Barely more than 12 hours after TikTok went dark in the United States, the video-sharing app is coming back online. βIn agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,β the company said in a statement. βWe thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers [β¦]
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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
TikTok said on Sunday it is "restoring service" after shutting down its app in the United States to comply with a divest-or-ban law.
The app began coming back online for US users first through web browsers and later on the mobile app.
"In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service," TikTok wrote in a statement to Business Insider. "We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive."
President-elect Donald Trump said on social media on Sunday morning he would issue an executive order to extend the time before "the law's prohibitions take effect," adding that "there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark" before the order.
The company said it will work with President Trump on a "long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States."
A message appearing on TikTok on Sunday after the app came back online said that TikTok is back "as a result of President Trump's efforts."
TikTok switched off its app for its 170 million US users on Saturday, shortly before a legally imposed deadline for owner ByteDance to sell the US version of the app or effectively cease operating in the country. Apple and Google have both removed TikTok from their stores.
The TikTok shutdown followed a drawn-out legal battle over the ban-or-divest law, which was passed by Congress last year. The law requires TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app's US operations by January 19 or be banned.
As the deadline neared, a message on the app popped up at around 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday: "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now."
"A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!"
Scott Olson/Getty Images
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said he plans to issue an executive order after his inauguration on Monday to delay enforcement of the TikTok ban.
Trump, who's just a day away from being sworn into office for his second term, made the statement on his Truth Social platform hours after the hugely popular social media app went dark.
The president-elect said his executive order would "extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect" and added that "there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark" prior to the order.
Trump didn't specify the length of time he'd give ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to find a non-Chinese buyer, but he said he'd like the United States to "have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture."
"Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok," the president-elect wrote. "With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions."
It wasn't immediately clear if Trump meant the US government or just a US entity.
Shortly after Trump's remarks on Truth Social, TikTok, in a statement to Business Insider, said it was "in the process of restoring service" to its users in the United States.
"We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive," TikTok said.
TikTok's stoppage came after ByteDance spent months challenging a law that required the company to divest from its US app or effectively be cut off from operating in the country.
Last year, the TikTok ban was easily passed in both the House and the Senate in bipartisan votes, with many lawmakers expressing national security concerns about ByteDance.
Biden signed the TikTok ban bill into law in April 2024.
After TikTok on Saturday said it would "go dark" in the US unless Biden intervened, the administration called the statement a "stunt."
"It is a stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told Reuters.
Trump during his first term unsuccessfully sought to ban TikTok in the United States, but has since shied away from that position. During the 2024 presidential campaign, he said young people would "go crazy without it." Trump himself joined TikTok in advance of the 2024 race.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a Trump ally, said on X on Sunday that he's long been opposed to a TikTok ban, arguing that it infringed on "freedom of speech."
"That said, the current situation where TikTok is allowed to operate in America, but X is not allowed to operate in China is unbalanced. Something needs to change," Musk wrote.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Apple has released a list of all the apps it has taken down alongside TikTok after the US shutdown.
In a statement, Apple said it was "obligated to follow the laws in the jurisdictions where it operates," and as such, apps developed by ByteDance and its subsidiaries would no longer be available for download or updates on the US app store from Sunday.
See Apple's list here.
CapCut, an AI-powered video editing service that can be connected to TikTok, has also gone offline in the US. CapCut was a staple for adding transitions, syncing sounds, or adding AI-generated effects.
Lemon8, ByteDance's answer to Instagram, has also been blocked for US users, despite efforts to promote the app to TikTok users in the run-up to the ban.
Hypic combined photo editing with AI, giving users tools to enhance photo quality or transform images into AI art, including digital cartoons.
Lark is a professional collaboration platform with messaging, video calls, and cloud storage. It is comparable to Slack and other communication platforms.
Gauth is an AI-driven app for solving academic problems. It allows users to snap pictures of homework and receive detailed solutions.
Marvel Snap is a Marvel Universe-based digital collectible card game published by Nuverse, which is owned by ByteDance.
Second Dinner, the game's developer, published a statement on X following the shutdown.
"In a surprise to Second Dinner and our publisher Nuverse, MARVEL SNAP was affected by the takedown of TikTok late on Saturday, January 18th," it said.
"MARVEL SNAP isn't going anywhere. We're actively working on getting the game up as soon as possible and will update you once we have more to share," it added.
TikTok went dark in the US on Saturday, less than two hours before a scheduled ban was set to take effect.
The unprecedented shutdown has effectively blocked access to one of the world's leading social media platforms, with 170 million Americans losing access.
The shutdown came after a protracted legal battle over a law that required ByteDance to divest from its US app or see it banned.
The Supreme Court ruled to uphold the ban after TikTok challenged the law, which paved the way for Saturday's shutdown.
At around 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time, a message began appearing on users' screens: "Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now."
The company also indicated that it was relying on President-elect Donald Trump to save the app.
In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said he would "issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security."
TikTok went dark for users in the US on Saturday night, but it may not be gone for long. President-elect Donald Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday morning that he will issue an executive order Monday that will βextend the period of time before the lawβs prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a [β¦]
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In a rare move amid the TikTok shutdown, Apple has published a statement and a support document listing all affected apps that are inaccessible in the U.S. The iPhone maker typically doesnβt publish information when it blocks apps. Notably, other ByteDance apps, including CapCut, Lemon8 β which surged in the last few months β and [β¦]
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MAEVA DESTOMBES/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
TikTok shut down its app for its US users on Saturday, shortly before the January 19 deadline ordering the app to go dark.
The stoppage came after the company waged a monthslong legal battle against a law that required its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest from its US app or effectively cease operating in the country.
"Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now," a message popped up on the screen starting around 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time. "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!"
The final blow for TikTok came on Friday when the Supreme Court ruled against the company's legal challenge. President Joe Biden's administration signaled on Friday that it would not enforce the ban. A spokesperson said that given the "sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday."
Still, a TikTok spokesperson said the same day it would need to go dark unless the Biden administration stepped in and offered assurances to its "most critical service providers" that the law would not be enforced.
The White House said Saturday that TikTok's threat to go dark was a "stunt."
While TikTok has shut its doors to its 170 million US users, the app will continue to operate elsewhere. The company said in 2021 that it had over 1 billion users globally.
Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, the app's creators and users took to TikTok to mourn the loss and reflect on the end of an era.
"Losing the majority of my audience is a difficult reality to face, and while I'm doing everything I can to prepare, it's hard not to feel like I'm starting over," Sofia Bella, a TikTok creator with 4.8 million followers, told Business Insider.
TikTok's creators and business partners have had weeks to contemplate the prospect of a January 19 app shutdown. Many have crafted plans for transitioning off TikTok if the app disappeared forever, beginning with downloading all their videos.
Some influencer marketers put contingency plans in place to assure brands that creators would post sponsored content on other apps like Instagram if TikTok goes dark. TikTok Shop merchants and their partners began easing off the app in recent days, with some halting US warehouse shipments or pausing distributing free samples to TikTok creators. And marketers put together plans to shift spend to other platforms like Facebook, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts.
Yet, even as users have spent daysΒ memorializing the app, posting nostalgic video round-ups, and begging fans to follow them on other platforms, it seems possible that TikTok could rise again.
While TikTok lost all of its legal challenges to the divest-or-ban law, it's now hoping that President-elect Donald Trump can find a political solution to keep its app around.
Trump told NBC on Saturday that he would "most likely" grant TikTok a 90-day extension to find a non-Chinese buyer for the platform.
"I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it's appropriate. You know, it's appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It's a very big situation," Trump said, according to the outlet.
"If I decide to do that, I'll probably announce it on Monday," he added.
TikTok's CEO Shou Chew thanked the incoming president in a video on Friday for the "opportunity to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States."
Trump's options to rescue TikTok from the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act are limited, legal experts previously told Business Insider. The simplest option may be to help try to split off TikTok's US entity from the rest of the world, something TikTok's lawyer, Noel Francisco, told the Supreme Court would be "extraordinarily difficult" over any timeline.
Trump wrote in a social media post on Friday that he would make a decision on the app soon after reviewing the situation.
TikTok went dark in the U.S. on Saturday night as a result of a federal law that bans the popular short-form video app for millions of Americans. However, the company began restoring service by midday Sunday. TikTok users began receiving a message about the ban around 10:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday evening, and the app [β¦]
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Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Hours before TikTok could go dark, AI startup Perplexity has put in a bid to merge with the platform's US business, according to a person familiar with the matter.
It's unclear how a startup of Perplexity's size could merge with an operation this huge. The startup was recently valued at $9 billion, while TikTok's US operations could be worth $40 billion to $50 billion, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives estimated earlier on Saturday.
"We now expect a slew of TikTok bids to come over the coming weeks from a host of larger tech players, private-equity, and other strategic names for this key social media platform," Ives wrote in a note to investors.
The person familiar with Perplexity's bid said the combined entity would include other institutional investors. This person declined to name these other investors, and asked not to be identified discussing private matters. CNBC reported the news earlier on Saturday.
A law passed by Congress and signed by President Biden last spring requires ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese owner, to sell the app's US operations by January 19 or be banned.
While Perplexity is relatively small compared to TikTok US, the startup does have large, deep-pocketed backers including SoftBank, Nvidia, and the venture capital firm IVP.
Perplexity has secured $914 million in funding to date, according to PitchBook data. In April, investors valued Perplexity at $1 billion. That figure soared to $9 billion in the newest round of funding, which closed in December.
The startup uses artificial intelligence to power a new type of search engine that responds to queries with a brief answers and annotations, instead of a list of links.
Correction: January 18, 2025 β An earlier version of this story misstated who besides Perplexity is involved in this bid.
TikTok; Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
Even if TikTok goes away, part of it will be with us forever: It's impossible to erase the TikTokification of the entire internet β or the effect the app has had on, well, everything.
Sure, there are several possibilities now that the Supreme Court has upheld the TikTok ban: One possibility is that TikTok actually goes away in the US on Sunday, existing in history as a strange several-year blip β replaced by either incumbent apps like Instagram and YouTube Shorts, or something new. (RedNote? Probably not, but who knows!)
In the last week, when things were looking pretty dire for TikTok, I started talking to colleagues about what TikTok actually meant β what its legacy meant. And we all realized that, essentially, there were almost no aspects of American life that had been untouched by TikTok. OK, well maybe not EVERYTHING β I'm being a little dramatic here, but it's very easy to rattle off a bunch of industries and corners of culture that were massively changed by TikTok.
Book publishing is one of the perfect examples of a fusty old thing β an industry that's existed for centuries and one that you'd think would be threatened by people's free time being sucked up by a video app. But instead, BookTok became this juggernaut force for selling and marketing books.
The beauty industry, homebuying, restaurants, the customization of Starbucks drinks, the music industry, sorority recruitment β all changed by TikTok.
Still, those various activities had already been disrupted by social media platforms that came before TikTok: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter β even MySpace. But TikTok represented something even more β an entire cultural shift.
As someone who has spent most of my career trying to observe how people act online, I've come to believe there are a few things about TikTok that have changed humans on an almost molecular level. It's changed the way we interact online β which is much bigger than just how lipstick is marketed.
TikTok's algorithmic feed upended all that we had previously understood or enjoyed about social media.
Social media has long been about followers and a direct relationship with the person whose content you're viewing. Before TikTok, follower count was important β and it was rare that a single post would go viral on its own.
TikTok flipped this completely.
It's almost hard to remember now that most other social apps have copied TikTok's "For you page," but this way of organizing your feed was new and almost confusing at first.
Sure, there were still some big creators who had massive followings, but there was a democratization of virality: Suddenly, every high school had a kid who had gone viral at least once on TikTok.
As TikTok grew to be more than just teens dancing, it became understood to everyone using it that if you posted, there was a chance lots of strangers might see your content β even if you weren't a big influencer or famous person. Almost Warholian β in the future, everyone will get 10,000 views on a random TikTok post. "I didn't expect my last post to blow up," is one of the most common intros to a TikTok you'll see.
As people accepted the idea that you might actually be perceived by others on the app, something strange happened. Instead of an Instagram effect where people felt pressure to look their best and put forth an idealized version of their life, people β especially young women β were more willing than I'd ever seen before on social media to post images of themselves looking, uh, not-so-perfect. Lying in bed with unbrushed hair, no makeup, unflattering angles β things you'd never, ever see on Pinterest or Instagram. As a millennial woman raised on Instagram, I admired Gen Z's daring to look like crap on the internet β it was refreshing and honest.
Those changes are here to stay, no matter whether TikTok shuts down for a day, or forever, or is saved by some executive order.
TikTok uncorked something in the way we consume and the way we post β and that's not going back in the bottle.
Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Content creators and their audiences are sharing their disappointment that the Supreme Court has decided to uphold a January 19 deadline for TikTok to be sold to a US company or banned in the US.
Memes about TikTok's looming Sunday shutdown haven't stopped since the US government cranked up the heat on the platform, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, over concerns that the app poses a national security threat. Without an extension to the deadline, the beloved short-form video app will be removed from app stores and likely face a full shutdown in the US.
The reality of the Supreme Court's ruling is setting in for US TikToker users who'd been holding out hope for a different resolution.
Offline, flyers around New York City advertised a "celebration of life" memorial for the app at Washington Square Park on Sunday.
Clementine Fletcher/BI
Online, users are sharing the first viral moments they ever saved, participating in old trends "one last time," and wishing each other well on new platforms.
Some said they're getting in their last "doom scrolls" before the app potentially goes away for good.
"These last few days on TikTok have felt like the end of school," one creator said, like "signing yearbooks and just goofing off."
When the tiktok ban goes through my wife is gonna need a new hobby
β h index enjoyer (@BigwetRealism) January 17, 2025
TikTok probably won't disappear from phones in the US immediately on Sunday, though the app would no longer be updated.
On X, a user reshared a video of a crying and dancing woman, which has been a viral meme on TikTok for a while.
TikTok users learning the US Surpreme Court upheld the TikTok Ban and they have only 48 hours left to post
β Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) January 17, 2025
pic.twitter.com/ehNCl1V88t
On TikTok itself, users posted video compilations of their favorite moments, set to songs like "American Pie" by Don McLean and "Good Riddance" by Green Day.
Some users said their "For You" pages were taking them down memory lane with nostalgic sounds, dances, and some of the most talked-about moments.
"How am I going to share my reactions to the unhinged Mafia romance books I read?" user rachelsreading.rambles said on TikTok in a post captioned, "If I don't laugh I will definitely cry."
Another TikToker, kailebrodersen, said, "I have had to hold back tears because TikTok is my main source of income" and expressed anger at the US shutdown, saying TikTok "showed us the American Dream."
Users have been flocking to alternative short-form video platforms, like the China-based RedNote, to try to replace the app, but it's unclear whether RedNote, YouTube, Instagram, or other apps will eventually adopted as alternatives to TikTok.
But for now, it looks like the era of TikTok is truly coming to an end in the US.
TikTok has lost its Supreme Court appeal in a 9β0 decision and will likely shut down on January 19, a day before Donald Trump's inauguration, unless the app can be sold before the deadline, which TikTok has said is impossible.
During the trial last Friday, TikTok lawyer Noel Francisco warned SCOTUS that upholding the Biden administration's divest-or-sell law would likely cause TikTok to βgo darkβessentially the platform shuts down" and "essentially... stop operating." On Wednesday, TikTok reportedly began preparing to shut down the app for all US users, anticipating the loss.
But TikTok's claims that the divest-or-sell law violated Americans' free speech rights did not supersede the government's compelling national security interest in blocking a foreign adversary like China from potentially using the app to spy on or influence Americans, SCOTUS ruled.
Β© Kayla Bartkowski / Stringer | Getty Images News
Tiktok; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
TikTok is shutting down in the US on Sunday.
Or maybe TikTok won't get shut down because Joe Biden or Donald Trump will save it before then.
Or maybe TikTok will get shut down on Sunday, and then Donald Trump will restart it a day or two later.
Confused? Me too. It's possible things will get easier to understand in the near future. They could also remain opaque for some time.
But let's try to sort out where things stand right now β again, with the caveat that this could all change soon.
The one thing we know for sure: Last year, Congress passed a bill, signed into law by Joe Biden, that required ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell its US operations to a non-Chinese owner. The deadline for that transaction is this coming Sunday, January 19.
Everything after that is at least somewhat fuzzy.
For instance: While the intent of the law is to force ByteDance to sell US TikTok or shut it down, it's not entirely clear what would happen if the law goes into effect.
The law requires app stores like the ones run by Apple and Google to stop distributing TikTok, but that doesn't mean TikTok would disappear from your phone. The law also prohibits internet companies from maintaining or updating the app. But it's unclear whether that means TikTok would immediately fall apart, or if it could limp along in some crippled manner.
But last week an attorney for TikTok told the Supreme Court that the service would go "dark" in the US on Sunday if the law stays in place. Subsequent press reports say that TikTok plans to simply shut down the service itself on Sunday, hoping that it will create political pressure. The Information reports that TikTok plans on sending users who open the app to a website with information about the ban.
TikTok has spent months trying unsuccessfully to get the law overturned, arguing that it violates the First Amendment. TikTok got a last-ditch hearing before the US Supreme Court last week, but the justices seemed skeptical of its arguments. And on Friday, they upheld the law.
"There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of communication. But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok's data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary," the court concluded.
The TikTok sell-or-ban law does offer a theoretical reprieve for the app. It says that prior to the Sunday deadline, the president can grant a 90-day extension if there is "significant progress" in place to transfer ownership of US TikTok, including "relevant binding agreements" to make that happen.
But so far, TikTok and its owner have shown no public interest in a sale, and there are no reports that a non-Chinese buyer has a plan in place, let alone a deal.
It's also worth noting that no Big Tech company with the resources to buy and run a company the size of TikTok has shown any interest β in public β to take it on. The only plausible buyer mentioned to date is Elon Musk β Trump's new ally β but that only came up in recent days, via reports that suggested it was a last-minute brainstorm from Chinese officials in Beijing. Musk has remained uncharacteristically mute about the scenario.
This is where the information is by far the fuzziest, and often contradictory.
For instance: Donald Trump, who will become president on Monday, had previously tried to push through his own TikTok ban-or-sale effort during his first term in office. But last year, Trump said he thought TikTok should stay in the US βΒ and he's been even more enthusiastic about the app following his reelection.
Last month, Trump's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to push back the January 19 deadline so he could work on the deal once he becomes president again. And Trump has invited TikTok CEO Shou Chew to attend his inauguration, a source familiar with the matter told BI. He's been offered a prime seat for the event β on the dais alongside other important figures, including Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos,
Various news reports and analysts have talked about a scenario where Trump brokers a deal between ByteDance and a buyer once he's in office. The law allows for that while keeping the restrictions on TikTok in place until a deal is done.
Under normal circumstances, it would take many days, weeks, or even months to get a complicated deal worth tens of billions of dollars executed. Which would mean TikTok would stay dark, or at least crippled in some way, for some time. But perhaps Trump thinks he can get something down in record time.
And on Friday, Trump said he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping about "balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok and many other subjects," and that he expected to "solve many problems together."
An alternate scenario you may have read about involves Trump simply overturning the ban via an executive order β a mechanism he has already said he intends to use to reverse other moves Joe Biden made in office.
But the whole point of a law β again, passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president β is that it's a law. And it's supposed to be hard to change or modify a law unless the courts weigh in or unless Congress amends it. So, it's very unclear whether an executive order would suffice. (It's worth noting that Wall Street analyst Rich Greenfield believes that Trump can overturn the law with an executive order, by relying on an argument that gives the president power when it comes to foreign affairs and national security.)
Another scenario recently floated would be that Trump simply tells Pam Bondi, his candidate to become attorney general, not to enforce the law β an extraordinary step. Asked about that prospect in her confirmation hearing, Bondi declined to comment. It's also worth considering whether the likes of Apple and Google would follow Trump's theoretical command to ignore the law while it was still on the books.
One last bit of confusion: Members of outgoing President Joe Biden's team, who have been quiet about the looming deadline for weeks, are now trying to figure out a solution themselves, NBC reported Wednesday. "Americans shouldn't expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on Sunday," an anonymous administration official told NBC.
Now, press reports indicate that Biden's plan to deal with the ban is to β¦ ignore it for a day, and pass it along to Trump to deal with.
At this point, the only thing we can really tell you with any certainty is that we'll know at least a bit more in the next few days.
The AI embedded in a popular e-reader was spouting Chinese propaganda.
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fakeceorealgf/TikTok
Americans flocking to the Chinese app RedNote thought the platform's CEO had left them an encouraging message.
Turns out, he wasn't the CEO. He's just a guy from Vancouver.
Jerry, who shares a RedNote account with his girlfriend Dani that has about 31,000 followers, posted a video on January 13.
In the video he welcomed US users who had been signing up ahead of a possible ban on TikTok. He said the app, also known as Xiaohongshum, was mainly Chinese-speaking, and it was a place people mainly used for finding restaurants and sharing lifestyle content such as makeup videos.
"But do feel free to speak English and post English content because I believe there are a lot more English-speaking people on this platform nowadays," Jerry said. "We need to build this community."
For reasons that aren't entirely clear, some users assumed Jerry was RedNote's CEO.
His video got reposted on TikTok, and the rumor quickly spread around the platform. People thanked him for welcoming them with open arms while the potential TikTok ban loomed.
Jerry's video was also mentioned at the end of a Fox 5 New York news segment about the ban threat.
"The CEO of RedNote even made a video welcoming new users who speak English to the app, and he also encouraged them to never stop sharing their voice," said Jennifer Williams, a sports reporter for FOX 5 News.
On Tuesday, Jerry and Dani, on their TikTok account FakeCEORealGF, tried to clear up the confusion. In the video, Dani showed Jerry what had happened, and he responded with disbelief.
"Guys, I'm not the RedNote CEO, just to be clear," Jerry said.
"I'm just another normal guy in Vancouver," he added. "I didn't expect this post to go viral like this, and thank you for all the comments, but I want to clarify that I'm not the CEO of RedNote."
Jerry said all the points he made were still true, and he hoped new users enjoyed the platform.
Dani, who is Chinese and grew up in North America, and Jerry, who was born in Shanghai and moved to Canada a decade ago, said they had enjoyed watching Chinese and American cultures merge on RedNote.
"Guys, I hope you guys aren't mad at us," Dani said. "We're really sorry for any misunderstandings this caused."
TikTokers who made the error joked in the comments that Jerry had been promoted.
"We married the first guy to be nice to us," one viewer wrote. Another said: "He said 'welcome' and we said 'THE CEO?!?!'"
Others remarked on Jerry's American accent, remarking, "We have to start using critical thinking skills."
Jerry and Dani and Fox 5 New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
@fakeceorealgf Hey guys! Itβs really us - we woke up to find that apparently Jerry went viral as the accidental CEO of red note so we recorded this reaction/clarification video to diffuse the confusion π He is flattered but also very embarrassed by how this misunderstanding came about. We decided to reupload this video natively on TikTok (this is our only account) to spread the word - if you see this video, please help us share it for the people π From Jerry: I stand by what I saw in my original welcome video. For all the TikTok refugees coming over to Red Note, we stand with you all to make your voice heard! I am flattered by all the kind and polite comments and hope the TikTok refugees find a new home and friends to discover a new side of Chinese culture and community β€οΈβ€οΈπ¨π³ #rednote #rednoteceo #tiktokrefugee #xiaohongshu #xhs #littleredbook #redbook #rednotemigration #rednotewelcome #accidentalceo #tiktok #china
β¬ original sound - FakeCEORealGF
TikTok faces a January 19 deadline to comply with a divest-or-ban law requiring its US operations to be sold. It remains unclear what the ramifications of the bill could be.
Creators have been highly critical of the ban, saying their small businesses and livelihoods will be destroyed. Black creators, who were instrumental in the platform's growth, could be significantly affected.
In response, TikTok users have been considering their options and downloading alternative apps,Β including Lemon8Β and RedNote. Both haveΒ rapidly climbed theΒ app download charts in recent days.
The influx to RedNote has beenΒ helping some of its users learn English, BI reported this week.
There's also an element of trolling going on. Frustrated about losing a valuable resource for their income and ability to mobilize, TikTokers are leaning into downloading other Chinese apps to send a message.
A major criticism of the potential TikTok ban is that it is hypocritical. Many claim it focuses heavily on one app while leaving alone other tech companies such as Meta, which owns Instagram.
Matt McClain/The Washington Post/Getty Images.
TikTok reassured its US staffers on Tuesday that they'd still have jobs even if the app goes dark in a few days, as mandated by a divest-or-ban law.
In an internal memo shared with employees, the company confirmed to its US team that their "employment, pay, and benefits are secure, and our offices will remain open, even if this situation hasn't been resolved before the January 19 deadline." The company added that TikTok is a global platform and that only the US user experience would be impacted.
The Verge's Alex Heath first reported on the memo, which Business Insider independently verified. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
The memo acknowledged that this moment of uncertainty has been unsettling for the company and said TikTok's leadership team is planning for various scenarios as it charts its next steps.
TikTok employees who have spoken with BI have said they've often felt kept in the dark in recent weeks as they await a decision from the Supreme Court on a law that requires owner ByteDance to divest from the US version of TikTok or see it shut down. The company lost its legal challenge in the DC Circuit, and legal analysts told BI it's unlikely the Supreme Court will reverse that decision.
If TikTok does stop operating later this month, there's still a possibility that President-elect Donald Trump may try to rescue the app once in office, as he pledged to do on the campaign trail.
Allison Robbert-Pool/Getty Images; Rebecca Zisser/BI
MuskTok?
I mean, on the one hand β why not? We're already in a world where Mark Zuckerberg is using Donald Trump's election as a reason to change the way Meta maintains its restrooms. (Seriously.)
So why not have Elon Musk swoop in with a deal to buy TikTok from ByteDance, the Chinese company that currently owns it, to get around a law that's meant to ban the service on January 19?
That's what Chinese government officials are pondering, per Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. The Financial Times, meanwhile, reports that China is merely hoping Musk will somehow "broker" a solution.
All the reports convey the sense that all of this is β¦ fluid, at best. All three note that it's unclear how much anyone at TikTok or ByteDance knows about any of this. And Beijing's thoughts about this are "very preliminary and mostly brainstorming," an official tells the FT.
TikTok, for its part, relayed the same statement to me that it provided to other reporters on Monday night: "We can't be expected to comment on pure fiction." Musk didn't respond to my request for comment.
So it's hard to get too worked up about something that seems like it's in the barely-on-the-drawing-board stage.
Still, we are in a world β again β where barely-there ideas have to be taken at least seriously, if not literally. Ask the residents of Greenland.
So, for the record: Elon Musk makes perfect sense as a TikTok owner. He has the capital, the technical capacity, and the political backing to make it happen.
When I suggested this back in March, I also noted that this would be a terrible idea since Musk's track record at Twitter shows what happens when you give him control of a social media platform β he runs it erratically and scares off users and advertisers.
My hunch, though, is that, unlike Twitter, TikTok would likely weather Musk's ownership much better simply because of its nature: It's a very big video entertainment service, and even if a meaningful number of users leave because they don't like Musk's ownership, many others would stick around because they like being entertained by videos. The same goes for advertisers.
That is: Even a diminished TikTok would certainly be of use to both Musk and many TikTok constituents. And certainly, many of TikTok's 170 million US users would rather use a Musk-owned TikTok β if they even knew who owned it in the first place β than go without a TikTok at all.
I still have many, many questions about how any of this would work in reality.
Starting with this: The law on this one is quite clear. In order to avoid an effective ban by January 19, TikTok needs a new US owner β or, failing that, Joe Biden, who is still the US president, can provide a one-time 90-day extension if there's "significant" progress on a deal, including a "binding legal agreement" to get something done.
So assuming neither thing happens over the next few days β and the Supreme Court upholds the law, as observers seem to think will happen β what would the plan be? Come back days, weeks, or months later with a new law to reverse the old one β even though the last one had overwhelming support from Congress?
But before we get too deep on any of this, let's see what happens in the next few days.
A lawyer for TikTok argued before the Supreme Court on Friday that a ban on the social network would violate TikTokβs and Americansβ First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court this morning heard arguments on whether to overturn or delay a law that could effectively ban TikTokβ in the U.S. The bill, officially titled the Protecting [β¦]
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"Shark Tank"/ABC
"Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary is teaming up with billionaire Frank McCourt on a long shot effort to buy TikTok.
O'Leary and the former Los Angeles Dodgers owner are part of a group called "The People's Bid for TikTok," which said on Thursday it had submitted a bid for the video app to Chinese tech giant Bytedance.
The consortium has an uphill battle to acquire TikTok, despite the app being threatened with a ban in the US if it's not sold by January 19.
Bytedance insists it has no plans to sell the app, which has some 170 million US users, despite President Joe Biden signing a law in April setting a deadline for the app to be sold, or face a ban.
Bytedance is challenging the law in the Supreme Court after losing appeals in lower courts, claiming the potential ban from US app stores is a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.
The court is due to hear oral arguments in the case on Friday.
President-elect Donald Trump has asked the court to pause the law that would ban TikTok until after his inauguration later this month.
Any deal to buy TikTok is complicated by the fact that TikTok's recommendation algorithm β the key to the app's compulsive scrolling β is likely covered by Chinese export rules prohibiting the sale of sensitive technology without a license.
McCourt told Business Insider in December that the group's $20 billion-plus proposal, which would not include the recommendation algorithm, is complicated because "we don't know what ByteDance is selling."
He said that Bytedance had refused to discuss a potential sale, meaning it was "very, very difficult to have precision" over what a deal might look like.
McCourt and O'Leary's vision for the app, which is also backed by the likes of investment firm Guggenheim Securities and World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, includes turning TikTok into a decentralized social media app that gives users more control over their personal data.
The group said they would aim to work closely with incoming president Donald Trump, who has previously expressed support for TikTok and met with the company's CEO last month.
Bytedance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
