U.S. TikTok ban update: What to know, the latest

In just over a month, TikTok users in Alabama and across the U.S. may no longer see dancing videos, cute pets and more if the app is banned in the country.

If TikTok is not sold off from its Chinese parent company ByteDance by Jan. 19, 2025, app stores could face major fines if they continue to host the app under U.S. law, according to CNN.

Though the app would continue to work on phones that already have it downloaded after the ban, the lack of updates might eventually render the app buggy and useless.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday unanimously denied TikTok’s petition to overturn the law and rejected the company’s challenge of the statute.

TikTok and ByteDance are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, according to the Associated Press.

“Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people,” TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in a statement.

Hughes added in his statement that the statute “will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the U.S. and around the world on January 19th, 2025.”

Since the news, people have taken to the platform to voice their worries and fears if the ban in the U.S. takes effect.

Alabama TikTok star Ophelia Nichols, better known as Mama Tot, spoke on some of those concerns back in March of this year, while at a protest in D.C. calling for Congress not to ban the app.

“I think they just don’t understand what the app means to so many people,” Nichols said in a TikTok video. “For someone to take that away, y’all better think about that.”

TikTok could be thrown a lifeline from President-elect Donald Trump, though.

The ban takes place a day before his inauguration, but he could ask Congress to repeal the law, direct the attorney general not to enforce the law or he announce that TikTok is no longer subject to the law after Inauguration Day, according to CNN.

Trump has flip-flopped on his support for the app. He attempted to ban the app during his first term in office, but has more recently showed his support for the app.

“Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it,” Trump told CNBC earlier this year.