TikTok Ban Deadline Ahead: What Will Happen To App On Your Phone?

A TikTok ban in the United States is approaching, as the Supreme Court signals support for enforcing a Jan. 19 deadline.

Here's a look at what happens to your app if the ban goes through, what could happen next, and what companies stand to benefit.

TikTok Ban Nears: The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments from TikTok and parent company ByteDance ahead of a pending Jan. 19 ban. Based on the initial arguments, the ban seems likely to go through.

If the TikTok ban is upheld, Jan. 19 would mark the date that ByteDance would need to sell off the U.S. division of the company or face a ban of the app on app stores from Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL and Apple Inc AAPL.

The ban would mean people who don't have the app already downloaded, like an estimated 170 million Americans, wouldn't be able to download it.

For those who do have the TikTok app, the usability would quickly change. There would be no support for the app, no updates and the For You page could quickly go silent.

While this means that people would still be able to use TikTok, the lack of ability by ByteDance to push through any security updates and features could quickly make the app a risk to users with people targeting any vulnerabilities they can find that can't be remedied for users like other apps that can be updated.

ByteDance could opt to block access to TikTok in the U.S., a move that, while costly in terms of users and revenue, could increase pressure to overturn the ban or raise the valuation of a potential sale of its U.S. division, as existing users might become more vocal.

The U.S. government could also try to stop access to TikTok by having American internet service providers block the app.

If the ban is enforced, a potential trend to watch could be users listing phones with TikTok pre-installed for sale on auction platforms like eBay EBAY.

In 2020, some owners of iPhones with the mobile game "Fortnite" downloaded on them listed their phones for sale on eBay, as reported by PCMag. The move came after "Fortnite" owner Epic Games decided to skirt Apple's 30% cut of payments by offering a direct payment option. Apple removed the game from its app store, which kicked off a lengthy battle between the two companies.

Users also tried to sell their phones with mobile game "Flappy Bird" for high amounts of money back in 2014, as reported by PCMag. The creator of the hit game pulled it from app stores after it hit number one and saw huge usage. One phone reached a price of $99,900 on eBay before the auction company took the listing down.

What Happens Next: There are several interested parties in buying the U.S. division of TikTok. A final Supreme Court ruling could see ByteDance cave to the pressure and sell off the U.S. division, which would negate the pending ban.

With the ban set for Jan. 19 and President-elect Donald Trump taking office on Jan. 20, there is also the potential that the incoming president works on some type of deal to please everyone and keep TikTok up and running.

Previously supportive of banning TikTok, Trump has now flipped and is supportive of keeping the platform running. The flip could be related to a key ByteDance investor being a Trump donor and ally.

Who Benefits From Ban: A ban of TikTok could hurt content creators who have been using the platform for years and turned it into a source of income.

Some content creators have already started producing more content on other platforms, encouraging their TikTok followers to connect with them elsewhere in preparation for a potential ban.

One of the biggest winners from a TikTok ban could be Meta Platforms META, the owner of Facebook and Instagram.

Meta has worked on launching short video content similar to TikTok through Instagram Reels.

Another potential winner could be YouTube, the video platform owned by Alphabet Inc.

YouTube Shorts, which are short video clips, have grown in popularity and could be an easy transition for TikTok creators to move over to.

Other potential winners could be Snap Inc SNAP and Reddit Inc RDDT.

Read Next: