CHICAGO (CBS) — The clock is ticking on TikTok as the popular social media app shuts down in the US this weekend.
TikTok could shut down the social media site in the US by Sunday, January 19, unless the Supreme Court scraps or otherwise delays the effective date of a law aimed at forcing the sale of TikTok by its Chinese parent company.
“Without such relief, the law will take effect on January 19, 2025,” TikTok said in a December 9 legal filing. “That would shut down TikTok — one of the nation’s most popular voice platforms — to its more than 170 million domestic monthly users on the eve of a presidential inauguration.”
If that happens, 170 million TikTok users could see changes — and those changes won’t be limited to users simply losing access to the app.
Chicago influencer Dean Lauvina said he built his entire platform on TikTok and he could lose it in a matter of days.
Whether they know him or not, people from all over the city give Lauvina tours of their Chicago apartments to show what’s available for rent at certain prices in different neighborhoods.
Sauvina first asks people on the street – most renters, but some owners or even real estate agents – how much they pay for their apartment. Then those people take him on a tour of their apartments – some simple, some luxurious.
Sauvina depends on his nearly 190,000 TikTok followers for additional income. If the Chinese app were banned in the United States over national security concerns, Sauvina said it would reduce its audience.
“That stinks, because a lot of these other platforms are more, they’re not as broad,” he said.
Marshini Chetty, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Chicago, said this situation with TikTok is new.
“I don’t think an app has been banned like this before,” she said.
Chetty said that if the ban comes into effect, app stores will stop distributing the app and will not provide updates.
But for those who already have it, Chetty said, “It’s not like the app will just stop working on your phone.”
But some experts say it really could be. In one scenario, TikTok goes down and users receive a notification that it is not functional or available to them.
“They’ll get a message that says, ‘This service is not available in your country. That’s very likely what will happen based on what we’ve seen in other countries that have banned certain platforms,” said Timothy Edgar, a professor in cybersecurity at Brown University, CBS told MoneyWatch. “This generation could be in for a very rude awakening if the law goes into effect and they discover that a major social media platform they have come to rely on as creators or simply users, suddenly becomes unavailable.”
While such an action would be unprecedented in the US, that has been the experience of users of banned apps in other countries, added Edgar, who thinks this is the most likely outcome in the US.
Other cybersecurity experts said TikTok may not become inaccessible overnight, but the user experience in the US will deteriorate over time. Chetty agreed and said the app could also lose popularity over time if it is banned.
Lauvina takes an optimistic position. If the shutdown does happen, he plans to pivot and focus on a different platform.
“I still have hope. I still have hope,” he said. “But if it does go away, I’m kind of prepared for that too.”
Cybersecurity experts advise TikTok users to download their content so they can access it after Sunday. They also suggest that people switch to another platform.
Marissa Sulek
