For Whom The Clock Scrolls

Answer: No one?

The TikTok ban (still) looms with a Sunday deadline. But no one really knows what that means.

Here's how things are going...

Wednesday

The Information reports the company plans to shut down the app on Sunday.

Wed. 01/15 – SEC Sues Elon Musk — Techmeme Ride Home — Overcast

The SEC is suing Elon Musk. Big AI insertions in Microsoft Copilot, Google Workspace and even LinkedIn. How TikTok plans to handle the immediate aftermath of a shutdown. Another new Instagram alternative. And have your AirPods been misbehaving? Here’s what Apple did without telling anyone.

The law just requires app stores to remove it for download and Oracle to halt hosting user data in the US. But TikTok is going to play the pressure game.

The (alleged) plan is to direct anyone trying to access the app to a webpage with info about the ban. Users might be able to download their data. And there will be an (at least implicit) call to hound your representative to bring your glorious video feed back.

Thursday

The Biden administration pumps the brakes.

"Our position on this has been clear: TikTok should continue to operate under American ownership. Given the timing of when it goes into effect over a holiday weekend a day before inauguration, it will be up to the next administration to implement," a White House official told ABC News in a statement.

So the ban will start but enforcement will not. Which means app stores could be fined (up to $5k per user) but probably won’t be. I’m sure large money making operations love that sort of certainty about their bank account balance.

Which leaves the Trump question. The former anti-Tokker has come around and:

is considering an executive order once in office that would suspend enforcement of the TikTok ban-or-sale law for 60 to 90 days, buying the administration time to negotiate a sale or alternative solution

Today

Supreme Court Upholds Law That Threatens US TikTok Ban

So the app is banned starting Sunday.

But enforcement may not start until Monday.

Or ever.

Clear as mud?

What does this mean for brands?

TikTok native brands might be in trouble. And the app definitely drove awareness for those that used it. But these aren’t necessarily irreplaceable things.

The race to replace The Clock is on…

TubeFilter reports:

[YouTube] has officially begun rolling out three-minute Shorts to all users

any vertical or square VODs up to three minutes long will now automatically count as Shorts, meaning they’ll appear on the Shorts tabs of creators’ channels and will pop up on the Shorts feed

Instagram plans to, well, do the classic Meta thing and basically just clone it:

Adam Mosseri, head of Meta’s Instagram, said Monday that the app will focus on prioritizing original and creative content in its algorithmic rankings in 2025.

To prioritize original content, Instagram will focus on improving its creative tools so they are best in class, which they are not currently, Mosseri said.

On the user front, things are getting weird…

But RedNote is all in Mandarin, which means only one thing:

Duolingo sees 216% spike in US users learning Chinese amid TikTok ban and move to RedNote | TechCrunch

TikTok U.S. users have been learning Chinese on Duolingo in increasing numbers amid their adoption of a Chinese social app called RedNote ahead of the

Something tells me this wild ride is just beginning.

A Parting Thought 🔮

As I wrote in this post:

It’s beginning to feel like two trends are converging in a way that will limit TikTok’s upside more than any ban.

The first is how the transition from school life to work life caps available media time, forcing an age out of sorts on The Trend Machine’s attention black hole effect.

The second is The Clock App’s Shop obsession

The drama is loud, but the import might be low. TikTok the giant killer turned out to just be another platform.