What may have started as a joke or a rumor became real for many Americans on Jan. 18 at about 10:30 p.m. Eastern time when the country began mourning the loss of a common loved one: TikTok.
The app went dark about two hours before the ban was supposed to be enforced and users all over the country were left to question how long they would have to wait to doom-scroll again. Some wondered if the app would ever make a reappearance at all.
Junior Maeve Durkee was shocked when the app went dark in the U.S.
“There was still a part of me that thought it wouldn’t actually happen, so when it did, I was scared and nervous that it was gone forever.” Durkee said.
As a result of panic online, in the time between the Supreme Court’s ruling and TikTok’s shutdown, many users looked for other apps to quench their thirst for endless brain-rot.
One app that has been on the rise due to the ban is REDnote, or Xiaohongshu, a Chinese-owned social media app meant for sharing lifestyles and trends.
Durkee downloaded REDnote before the app’s shutdown because she heard about TikTok users moving to the app and wanted to see REDnote for herself.
“I actually really like it,” Durkee said. “I was definitely on it a lot for the short time that TikTok was gone.”
Americans calling themselves “TikTok refugees” flooded the app and quickly found themselves interacting with the app as if it were TikTok, according to AP News.
REDnote also has a translation feature which tears down the language barrier between users worldwide. According to AP News, about 15% of American TikTok users moved to REDnote after hearing about the potential ban.
REDnote got its 12 hours of fame, but no more than that, because just as TikTok went dark suddenly, the app revived itself not even 24 hours later.
Speculation over the real reason for TikTok’s brief shutdown and the future of the app’s ownership has been circulating online, both on the app, and on other social media platforms. Some of these rumors suggest Meta, a technology company owned by Mark Zuckerburg, may have something to do with the shutdown according to CNN.
Although, many dedicated scrollers celebrated the apps return, several social media users claimed they wouldn’t go back to TikTok, especially since the ban was only postponed 75 days by Donald Trump, who signed an executive order Monday according to AP News.
Senior Luke Slater thinks the ban wouldn’t be the worst thing for teens with a TikTok addiction, but it would take away from his social life.
“I need to look at a lot less [TikTok] than I do currently,” Slater said. “However, it is where I get the majority of my news and information (with fact checking, of course), and without it, I would have a greater disconnect from the world outside of Edwardsville.
Because the Supreme Court deemed the ban constitutional, TikTok still faces a threat for permanent removal if the app is not sold within its new extension time. Slater said the back and forth between banning TikTok and not should be laid to rest.
“I think if they are going to ban it, they should just do it or not,” Slater said. “They will either ban it and we will move on to something different, or they won’t ban it and everything will be as normal.”
Though the app is now running in America, TikTok is still not available in app stores, and neither are other apps powered by TikTok, such as Lemon8 and CapCut.
The TikTok ban only lasted a couple of hours, but the future of the app is still very much in jeopardy. Generations of TikTok addicts might heed Ke$ha’s warning; “TikTok on the clock.”