its U.S. operations.
Supreme Court justices upheld that ban Friday, exhausting the company’s legal options.
Once he takes office, President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News he expects to “most likely” implement a 90-day hold.
If Trump finds a workaround or if it divests its U.S. operations, Americans could regain access to TikTok.
Chinese officials have discussed the possibility of allowing Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk to invest in or take control of its U.S. operation
Did CapCut, Lemon8 get banned, too?
TikTok’s app and web page warn that the platform is no longer available in the U.S., telling users the platform “isn’t available right now” but to “stay tuned!”
URLs for Lemon8 – a TikTok alternative described as a “lifestyle community” – and CapCut, a video editing service, were also made unavailable Saturday night with similar messaging. Both are also owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance.
Can you get around the US TikTok ban?
Desperate fans hunted for workarounds, conferring on other social media platforms.
VPNs, or virtual private networks, that hide your IP address and online activity by routing your internet traffic through a different location, were a bust for most people.
VPNs are often used in countries where the government blocks access to apps such as Iran.
One popular VPN, NordVPN, said it was “experiencing temporary technical difficulties,” according to Reuters.
Internet searches for “VPN” soared moments after TikTok users cut off U.S. users, Google Trends shows.
“No luck with a VPN. Tried accessing from both Australia and the UK,” one person wrote on Reddit. “I’m actually outside the US right now and it still doesn’t work for even me,” another wrote.
Other workarounds like using the Tor browser, which allows people to use the internet anonymously by masking where their online traffic is coming from, also did not work.
Is TikTok coming back?
The platform shared an optimistic message with users Saturday: “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!”
The bill effectively banning the app says the platform would need to divest its U.S. operations to keep running in the country. There has been speculation in recent days on potential investors, including Elon Musk, “Shark Tank”-famous investor Kevin O’Leary and former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
What are some TikTok alternative apps?
YouTube Shorts, operated by Google parent company Alphabet, offers both short-form videos under one minute and a “longer shorts” option for videos of up to three minutes.
Meta operates both Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels, where users can record and edit up to 90 seconds of video.
Chinese app RedNote – which has a layout similar to Pinterest’s – has taken off in recent days as another TikTok alternative, jumping to the top spot on Apple App Store’s listing of free apps as of Saturday.
Short-form video app Clapper is also ranked among the Apple App Store’s top free apps as of Saturday. Triller, another short-form video app, has a similar layout but sits further down on the App Store’s list.
