TikTok US ban 19 January? Aussie creators, download your content now! (safety)
The TikTok US ban is due to come into effect on 19 January before President Trump is inaugurated, making it an almost certainty.
UPDATE: 20/01/25
President Trump has offered a 75-day reprieve for ByteDance to find an approved buyer. The service went offline on 19 January and is presently being restored.
Trump said he would “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Update 17/01/25
As the ban is likely to proceed, TikTok has advised that all users with a US IP address will be immediately redirected to a new landing page from Monday.
“TikTok’s plan is people attempting to open the app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website with information about the ban. The company also plans to give users an option to download all their data so that they can take a record of their personal information.”
Rumours of a sale to Elon Musk and X have been dismissed as ‘pure fiction’ as ByteDance will not sell its algorithms. These would expose the extent, if any, that the app is a tool of the Chinese Government.
What is the TikTok US ban about?
In brief, the US legislature feels TikTok and its Chinese owner, ByteDance, threaten national security.
On 10 January, the Supreme Court ruled that ByteDance, a Chinese company, doesn’t have First Amendment rights—the order to sell or ban remains on the table.
The US Supreme Court is highly likely to uphold the US Legislature’s decision to either sell it to an acceptable US company or ban it entirely.
Previous attempts to sell it during the 2020 Trump Presidency failed as ByteDance would not release the algorithms that made it such an addictive ‘drug’. The argument is all about the algorithm and what data the Chinese Government and People’s Liberation Army have access to.
More here.
Advice to Australian creators
While there is no formal move to follow the US, the Australian Federal Opposition is strongly pushing to ban TikTok (if it is not sold to a US company).
So, the advice is to back up your TikTok digital life. Note that any videos will have a TikTok watermark you cannot remove.
TikTok is a mobile experience
Most users watch, create, and post videos on their phones. The main issue is insufficient space to download when most phones don’t support mountable USB-C external SSD storage.
- Open any TikTok video. Tap Share in the lower-right corner of the screen.
- Tap the Save Video grey icon at the bottom of the screen.
You can
- Email the file to yourself as an attachment.
- Upload to a cloud service like Google Drive or iCloud.
- Download locally – swipe to the end of the Share To options and tap More.
- There are more options.
Save to PC – strongly recommended
- Go to TikTok.com
- Log into your account
- Open your video
- If it is downloadable, it will be an .MP4 in the download folder.
What about favourite videos from other creators?
You can use the methods above if a video has been marked downloadable. If not, you can use the screen record function at the screen resolution.
Why do anything – TikTok US ban should not affect us?
No one doubts TikTok’s popularity, but losing 170 million “Western” users and creators will severely diminish its usefulness and affect Australian creators’ revenue streams.
Even if it is sold (and Microsoft and Oracle turned it down last time without the algorithms), the disruption will be substantial because, come 19 January, the Court has little option but to ban it. There is a strong argument that TikTok should languish and no US company should buy it as it opens the Western markets to smaller local competitors.
In any case, you will need to avoid Chinese-owned sites like Rednote (Little Red Book), Lemon8 (owned by ByteDance), and dozens more, as the ban will eventually spread to these.
Currently, the trend away is equally divided between YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.
As a creator, it is all about ‘eyes’ (clicks and money) and YouTube looks best. It allows clips up to three minutes and can be indexed with YouTube videos. We cannot comment on commercial issues, but most fear losing the income stream and rebuilding an audience.
As a user, it is all about ease of finding or recommendations, and YouTube seems to have that well under control.
Read:
TikTok is dangerous – a drug, subversive and spyware
Why TikTok Pixel Spyware is deceitful and just plain wrong (safety)
TikTok is finally banned on Australian Government and Agency smartphones
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