TikTok to Shut Down Its Service In U.S. This Sunday, Luckily, Its Users Just Found A 'New Home'

ByteDance's TikTok reportedly plans to permanently shut down its service for its 170 million U.S. users on Sunday, which is the deadline for the U.S. sell or ban law to take effect, in an attempt to demonstrate the impact of the ban to all users.

According to reports, users who try to open the TikTok app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website introducing the ban. TikTok also plans to allow users to download all their data for personal record-keeping.

Regarding the latest developments on the TikTok sell or ban bill in the U.S., it was reported that the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on January 10 about whether the TikTok sell or ban order violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The debate was between TikTok and the U.S. Department of Justice.

During the debate, although some justices expressed concerns about the potential conflict between the bill and the First Amendment, the majority of the justices believed that the law targets TikTok's ownership, not its content of speech. They tend to think that the company's relationship with its Chinese parent company ByteDance poses a threat to U.S. national security.

As the deadline looms, TikTok has yet to see a clear turning point in survival. A group of users in the U.S. region, calling themselves TikTok refugees, have begun to flee to Xiaohongshu (RedNote).

Fischer, a New Zealand student who just downloaded Xiaohongshu two days ago, said that many TikTok influencers have come to Xiaohongshu, and they regard downloading Xiaohongshu as a protest against the sell or ban bill. He downloaded the app because he thinks TikTok without U.S. users would become boring.

According to data, on January 13, Xiaohongshu (RedNote)'s ranking in the U.S. App Store total chart quickly rose from 209th to 2nd place. On January 14, Xiaohongshu surpassed ByteDance's overseas lifestyle community platform Lemon8 and became the download champion. On January 15, Xiaohongshu topped the download charts in 85 overseas countries and regions.

Meanwhile, some overseas users have also opened accounts on Douyin (TikTok's Chinese version) and posted video content with the TikTok refugee tag.

The massive inflow of overseas users in Xiaohongshu and TikTok's prepared plan to shut down are both statements against the sell or ban bill, but the platform and users are also waiting for the final outcome of the bill, as a TikTok user posted a video on Douyin saying, I hope we won't stay here for long.