The Supreme Court has spoken.
The court upheld the law that would ban TikTok starting on Sunday, January 19 2025, given the concerns about national security.
Users have already started looking for alternatives and have begun mourning the loss of their beloved video app and all the entertainment and info it brings.
MORE TIKOK: The 17 best TikToks of all time to watch
But you may be wondering: will the app suddenly disappear from your phone? What will happen next after this decision?
We have some answers for you … or at least we’ll try to answer all this for you. Let’s dive in:
Will TikTok disappear from my device on Sunday?
No. But apparently the app will disappear from app stores so that it won’t be downloadable. Updates won’t come in, which will eventually make the app not work as well.
Will a TikTok sale happen between now and Sunday?
It could happen theoretically, but there hasn’t been much talk of a sale happening. If there was progress in the app getting sold, there could be a pause in the law being invoked, but we haven’t heard much about progress.
Will Donald Trump step in and stop it once he’s president?
He’ll be sworn in the day after the ban is supposed to go into place. It doesn’t seem clear what, if anything, he can do to stop this, but guess we’ll see soon enough.
Will Lemon8 be banned too given that ByteDance owns it?
That’s been floated as a possibility.
What apps can I use that are like TikTok?
We have a list that includes RedNote, Clapper and more.
Why is TikTok getting banned?
The Justice Department had argued the restriction is not on speech but on a foreign adversary’s ability to control a widely used means of communication. Unless TikTok is sold, the government said, China can gather data on Americans or manipulate the content on TikTok to shape U.S. opinion.
“The Chinese government’s control of TikTok poses a grave threat to national security,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court last week.
