What exactly will teenagers do if they can’t scroll through endless videos in the most dopamine-inducing way? What will teenagers do when forced to cope with their problems, instead of burying them deep into doom-scrolling?   

     On January 19th, 2025, TikTok, the worldwide sensation, may be banned in the US. The Chinese company is part of a larger corporation called ByteDance, which is set to be taken off the app store this Sunday. However, the details are incredibly complicated…

So, here’s the breakdown: 

What’s happening legally: 

1. In April of 2024, President Joe Biden signed The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Application Act (PAFACA), which allows any foreign apps that threaten national security, to be banned, including TikTok. 
2. While the US Supreme Court has yet to decide whether the ban is unconstitutional, the lower courts have viewed the ban as constitutional. The Supreme Court must prove that banning TikTok is the only option to avoid real danger to national security, or else the ban could violate the First Amendment. 
3. US lawmakers have notified the app stores of what they must do on January 19th.
4. President-Elect Donald Trump does have some power over TikTok getting banned, as he is set to be inaugurated on the 20th. He could ask Congress to repeal the PAFACA act, direct the Justice Department to not enforce the law, or use his power to declare ByteDance has moved TikTok to another corporation, allowing the app to stay.

What will happen if TikTok gets banned on the 19th:

1. The first possibility is that on the 19th, when people open the app, Tiktok will be unusable and will likely say, “This app no longer exists in this country.”
2. However, the likely possibility is that the app will still be usable, but due to the app store’s inability to update, TikTok may become laggy and prone to crashing. Updates also protect users from hackers, and without them, TikTok may be hacked.
3. Lemon8 and Capcut, also owned by ByteDance, may be banned. 
4. Accessing TikTok on the 19th will not be illegal. 

What you can do: 

1. Before January 19th, TikTok users should download any videos they don’t want to lose.
2. Users may continue to access TikTok using a VPN.
3. Rednote, a similar Chinese social media app, has become extremely popular in the last few days and may be America’s next option.