TikTok users in the U.S. will likely not be able to keep the app until the final hours after the Supreme Court on Saturday upheld a law requiring TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its app by Sunday or face a ban. scrolled through. The closure is required by law, but it's not yet entirely clear whether it will go dark on Sunday.
Still, the atmosphere was relatively somber, at least by TikTok's typically unserious standards.
Alix Earle, a content creator with 7.2 million followers who rose to fame on the app in 2022, posted a tearful video mourning the platform.
“I feel like I'm going through a heartbreak,” Earle wrote in one video. “This platform is more than just an app or a job to me. I have so many memories here. I have posted every day for 6 years. I share my friends, family, relationships, personal struggles, and secrets. I have shared it.”
Earle added that he was “in denial” about the ban. She wasn't alone.
In the days leading up to the Supreme Court's ruling, many users did not believe that TikTok, a platform with 170 million users in the United States, would actually be banned, and the app's tone was even jokingly optimistic. there were.
Some users posted satirical videos saying goodbye to alleged Chinese spies, a nod to TikTok's long-standing belief that all American users were assigned a Chinese government agent to spy on them through the app. It's a play on the joke. Some people explain how to use virtual private networks in hopes of circumventing the ban.
On Friday, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a law effectively banning TikTok in the United States. After the ruling, sentiment toward the app began to change. While some users were still laughing, others started posting more seriously.
“It's filled with so much nostalgia and memories,” Mark D'Amelio said in an interview this week about the app. In 2020, her daughter Charli D'Amelio became the most followed TikTok user in the world, reaching 100 million followers after she posted a video of herself dancing at home. This week, she reposted some of her old dance videos, and her followers left comments lamenting the end of an era.
“It's finished where it began,” many commenters wrote on D'Amelio's video, a nod to her status as one of the platform's early breakout stars.
Other users posted farewell messages, thanked their fans and viewers, and mentioned other social media platforms they will continue to use, such as Instagram and YouTube. (For some, that included a Chinese video platform called RedNote that has become popular in recent days.)
Amidst the sadness, there was also TikTok's trademark humor.
Markelle Washington, a 27-year-old content creator in Los Angeles, hosted a mock funeral for the app at her home with friends. He turned a coffee table into a makeshift coffin, cut out an oversized TikTok logo from poster board and placed it inside. He bought 50 red roses at the grocery store and lit candles to set the scene. Participants dressed all in black as Washington paid tribute to the app.
But Washington said the loss of TikTok was no joke. Before finding success with apps, he worked at a Subway sandwich shop. The app has given him “financial freedom,” he said. Since Friday's ruling, the atmosphere on the app has become “very authentic and emotional,” he said, referring to the tearful video of Earle.
“I was shocked, but it doesn't seem real, because this was an event that had a huge impact on my life,” Washington said. “It's like losing a relative.”
