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INFLUENCERS are mourning the looming shutdown of TikTok as they post tearful videos saying goodbye to the beloved app.
The Supreme Court have upheld a law to ban the application if it is not sold in the United States – leaving users devastated.
The Supreme Court has issued its ruling on a federal law that would ban TikTok in the United States[/caption]
Social media influencers have filmed themselves in tears over the looming ban[/caption]
TikToker Inzlay expressed just how much TikTok had helped her through tough times[/caption]
Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court as the justices heard TikTok’s legal team’s arguments about the Biden administration’s law banning the app[/caption]
The ban is set to go into effect on January 19, leaving the platform’s future in the hands of the incoming Trump administration.
One popular influencer on the app, Emily Senn, filmed herself crying after hearing the news, saying that she would “never forgive” the US government for its actions against TikTok.
Through her tears, she grumbled: “I’m never going to trust you ever again because you just, like that, took away millions of people’s income and livelihood and who does that?”
Senn had lost her job as a cruise ship singer during the pandemic and said TikTok helped support her financially as well as given her a sense of community.
The court voted unanimously to uphold the law passed by Congress and signed by the president last April that would prohibit tech giants such as Apple, Google, and Oracle from hosting TikTok on their US app stores.
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” The decision read.
“But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
Madilynn Cameron, with over 1 million followers on TikTok, asked her followers to remain “calm and hopeful” that President Biden or President-elect Donald Trump would intervene.
She said: “We are a laughing stock to other countries.
“Do you understand that? Everyone mocks us.”
An influencer filmed herself crying as she grumbled about the ‘hours of time’ she put into creating content on TikTok[/caption]
Baker influencer Chloe Bluff Cakes shared a video of her in tears over the ban[/caption]
Numerous other popular accounts also shared their devastation before the app goes dark.
Social media star Kelsey Pumel posted an emotional video on Friday titled “Goodbye freedom of speech,” where she bashed the government for their priorities.
She said: “I just still can’t get over the fact that the government literally cares more about an app that hasn’t proven to pose any of the threats that our country claims it does over kids literally being [killed] at school, the healthcare epidemic, not being able to afford housing, the homeless population.”
President-elect Trump hinted that he will decide the platform’s future after the congressional law was upheld.
“The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”
Podcaster and influencer Alex Pearlman shared the same views as Pumel while shouting about the decision on an angry TikTok video.
He said: “Y’all can’t agree that kids shouldn’t be shot in school. Y’all can’t agree that women should have healthcare.
TikToker Kylie called influencing a ‘full time job’[/caption]
Podcaster and influencer Alex Pearlman showed his anger over the ban[/caption]
TikToker Madilynn has been updating her followers on the ban[/caption]
“Y’all can’t agree that we should have healthcare. Y’all can’t agree on f****g cops not being allowed to just f****g kill people with impunity. But a TikTok ban? Y’all lined up and said, what’s this about?”
A smaller influencer named Inzlay, with nearly 30,000 followers, shared a video of her crying on the soon-to-be-banned app about how it had helped her through various issues in her life.
As she wiped her eyes, she said in the heartbreaking video: “It’s really not fair that they’re banning TikTok.
“And I know that it’s dramatic as hell that I’m crying.
“It just makes me really sad because it genuinely feels like our parents just came in in the middle of the school year and said ‘forget all your friends, forget all the hard work you did at school. Forget everything you just did – you’re going to have to start from scratch.’”
In the caption on the video, Inzlay described how TikTok had helped her through “grad school,” as well as helping her in her “activism” and even with her relationship with her mom.
She added: “I really hate to say goodbye.”
On Saturday, TikTok posted a statement to X saying the Biden White House and the Department of Justice failed to offer “the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers”.
And much to every TikToker’s dismay, they said that unless the Biden Administration “immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement,” TikTok will go dark on Sunday.
Baker influencer Chloe Bluff Cakes also shared a video of her in tears over the ban while explaining why she believes the decision is going to be disastrous for those who built their career on the app.
She said: “I’m not crying – I’m just watching the life and community I built be torn down.
“An app that has given millions of women financial independence and supported 7 million small businesses.
“Where I shared losing my mom to brain cancer and became financially able to raise my 7-year-old sister.”
One video that has accumulated over 89,000 likes is of a TikTok user named Vans weeping over the app’s shutdown.
How Donald Trump Could Still Save TikTok
On January 17, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld a congressional bill banning TikTok in the United States
The law would not immediately remove TikTok from phones nationwide or force it to go dark.
However, tech companies that continue hosting the app or updating it in their app store could face penalties.
US users with existing TikTok accounts can still access the app freely.
But, TikTok could eventually become obsolete as app stores and cloud providers will no longer be allowed to push out updates for the platform.
President-elect Donald Trump has said he will review the banning of TikTok and will make a decision of platform’s future.
The ban is set to go into effect on January 19, 2025, a day before Trump is sworn in as president.
There are several ways Trump could interfere and save TikTok momentarily.
- President Joe Biden has said he will not enforce the law against tech companies who host TikTok on their app store when it goes into effect on January 19, 2025.
- Instead, Biden said it will leave that decision up to the incoming Trump administration.
- Trump could instruct the Department of Justice to ignore the law and not enforce it, while they work out a deal to separate TikTok from ByteDance, its Chinese-owned parent company.
- The president-elect could also sign an executive order pausing the ban for 60 to 90 days.
- Trump’s team have repeatedly said the president-elect has “expressed desire to save TikTok.”
- “President Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to save TikTok, and there’s no better dealmaker than Donald Trump,” a Trump spokesperson said.
He said, with his eyes red from tears: “Has anyone else just been crying on this app all night?
“Because it feels like we’re losing a community – it feels like we’re losing friends.
“We’re losing a platform where we learned so much about things we didn’t know about.”
Kylie Park, who posts skincare and makeup videos for nearly 1 million fans, posted a sad video saying goodbye to her followers.
She began the video by outlining that she hates to cry online but wants to be “raw and realistic” especially for “what so many of us are going through”.
Park said: “It just truly hit me tonight that TikTok could be gone.
“Social media, TikTok, content creation, it’s a full-time job – it’s a real job.
“You’re delivering a service and you’re getting paid.”
She went on to say that it wasn’t “just about the money” or the following, but “the community” that has been built on the site.
‘EXTENSIVE DATA COLLECTION’
TikTok exploded in popularity among young Americans in 2020 as the Covid-19 virus spread globally, forcing health officials to implement lockdown orders and encourage social distancing regulations.
The video-sharing app hosts about 170 million users in the United States.
However, US lawmakers, including Presidents Biden and Trump, raised concerns about the platform, citing national security issues given TikTok’s parent company ByteDance’s Chinese ownership.
Lawmakers on both sides have cited classified briefings that suggest the Chinese Communist Party is able to use TikTok to spy on American users and push propaganda.
National Security officials have briefed politicians on Capitol Hill about the dangers of the social media platform and its “frightening” ability to “access, track, and store” users’ personal data, according to Axios.
The federal law seeks to separate TikTok from ByteDance by forcing the Chinese-owned tech company to sell the platform to a US organization.
President Biden signed a law requiring ByteDance to either sell TikTok to a US company by January 19, 2025, or the app would be banned in the country.
Trump, who initially wanted to ban TikTok during his first term, has now signaled to support the app presence in the country.
The incoming president has weighed the option of signing an executive order that could effectively change the terms of the federal law.
The legislation has three conditions that state TikTok must show it’s on a path to separating from its Chinese owner; must present evidence of “significant progress” toward a sale; and that progress must be sealed with “relevant binding legal agreements.”
Trump can also grant a one-time extension delaying the ban for up to 90 days if TikTok presents evidence it is making progress on the terms.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew plans to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
In their opinion, the Supreme Court described TikTok collection of users’ personal information as “extensive.”
“TikTok does not dispute that the government has an important and well-grounded interest in preventing China from collecting the personal data of tens of millions of U.S. TikTok users,” the court wrote.
“Nor could they. The platform collects extensive personal information from and about its users.
“Data collection and analysis is a common practice in this digital age.
“But TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, Justify differential treatment to address the Government’s national security concerns.
“A law targeting any other speaker would by necessity entail a distinct inquiry and separate considerations.”
A pro-TikTok protester holds a sign that reads ‘Keep TikTok’ outside the Supreme Court building on January 10[/caption]
Donald Trump participated in an interview with billionaire Elon Musk on X at Mar-a-Lago in August 2024[/caption]
