So…Is TikTok Really Getting Banned?

With a likely ban on the short-video app TikTok looming, creators seem split between denial and pure panic.

“Fascist countries ban apps. Fascist countries ban websites. Fascist countries ban apps and websites under the guise of threats to national security,” said one popular creator in a video with more than 11 million views. “When every other country knows it’s about suppressing the free speech of its citizens.”

“We are literally not going to lose TikTok because it’s either going to be pushed back, or it’s going to be accepted as not banned because of that hearing,” said another creator earlier this week. “Obviously it’s scary, and I’m a little freaked out about it too, but realistically, I do not think it’s going to be banned at all.

TikTok, owned by Chinese startup ByteDance, has long been the source of controversy and banning attempts. The extremely popular app has been cited as sparking everything from eating disorders to Hamas sympathies among users, especially young people. However, the most recent move to ban the app has largely been justified by national security concerns tied to TikTok’s Chinese ownership. 

In April, President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, requiring ByteDance to either sell the app or face a ban. The ban would directly punish app carriers like Apple and Google, as well as internet carriers. According to The New York Times, if the ban goes into effect, TikTok would probably not be removed from users’ phones. Instead, with app stores barred from updating or distributing the app, TikTok “would probably degrade over time, slowly becoming unusable.”

TikTok has so far faced defeat in its attempts to fight the sell-or-ban law, arguing that it has a First Amendment right to curate content as it wishes. On Friday, the Supreme Court heard arguments over the ban and is widely expected to uphold the law, forcing TikTok to either be sold or banned in the U.S.

“Never before has Congress taken the extraordinary step of effectively banning a platform for communication, let alone one used by half the country,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment advocacy group, wrote in a December press release following an earlier legal defeat for the app. “The First Amendment requires an explanation of why such a dramatic restriction of the right to speak and receive information is necessary and compelling evidence to support it. The government failed to provide either.”

With no relief in sight—other than some nebulous claims from President-elect Donald Trump to intervene and stop the ban—some TikTok users have moved to RedNote, an app similar to TikTok and also owned by a Chinese company. The app’s Chinese name, Xiaohongshu, translates to “Little Red Book,” referencing the infamous collection of sayings by Chinese Communist dictator Mao Zedong.

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