How the US TikTok Ban Would Work

I dunno, but I don't see it working very well. TikTok's popularity has a strong network effect: you're using it because your friends are using it. You share with them, remix videos for them, you all share in the social zeitgeist together. With Americans mostly excluded, it will become a foreign-feeling place when a few look at it through a VPN.

A lot of videos will be shared through other means (Instagram, YouTube, etc.) Maybe one of those will be the new beneficiary of the network effect.

it's called a 180, quite common in politics, no one has actual morals, all they care about it approval, and with the likely hood that 99% of trumps other suggested policies aren't going to be approved by the majority of people, he can distract people by claiming "look guys, I stopped the tiktok ban, so you have to like me, just ignore everything else." The goal of every bad faith world leader is to keep their populous stupid and ignorant, this type of thing is very common, if the government can make people focus on some policy that brings headlines, but is ultimately fruitless, they can silently pass bills that actually mean something with no one looking their way.

Jeff Yass, see: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/28/us/politics/trump-tik-tok...