The deadline for TikTok to suspend its app services for users in America is January 19, the same day a new US law prohibiting the app goes into effect. The law provides that no one will be able to download the app any more from either Apple’s App Store or Google Play Store. It will also be forbidden for a user to update the app.
Currently, TikTok main now has an estimated around 170 million American users that are actively engaged with the app on a monthly basis. The shutdown will cut off that person the very instant that date happens. The law promulgated is not advantageous for ByteDance, since under this condition, it will result in selling off all its business in the United States if it does not want to stop catering to American clientele.
U.S. lawmakers have a lot of concern about the fact that TikTok can work as spyware for the Chinese government. According to Chinese law, companies would be obliged to share whatever user data they possess with the state, and that’s seriously alarming in terms of privacy and security.
With the future of TikTok in limbo, two other Chinese social media apps, Xiaohongshu and Lemon8, have risen the rankings swiftly in Apple’s App Store. There have been discussions around banning TikTok for years. The former President Donald Trump once mentioned the idea of banning the app during his presidency.
It is now before the Supreme Court for a review after TikTok asked to take a Forbearance motion challenging the ban-inducing law, but such is unlikely to happen before the enforcement date. All remain jittery as the battle gets hotter between users and developers over the fate of TikTok.