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By Sheila Dang
(Reuters) – Look who’s not going crazy.
Since July, TikTok users have braced for a threat of banning the ultra-popular short-form video app in the United States, with some accounts opening on rival platforms and encouraging their friends to do the same.
Then early Friday, Reuters broke the news that the US government was preparing to block new users from downloading the Chinese-owned app from US app stores before September 20. tears and excitement expected from TikTok’s 100 million, mostly young fans.
“A lot of TikTok users aren’t very excited about this,” said Lauren Harrison, a 15-year-old TikTok user from Omaha, Nebraska, with more than 127,000 followers on the app.
Like many others, Harrison said he had previously opened accounts on other platforms, in preparation for a total ban. Since then, you have removed those apps from your phone.
“Because TikTok isn’t gone, I feel like people don’t feel the need to download (rival apps),” he said.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 6 that sets a 45-day deadline for the sale of TikTok to a US company, citing national security concerns.
While no new American downloads of TikTok will be allowed as of Sunday, TikTok still has a few weeks to convince Trump to lift his threat to impose a total ban as of November 12.
Carter Kench, a 17-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia with 2.4 million followers on TikTok, said he was concerned in July when he first heard about the threat of a ban. But in the months since then, “nothing happens,” he said.
“It’s like the boy who screamed wolf,” he said.
Brands that land endorsement deals with top TikTok stars are also disappointed by the ongoing saga, choosing to continue their work on the app until a ban comes in, said Alessandro Bogliari, CEO of The Influencer Marketing Factory, an agency. who works with brands and social networks. media influencers.
“People are a little confused and bored by all this drama. They say until something happens, let’s continue,” he said.
Several videos with hashtags that TikTok users have used to discuss the threat of a ban, including ‘TikTokBan’ and ‘SaveTikTok’, reached nearly 2 billion views on Saturday. But many of them were published in July.
“It makes me feel absolutely fatigued,” said Jen Ruiz, a travel blogger with nearly 131,000 followers on TikTok.
A TikTok ban has been threatened “at least four times,” he said. “How many more?”
TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington late Friday challenging the measures of the Trump administration.
For users who have amassed a large following on TikTok, “I’m sure for some of them this was doomsday,” said Joe Gagliese, CEO of influencer marketing agency Viral Nation. Influencers will need to diversify their audience through other apps, he said.
The biggest stars have already mapped out possible exit strategies. Charli D’Amelio, the most followed TikTok star with 87.5 million followers, recently started posting videos to her account on Triller, an American-owned TikTok rival.
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Additional reporting by Katie Paul in San Francisco and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Kenneth Li, Rosalba O’Brien and Daniel Wallis)
