As TikTok ban looms, fans wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling

It’s also still possible that a U.S. buyer could take over the short-form video platform before the Sunday deadline.

By Shelly BrisbinJanuary 16, 2025 3:11 pm, ,

Jan. 17, 2025, update: The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the federal government can legally shut down TikTok in the U.S. Read our earlier story below.

A ban on accessing TikTok in the U.S. is set to take effect on Sunday, unless the Supreme Court rules to overturn a federal law that requires the platform to split from its Chinese owner. It’s also possible that a last-minute U.S. buyer, or even President-elect Donald Trump, could step in. 

For now, millions of TikTok fans and creators are bracing for the loss of a beloved platform.

Tech journalist Omar Gallaga says users are already experimenting with other platforms. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: So the Supreme Court heard the case against banning TikTok, unless an American owner takes over, last Friday. Are we still waiting for their ruling? 

Omar Gallaga: We are. Everyone is kind of wondering and everything is hanging in the balance. Is the Supreme Court going to step in and lift this ban that is supposed to go into effect on Sunday? Or is the company going to take action and sell off the company? 

There have been rumors. There have been a lot of “what ifs” – what’s going to happen on Sunday to users and their phones and the app? And who might step in?

So there’s a lot going on and we’re all kind of just waiting. But it really is a standoff between ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, and really just waiting on the Supreme Court to see if they’re going to do something.

Well, they are just rumors, but what have we heard about a possible U.S. buyout? Apparently Elon Musk was supposedly interested. Could some takeover still happen?

Given his experiences with X, formerly Twitter, it seemed unlikely that that was going to happen. But then we saw both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal report that, yes, this actually is something that’s been discussed by Chinese officials, even though ByteDance, the company itsel said this was pure fiction.

But it is a possibility. Weirder things have happened in social media. So that is one potential buyer scenario that’s been floated. 

Well, you wrote for CNET this week that TikTok users have been trying a new platform, also Chinese-owned. Tell us about RedNote. 

There have been two. There’s one called Xiaohongshu, which translates to “Little Red Book” and has become known as RedNote. And there’s another one called Lemon8. And they’re both lifestyle apps.

They’re not exactly analogous to TikTok. They’re not exactly short-form video. RedNote is sort of a cross between TikTok and Pinterest, kind of more of a lifestyle app. But people are flocking to it. 

People are doing it as sort of a protest move. There have been American users who posted TikTok saying, “the government thinks I care about the Chinese government having my personal information. I’m going to give them my personal information and go to RedNote.”

And apparently users on RedNote from China have been welcoming Americans with open arms with funny videos, with greetings. And Americans have been kind of brushing up on their Mandarin. Those two apps have been topping the charts of free iPhone and Android apps this week. 

Well, yesterday the Washington Post reported that the president-elect who once promoted a TikTok ban is now looking for a way to save it. Does that seem in Trump’s interest at this point? 

Yeah, he’s been saying since before the election that he wants to save TikTok. He sees that as a way to kind of come in and be the hero and get a little bit of popularity from that.

But apparently, behind the scenes, they have been weighing having him put out an executive order after the inauguration and other potential kinds of intervening in a deal to get the company sold.

It seems like Americans are saying, as you said, “we don’t really care about our private information.” But the arguments for security, I mean, they really had very broad bipartisan support.

I’ve heard federal security experts say that China is the number one concern about future risks to the United States. But these little videos and their enjoyment of them is outweighing any of that for just the regular person. 

And it’s not just the one app. I mean, the other two apps we mentioned have roots in China. There’s been a proposed ban on auto software from China and Russia. So it goes way beyond just the one social media app. 

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