Understanding the Ban: In December 2022, President Biden initiated a ban, passing a bill prohibiting TikTok from being used on federal devices, including cell phones, tablets and laptops. Over half of the states followed suit, banning TikTok on government devices. At the same time, educational institutions like Auburn University, Texas A&M and the University of Wisconsin System went a step further by blocking the app on all school-owned devices. Montana marked a significant milestone in April 2023 by becoming the first state to enact legislation to entirely prohibit TikTok on personal devices.

Even with bans of the app on university devices, there are loopholes that students use to access the site. Due to its trending nature, there is no stopping users from gathering content from TikTok.

The Impact: What makes TikTok so unique, it’s short video content that is changeable with a swipe of a finger. 

Bored of a video?
Swipe.
Is someone talking too slow?
Speed it up.

This platform holds the engagement of those with shorter attention spans or those who have limited time to access content. Because of this, TikTok is seen as the number one way to reach Gen Z. With nearly 45% of their users between the ages of 11-26, no other social media platform has this high of a reach with a younger audience. 

While the ban could go into effect as soon as July 2024, the trending app is in no danger of disappearing from your devices. The ban would only erase the app from the AppStore and prevent any future updates or bug fixes. This means that you and your brand can still produce and upload content to TikTok even after the bill is implemented. 

Will the TikTok ban drive traffic away from the app? Will it alter your analytics? 

Possibly! 

But this isn’t the first time a potential ban has threatened TikTok’s audience. Even after the attempts to ban it in 2023, it still emerged as the highest grossing app that year with over 2.7 billion dollars in revenue in 2023 alone.

TikTok also boasts an engagement rate of 5.3% on accounts with over 100K followers, surpassing Instagram’s 1.1% and Twitter’s 0.3%. This high engagement rate positions TikTok as a leading platform for content sharing.

Adapting to the Ban: Social content and platforms are no strangers to the short video trend. Before TikTok there was Musically and Vine (RIP). Now, Instagram and Facebook have reels, YouTube has shorts, and then there’s Snapchat spotlight. So, this trending media vessel is probably not going anywhere, anytime soon.

As of now, there is no danger of TikTok disappearing from you or your customer’s devices. Statistics show that even with the threats to ban the app, traffic on the site has not slowed down, and is still a valuable platform to promote your business.

While TikTok’s future is uncertain the audience is still massive, so get your TikTok marketing strategy in place now. Should the ban go into effect, other similar platforms will rise to take its place so your strategy can be adapted to those platforms. So, roll with TikTok for a while, or try out Instagram Reels.

To sum it up, don’t stress about the ban. Even if TikTok disappears from all devices tomorrow, this audience of young Gen Z users will still find an app to consume content.