What is going to happen to TikTok in the United States? From prohibition to Lemon8 alternative

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
Logotipos de TikTok

The future of TikTok In the United States it has been surrounded by uncertainty for months. In March of last year, Congress approved a bill that proposed prohibit distribution of the platform in the country if its parent company, ByteDance, I didn’t sell it. Now the judges of the United States Supreme Court seem inclined to ratify the rule, which would lead the social network to have to separate itself from the parent company before January 19 or be banned.

Last Friday, the Supreme Court heard arguments from lawyers representing TikTok, as well as several content creators who have defended the platform. All of them have argued that the ban on the social network would violate freedom of expression of the nearly 170 million TikTok users in the United States.

Freedom of expression and the risk to national security are the two positions regarding TikTok

For its part, the prosecution has indicated that, if not sold, TikTok could be used by China as a tool for espionage, political manipulation, and data collection of American citizens. The debate over whether the platform represents a danger to national security It has been open for years in the United States.

Over the last few months, TikTok has requested postponements of the hearing and, now just a few days before the deadline arrives, the company’s hope lies in the court void the law or issue a temporary freeze about it. ByteDance’s intention has been to buy time until the new administration of Donald Trump, who despite having been critical of the platform in the past, has now shown himself in favor of negotiate some kind of agreement.

One of the possible results of the process is that TikTok will finally be banned in the United States, since the parent company does not appear to have plans to sell the popular short video application, nor the technology behind it and that has made it so popular globally.

The Supreme Court’s decision is expected to be announced at the end of this week. If the law is supported, Donald Trump’s new government could still grant him an extension of one hundred days, but under the condition that the application has already taken steps to go on sale.

Potential TikTok buyers

If this were not the case and the law was applied, TikTok would no longer be available in application stores in the United States and the Department of Justice could impose sanctions on those internet services that allow users access to TikTok. According to the country, the social network estimates that remaining inactive in the country even for a month would mean the loss of a third of its daily users as well as multimillion-dollar losses in terms of advertising.

Over the past few months, several names have been floated as possible buyers of TikTok’s US operations. The option that has gained the most strength has been that of Billionaire businessman Frank McCourt and its popular offer, supported by a consortium around Project Liberty and with the intention of redesigning it so that people have greater control of their identities and digital data. Kevin O’Leary, investor and star of the television show “Shark Tank,” has joined this proposal in recent days.

However, the name of Bobby Kotick, former CEO of the video game developer Activision Blizzard. As reported by The Wall Street Journal a few months ago, he would have shared the idea with other potential partners, including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

Lemon8, a plan B

Faced with the possibility that TikTok could end up banned in the United States, ByteDance has been reinforcing and promoting through content creators another of its applications based on short videos. It is about Lemon8, a social network with a functioning and aesthetic halfway between TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest and focuses on lifestyle. It arrived on the US market in 2023, years after launching in Asian countries.

Lemon8’s popularity has grown over the past few months, especially in light of the possible TikTok ban. ByteDance, which also owns applications such as CapCut or Hypic, plans to continue being present in the United States through this platform if its flagship finally ends up disappearing.

As reported by Fast Company citing data from SimilarWeb, Lemon8 has little more than one million daily active users in the United States, and about 12.5 million monthly active users globally, according to data from Sensor Tower. However, the figure could grow soon if TikTok ceases its activity.

However, the law that the Supreme Court could apply means that the divestment or ban requirement generally applies to apps that are owned or operated by ByteDance, that is, TikTok or any of its subsidiaries. This would mean that although Lemon8 and CapCut are not explicitly named in the documents, their future in the United States could also be in danger.