After a US law temporarily forced Americans to find a new home for their short-video habit, TikTok clone Likee saw a surge in usage.

In a historic development, Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok has become the center of a bipartisan bill to ban the app nationwide in the name of national security. Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the UC Berkeley School of Information and a prominent scholar in the study of state censorship,

As self-described " TikTok refugees" pour onto the Chinese social media app RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, some foreign netizens are already running up against the country's extensive censorship apparatus. Newsweek reached out to Xiaohongshu with a request for comment via a general contact email address.

TikTok isn’t the villain here. It’s a symptom of a much larger issue: the lack of clear, enforceable rules for data privacy and security. Instead of banning the app, the government should focus on fixing the system.

TikTok has fought the ban, most recently before the Supreme Court. Free-speech advocates contend that the ban would violate First Amendment rights. But the justices sided with the government on January 17,

Second, however, TikTok does present a danger. But it’s the same danger all the social media platforms present: they collect large amounts of personal data from users, including teens. (Some call TikTok's collection excessive.) But this is a story we’ve heard over and over.  They monetize invasive information for advertisers, no matter the danger.

TikTok will become impossible to access via an American internet connection. It probably will remain possible to access from an American location, though. The rub is a virtual private network, which sets up an encrypted tunnel for internet browsing and can run it through practically any country.

The fate of TikTok now rests in the hands of the US Supreme Court. If a law banning the social video app this month is upheld, it won’t disappear from your phone—but it will get messy fast.

With the U.S. ban on TikTok looming, many Americans are opting for another Chinese app known as RedNote. It could be short-lived.

As TikTok users flock to RedNote, there are several considerations, including the privacy of your data. Here’s what you need to know.

From expedited Constitutional challenges to an exodus of self-proclaimed “TikTok Refugees” to new foreign-owned social media platforms, the past week leading up to the Jan. 19, 2025, deadline for the TikTok Ban has been a whirlwind of legal and political activity.