The TikTok ban is scheduled to go into effect on January 19

As the platform bows out in the US, here is my carefully curated list of the best things it’s taught meChinese rival app Xiaohongshu is overwhelmed by ‘TikTok refugees’ in USThe average TikTok user spends almost one hour each day on the app. However, the screen time of American users is about to be rapidly reduced, as the app is set to be banned in the USA.On Friday the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal against a law that would see the social media platform banned over national security concerns. TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance had challenged the law, arguing that it violates free speech protections for more than 170 million users in the US. However, in an unanimous vote the ruling was upheld meaning the app must now find an approved buyer for an American version by Sunday or be blocked.The outgoing US President Joe Biden has said he will not be enforcing the ban, instead leaving it up to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. While there are rumours the ban ...

A man, known as Dheanasaur on TikTok, recently shared what the names of some popular animals mean in Welsh. It's left social media users in absolute hysterics

A viral video on TikTok appearing to show the chaotic state of a Primark store has prompted a barrage of admissions among staff - with one saying a particularly messy customer forced them to quit

The TikTok will be banned in the US from Sunday unless it is sold by its China-based parent company within 90 days

TikTok said the Biden administration must give the likes of Google and Apple reassurances that they won’t be punished, or they will pull the app in the U.S.

If you’re into wellness, you’ll have seen a certain dramatic spiritual trend all over your social media feeds. And now, seemingly out of nowhere, kundalini activation transmissions are available in every major city in the UK. As Hannah Ewens discovers, you have to try it yourself to believe it

TikTok said Friday it will go dark in the US on Sunday unless Joe Biden provides assurances to companies like Apple and Google that it will not face enforcement actions when a ban takes effect.

Biden administration said it will not enforce ban on Sunday, leaving fate of the social media platform up to Trump

The Supreme Court upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning Sunday unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company over the risk to national security posed by its ties to China

President-elect says festivities scheduled for his inauguration day will be held indoors – including the traditional paradeDonald Trump told CNN that he will decide what to do with TikTok once he takes office, after the supreme court upheld legislation that will ban it on Sunday unless its Chinese owner sells its US operations.“It ultimately goes up to me, so you’re going to see what I’m going to do,” Trump said in an interview with the network. Asked if he would try to reverse the ban, should it go into effect, Trump said: “Congress has given me the decision, so I’ll be making the decision.”It is not clear that the Act itself directly regulates protected expressive activity, or conduct with an expressive component. Indeed, the Act does not regulate the creator petitioners at all Petitioners, for their part, have not identified any case in which this Court has treated a regulation of corporate control as a direct regulation of expressive activity or semi-expressive conduct We hesita...

Biden administration said it will not enforce ban on Sunday, leaving fate of the social media platform up to Trump

App will become unavailable in US on 19 January, unless Trump directs justice department not to enforce the lawUS politics live – latest updatesThe US supreme court has issued a ruling upholding a nationwide ban on TikTok unless it sells to an owner in the US. The nine justices voted unanimously in a decision on Friday that sides with the majority of the US Congress and the US Department of Justice that the hugely popular social media app is a threat to US national security.“We conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights,” the justices wrote. “The judgment of the United States court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is affirmed.” In December, a Washington DC appeals court upheld the ban. Continue reading...

App will become unavailable in US on 19 January, unless Trump directs justice department not to enforce the lawThe US supreme court has issued a ruling upholding a nationwide ban on TikTok unless it sells to an owner in the US. The nine justices voted unanimously in a decision on Friday that sides with the majority of the US Congress and the US Department of Justice that the hugely popular social media app is a threat to US national security.“We conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights,” the justices wrote. “The judgment of the United States court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is affirmed.” In December, a Washington DC appeals court upheld the ban. Continue reading...

After Bonnie Blue claimed to have slept with over 1,000 men in a day, TikTok sleuths picked holes in her maths, as one woman has 'proof' the adult star is lying about it

US supreme court cites TikTok’s relationship with ‘foreign adversary’ China in upholding sale-or-ban lawUS supreme court issues ruling upholding nationwide ban on TikTokCan Donald Trump circumvent a TikTok ban?Donald Trump told CNN that he will decide what to do with TikTok once he takes office, after the supreme court upheld legislation that will ban it on Sunday unless its Chinese owner sells its US operations.“It ultimately goes up to me, so you’re going to see what I’m going to do,” Trump said in an interview with the network. Asked if he would try to reverse the ban, should it go into effect, Trump said: “Congress has given me the decision, so I’ll be making the decision.”It is not clear that the Act itself directly regulates protected expressive activity, or conduct with an expressive component. Indeed, the Act does not regulate the creator petitioners at all Petitioners, for their part, have not identified any case in which this Court has treated a regulation of corporate con...

Controversial South Dakota Republican appears before Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as president-elect reveals China call while TikTok ban looms

A TikTok user has revealed the reason why watches are always set to the same time in adverts and some people who watched her video realised they didn't know this before

Social media app TikTok will be banned in the US just hours before Donald Trump takes over in office. The US Supreme Court said the ban will go ahead on the weekend

Morgan Bold took to TikTok to share her experience travelling across the country to what she claimed was 'the best' petrol station in the UK - and three things particularly made her giddy

If a ban comes into force, TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users could turn to its sister app Lemon8

People are only just realising why watches are set to the same time in adverts after seeing a TikTok video of a user explaining the reason

Songwriter, 83, signs up to TikTok with platform facing Sunday deadline to sell US operationBob Dylan is TikToking on heaven’s door after signing up to the social media app – days before it could disappear from his native US.The 83-year-old songwriter has set up an official account, which launched with a 50-second video montage accompanied by a soundtrack featuring Like a Rolling Stone, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and Hurricane. The post has attracted nearly 2m views. Continue reading...

Supreme Court is set to release at least one opinion on Friday morning

British content creators, who may lose a big chunk of their audiences, say they see the app as a gateway to AmericansIf TikTok disappears from the US, it won’t just be its 170 million American users who will lose out.British TikTokers and business owners have told the Guardian they will also lose a sizeable chunk of their audiences after a ban. The video app has become a key gateway to Americans for the UK’s online video creators, who make a living from accruing views and making sponsored content deals. With the ban scheduled to go into effect on Sunday, a US-sized hole will appear in the global userbase. Continue reading...

Richmond Barber is known for his incredible transformations on clients – and his latest upload on TikTok left many people drooling in the comments section as he looks different

Supreme Court is set to release at least one opinion on Friday morning

‘Although it was a poor decision on my behalf I didn’t think it would cost me my dream job,’ the former Alaska Airlines flight attendant said

Users are flocking to another social media video app following the Supreme Court upholding the TikTok ban, but with it appearing the same, experts warn Rednote could face the same fate

One TikTok user has shared her recipe for creamy tomato soup with deliciously crispy homemade croutons - and the dish packs in 20g of protein

Labels and artists forced to rethink marketing strategies as viral hit-making app faces possible US shutdown on SundayOn a recent Monday morning, Olivia Shalhoup opened her laptop and steeled herself for a day of meetings. Around 40% of her work as the founder of Amethyst, a marketing and PR agency, focuses on helping musicians navigate TikTok. On this particular day, the fate of the app in the US hung in the balance, with a supreme court ruling looming, and her clients were tense. “The big thing we were talking about in every single call is: ‘What are we going to do?’” Shalhoup said. “To say that TikTok is crucial to artist campaigns right now is an understatement. No one is immune from this.”Since its debut in 2017, TikTok has become a star-making machine, as short-form video content has eclipsed traditional forms of music promotion such as TV and radio. The app has the power to make rising artists into A-listers, propel their ascent to the top of the charts, and turn Magic FM sta...

Social media accounts blocked for breaking Beijing rules as millions of users join up before ban takes effectNine invaluable things I’ve learned from TikTokWhen Angelica Oung received the notification that her Xiaohongshu account had been blocked for violating the social media app’s code of conduct, her mind started racing.The only picture she had posted on her account, apart from her profile headshot, was of herself wearing an inflatable polar bear suit, holding a sign saying: “I love nuclear”. What could be the problem with that, wondered Oung, a clean energy activist in Taiwan. Continue reading...

Keeley Thorton - known as 'Sheffield Keeley' on social media platform TikTok - was reportedly found unconscious in the city centre on Tuesday, January 14.

Americans fleeing the looming TikTok ban have been warmly welcomed to app Xiaohongshu – or RedNote – despite China’s tight restrictions on what can be posted“It is the coolest thing,” says Huang Ziyan, a longtime user of Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, describing the experience as a “21st-century Tower of Babel”.Huang is referring to the influx of US “TikTok refugees” fleeing the impending ban and the resulting cross-cultural exchange that has seen Americans warmly welcomed – and sometimes given a few helpful tips. Continue reading...

A rare wave of U.S.-China camaraderie broke out online in recent days as “refugees” from the popular short video platform TikTok poured onto a Chinese social media platform to protest a now-delayed ban on the service

RedNote is a Chinese social media app that is rising in popularity in the US and the UK

The US Supreme Court will shut down TikTok on Sunday if Chinese parent company ByteDance cannot find a buyer for the social media app

Biden administration said it will not enforce ban on Sunday, leaving it up to Trump

The supreme court has allowed to go into effect a law that will force TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell its US business by Sunday, or face a banUS supreme court issues ruling upholding nationwide ban on TikTokCan Donald Trump circumvent a TikTok ban?Justice Neil Gorsuch expressed reservations about the TikTok sale-or-ban billThough Gorsuch voted to uphold the law, he did not express total certainty in it.There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community. But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ first amendment rights. Continue reading...

Biden government has suggested it will not enforce ban – and leave final decision to Trump

The Supreme Court made a ruling on the fate of TikTok as the ban on the social media app in the U.S. looms.

The Supreme Court has upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning Sunday unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company, holding the risk to national security posed by its ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the U.S. A sale does not appear imminent

One fan of the British show, Dan Harry, posted compelling a theory on his TikTok as to why he thinks the Faithful might be falling behind this season so far.

TikTok star Jiare Schneider, 31, was found dead in a woodland in Georgia, US a whole 10 days after he went missing - authorities have now confirmed his cause of death

The fitness influencer - born Christopher Ryan O'Donnell - passed away on January 11, according to an online obituary.

TikTok star Chris O'Donnell, known online as Creeohdee, has died at the age of 31. The fitness influencer passed away on January 11 according to an online obituary.

TikTok influencer Creeohdee has died at the age of 31, it has been revealed, with tributes flooding in for the social media star

The young man has been wearing the same look for a while but now he looks totally different after seeking help from a popular barber. And it was shared on TikTok

Spotify’s Billions Club tracks the world’s most popular songs, but dozens of greats are nowhere to be found. From TikTok to TV soundtracks, we explore the forces shaping pop’s new canonIn 2011, Jacob Rubeck and Nick Rattigan were living in a basement in Reno, Nevada, and thinking about starting a band. One afternoon, Rubeck came up with a frisky Strokes-like guitar riff, Rattigan whipped up the melody and lyrics and Surf Curse’s Freaks was born. “We wrote the song in like 30 minutes,” the singer says.A catchy song about alienation and longing, Freaks was released in 2013 and became a raucous highlight of their live shows but didn’t trouble the wider world until 2021, when it was discovered, out of the blue, by TikTok users. Its Spotify streams kept going up and up and up, until last March it passed a remarkable milestone. Unlike Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd or Prince, Surf Curse can claim membership of Spotify’s Billions Club, the running playlist of every song to have a...

Many content creators took the opportunity - before losing their livelihoods when the TikTok ban comes into effect - to reveal their most popular videos had always been fake.

EXCLUSIVE: The goal of the ban is to put the US wing of TikTok into American hands or be pulled from app stores over fears of its connections to the Chinese government and, unsurprisingly, the name being touted is Elon Musk