Unless you live under a rock, you probably know that this Sunday, January 19 2025 is officially the day the world ends. Well, not really, but for some, it may seem like it. This date marks a critical juncture for TikTok in the U.S as the country nears its deadline to enforce a nationwide ban on the app.
The ban has been a long time coming, with the government citing concerns over national security as the reason for the imminent shut down. With other countries, including Australia, observing the situation closely, the question arises: Could the U.S. ban enact a domino effect, potentially putting Australia’s access to TikTok at risk?
Why is TikTok Being Banned In America?
If this ban has caught you off guard… we don’t know what to tell you.
Banning TikTok in the U.S was first proposed back in April last year when the platform’s owners were presented with an ultimatum to sell its U.S-based operations to a non-Chinese owner within nine months, or shut down its operations in the country.
The motion to ban arose in response to concerns regarding TikTok’s lack of transparency around data sharing and protection. U.S. lawmakers and security agencies have repeatedly expressed fears that TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, could be compelled to share user data with the Chinese government.
According to the U.S government, this creates a national security risk, with sensitive personal data and potentially harmful misinformation at risk of being exploited.
TikTok’s CEO, Shou Chew, posted a video to the platform last year reassuring U.S users the app “wasn’t going anywhere.” He said, “We will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail.”
TikTok has refuted allegations it has ever been pressured to release sensitive data and despite its repeated reassurances that it stores U.S user data within the country, and has taken steps to ensure privacy, the pressure from lawmakers has remained high.
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What Happens After TikTok Gets Banned?
Well, for starters, let’s get one thing straight: this won’t be a hard, sudden ban. TikTok “going dark” doesn’t mean the app will miraculously disappear from users’ phones. Rather, the app will be pulled from the App Store and Google Play, so new users won’t be able to download the platform.
If the app is already installed in your phone, we have some good news and some bad news—you’ll still be able to access content for now, but any new updates won’t be available to you. And to put it quite plainly, without those updates, the app will gradually become useless.
While the implications for users set to lose out on their daily doomscroll are significant, for creators, this ban is a major blow. TikTok has transformed the social media landscape, with millions of influencers and content creators building entire careers from it. From sponsorships to brand deals, many have turned their TikTok following into a full-time job and a ban could cause some financial problems for TikTok users all over the U.S.
Creators who rely on the platform to generate income through ad revenue, live stream gifts, and collaborations with brands would suddenly be out of work. The financial impact could be huge, with creators losing their primary income stream and struggling to gain back that same level of engagement. Let’s be honest—Instagram reels isn’t quite as user-friendly as TikTok.
For many of the bigger creators, like Charli D’Amelio, Alix Earle and Addison Rae, who found fame on TikTok, they have used their TikTok-generated influence to build careers in other industries, leaving them a career to fall back on. But for all the micro-influencers, losing access to TikTok may mean the end of their careers.
"It’s not just an app we’re talking about—it’s an entire digital economy"
And it’s not just about creators losing money. The consequences of the ban would extend to brands, marketing teams, and even small businesses that have become reliant on TikTok for advertising and brand exposure. For many, it’s been the go-to place for targeting younger, highly engaged audiences. Without TikTok, companies, especially small businesses, would need to shift their strategies, possibly pouring more resources into Instagram, YouTube, or even newer platforms (hello, Threads?).
According to estimations from TikTok, the financial impact on content creators will be above $300 million USD (more than $480million AUD) within the first month, and as for small businesses, they’ll lose over $1 million USD (around $1.6million AUD) in revenue.
Not only this, but a TikTok ban will see many online communities cease to exist. Despite the app’s proven potential for spreading misinformation, it is also a source of joy, information and escape for many and it is, in many ways, a platform for educating, learning, sharing experiences, and building relationships (for more on this, see Cosmopolitan’s article on the new age of public intellectuals on TikTok here).
So in short, a TikTok ban would send shockwaves through the digital ecosystem. It’s not just an app we’re talking about—it’s an entire digital economy. The world might go on, but things would certainly feel a little less… fun.
Will TikTok Be Banned In Australia?
Although there’s been no indication that Australia will follow in the footsteps of the U.S., history shows that America often sets the precedent for the rest of the western world when it comes to technological and regulatory decisions.
In Australia, we’ve already seen a ban on TikTok across all government-issued devices. This move, implemented by various Australian state and federal governments, comes amid growing concerns over the app’s data privacy practices and any potential links to the Chinese government—issues initially raised by America.
Even if the app doesn’t necessarily “go dark” in Australia, our local TikTok community will certainly feel the absence of American users, as they make up so much of TikTok’s overall content. So, even without a ban across Australia, many local users will likely follow U.S content creators over to other platforms like Instagram reels and YouTube shorts, leaving a short matter of time before TikTok becomes irrelevant.
What Are TikTok Alternatives?
In the face of TikTok’s ban, many content creators have made the move to other similar platforms, establishing their presence there before they lose their fame entirely.
While many have deemed RedNote the new TikTok, there are a number of short-form video based apps on standby to rise in light of TikTok’s downfall.
Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, Snapchat spotlight, Triller, Dubsmash, Clash, Roposo, Likee, and of course, RedNote, are all emerging as potential alternatives to TikTok (who doesn’t love a good dupe anyway?).
What is RedNote?
As it becomes increasingly likely that TikTok will, in fact, be banned in the U.S, some creators have labelled themselves as “TikTok Refugees” and urged their followers to move with them to alternative apps, the most prominent being the social media app RedNote (officially called Xiaohongshu).
RedNote is a Shanghai-based platform owned by Xingyin Information Technology. Established in 2013, this app is a hybrid of Instagram and Pinterest, used mainly for social networking and e-commerce. It wasn’t until January 13 this year that the app started gaining online traction, surging to number one on the U.S. Apple App Store, and accumulating 700,000 new users.
Why RedNote, you ask? Well, according to many content creators, RedNote is currently the best alternative to TikTok due to it’s similar content style and community-driven algorithms. But what’s seemingly most appealing is that the platform is out of the U.S government’s control—so they don’t have the power to ban this one.
But if you’re looking for something a bit more on par with our beloved TikTok, it’s owners, ByteDance, launched a similar app in Japan in 2020 called Lemon8. Earlier this week Lemon8 climbed to the second spot in the App Store, after RedNote, appealing users with its feature to transfer their pre-existing TikTok account handles and data.
The only downside to Lemon8 is that it is so similar to TikTok in that it stores data of its users outside of China, allowing the U.S. government to use the same rationale as with TikTok, to eventually ban this platform too.
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