So, this morning, I woke up to the trending news that finally, TikTok had been banned in the United States. The ruling took effect at midnight on the 19th of January 2025, today. And since then, Twitter has been buzzing. And just like that, one of the most used and loved social media apps lost well over 170 million users. Can you imagine?
Well, for many, this is not coming as a surprise. All through last year we saw how they kept taking TikTok to court where they suspected that TikTok was using data obtained from the app against the interests of the United States. Finally, they’ve got their wishes and for those who made their living off the app, it’s gonna be a tough couple of weeks ahead if this ban holds.
Funny enough, Tiktok didn’t just get banned, Capcut was also caught in the storm. Capcut is also owned by Bytedance, the parent company of Tiktok. So, from today, Capcut has also lost millions of users as well. I even heard that a certain Marvel game was affected by this, but I’m not too sure just yet.
What does this all mean? Well, there are two ways this can go. There’s speculation that Donald Trump would give Bytedance a 90-day extension until they’re able to find an American buyer for the company. If this happens and the stakeholders fold under pressure, they could end up selling to an American. And I guess this would be an American that the government would readily agree with so that they can use the social media app however they want and spread propaganda without any external influence.
The other way this could go is Bytedance calling their bluff and being willing to let all 170 million users go. I don’t know if they’ll be able to do this as a lot of revenue comes from this part of the world. They might have to weigh their options and see if selling would be more profitable than calling their bluff. Whichever step they feel is best is what they’d take.
This is not an isolated event because it’s having a ripple effect all through the social media landscape. One of the chief benefactors of all this is Meta, because, without Tiktok as a major competitor in the USA, they could be getting over 100 million more active users. Facebook and Instagram accounts that have laid dormant over the years due to TikTok would suddenly come back to life. People have already become hooked to social media, and at this point, they might not care if it’s Meta or Bytedance that’s providing the platform.
But then, what does this mean for those of us outside the United States? Well, we all know there are countries that like to copy anything that the global superpower does, we just hope that doesn’t become the case. Some leaders might see the “wisdom” and decide to ban the app in their countries as well, or at the very least, impose some severe restrictions that will probably force the app to leave of their own free will. We don’t know yet, so far, all this is just speculation.
I guess periods like this make me appreciate the beauty of Web3 all the more. As it doesn’t belong to one company or one person and as such, it can’t be owned by any one person. If you want to spread propaganda, spread it on your blog, and those interested will come to you. Everyone owns their account and can do whatever they want, however they want with it. Simple.
I guess this is the wake-up call that we need, a reminder that Web3 is here to stay. For many of those in the US, this ruling could be viewed as taking away their voice, because many of them found TikTok as an outlet. I can’t even imagine what I would do if I was suddenly told that I couldn’t come on here and write anymore.
Sadly, many of the people making these decisions are old people who probably have no idea what makes the youth happy, or how the young ones are making their money. Senior citizens in positions of power are deciding how youths get to live their lives, it’s just insane. Many of them don’t even have accounts, so they don’t know the benefits.
Well, my heart goes out to the United States and everyone suffering from this. As a fellow creator, I know how gut-wrenching it can feel to have your voice taken from you. It’s been done to us here in Nigeria before when Twitter was banned by our former president. I can only hope that like us, they’re able to find a way around this. If not, this could set a precedent for more crazy things to come in the future.
Well, I guess we’d just have to watch and see.
