- TikTok briefly went dark as the U.S ban took effect this weekend, but not all its devoted users lamented its disappearance from their lives. In a New York Times op-ed, a high schooler who described herself as a TikTok "junkie" said the ban gave her hope.
After months of wondering if TikTok will actually go away, the app briefly went dark as the U.S ban took effect this weekend. But not all its devoted users lamented its short-lived disappearance from their lives.
Late Saturday night, TikTok suspended service in the U.S. ahead of a Sunday deadline, and third-party platforms removed it from their app stores. By midday Sunday, however, TikTok said it was restoring service.
TikTok had become a daily routine for many users, but for others, it was seeping into their lives too much.
Juliet Weisfogel, a 17-year-old student at Trevor Day School in New York City, welcomed the TikTok ban in a New York Times op-ed on Sunday.
"I love TikTok so much that I cannot imagine a life without it," she wrote. "And yet I desperately need a life without it."
The ban, which was signed into law last year, cited national security concerns and requires China-based parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. buyer or face a ban.
While some U.S. investors have made offers, ByteDance has said it won't sell. Still, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to issue an executive order when he takes office on Monday to restore TikTok and give ByteDance more time to reach a deal.
But Weisfogel said her support for the ban has nothing to do with national security or where her data is stored. Instead, she's most worried about the future of her generation.
"Given my love of TikTok, you might think the notion of losing it would horrify me, and yet, it fills me with hope," she explained. "You see, I’m a 17-year-old TikTok junkie, and I wholeheartedly support a law that would sever me forever from my fix."
That's because TikTok has taken on an overwhelming role in the lives of her peers, determining their conversations, outfits, what to buy, and meals to eat, Weisfogel added.
In fact, TikTok is the starting point for figuring out almost every lunch and dinner, as young people check to see what dish has gone viral, she said, noting that the app is her generation's search engine.
"Should TikTok permanently end, we teenagers won’t just lose an app full of funny dances or silly memes; we will surrender a way of being, a fundamental cornerstone of youth culture," Weisfogel wrote. "But that’s precisely why we need to give it up. This app has pervaded every corner of our consciousness."
According to a Pew Research report in December 2023, 63% of U.S. teens said they used TikTok, with 68% of girls saying they use it versus 59% of boys. And among the teenage TikTokers, 17% said they used it "almost constantly."
Meanwhile, more than a dozen states sued TikTok in October, saying the company intentionally made the app addictive for children and teens. TikTok forcefully denied the claims and pointed to its robust safeguards.
Ahead of the TikTok ban, many Americans began seeking alternatives and downloaded the Chinese-language social media app RedNote, prompting them to sign up for Duolingo to learn Mandarin.
But other apps lack TikTok's algorithm, which is the closely guarded secret sauce that figures out exactly what users want to see next. Weisfogel said that comes with a downside as it also stirs up insecurities and weighs on self-esteem.
"Our sleep, our waking hours and our thoughts are surrendered to content creators collecting dimes off our time — and to the coffers of ByteDance itself," she said.
For others on TikTok, the stakes are high in another way, as many influencers rely on it to make a living.
Sarah Perl, who has 2.5 million followers on the app, told Fortune's Chloe Berger that the bulk of her fame and revenue came from TikTok.
“Never in history has there been a time as easy as now to within a year make $10,000 a month off of business,” she said.
