It has been a busy week in the United States as the country gears up for Donald Trump's swearing-in ceremony on January 20 as he becomes the President for a second time. Despite all the controversies around the ramifications of his win, the past week has been dominated by another topic, although very much connected to the upcoming inauguration.
The TikTok ban in the US gained prominence in 2024 when Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance, the app's China-based parent company, to divest TikTok. Signed by President Biden, the deadline for divestment was set for January 19, just one day before the presidential inauguration. Notably, a US official recently confirmed that the outgoing administration would leave the law's implementation and potential enforcement to Donald Trump.
Having earlier called to ban the app, the President-elect has since softened his stance, assuring that he would 'do his best' to keep it available in the US, although his team has made no mention of how it intends to do so. Intriguingly, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has been invited to Donald Trump's inauguration and has even been granted a prime seating location on the dais, increasing the anticipation among citizens and regular TikTok users about the company's future in America.
This has also created a discourse online between those for and against the application. Intriguingly, many Americans have already switched to another Chinese app based in the Asian nation, RedNote, which has sparked an interesting cultural exchange and discussion in itself.
The potential TikTok ban has also led to concerns in the livestreaming sphere, as the app has slowly but surely found a footing in the industry. This growth was also witnessed in the esports broadcasting segment, where the mobile application has been gaining solid ground on giants Twitch and YouTube over the past year.
After all, TikTok has surged into a prominent position among livestreamers, especially those who prefer doing travel vlogs and producing ILR content. In that sense, the US is one of its biggest markets, with the likes of Addison Rae, the D'Amelio's, and Bella Poarch emerging as some of its most popular creators and achieving celebrity status post the COVID-19 lockdown era.
These online personalities were massively responsible for the app achieving so much success over the past few years. TikTok's ability to combine short, entertaining clips with the relevant topics of the day was what made it such a beloved platform.
In fact, with the recent increase in the instances of content creators multistreaming (broadcasting the same live content across multiple platforms), the number of big-name video gaming streamers joining TiKTok has shot up. Tyler "Ninja" Blevins and Dylan "CaseOh" Baker are two among hundreds of renowned online internet stars who joined the app looking to attract new audiences.
This also meant that major tournament organizers soon followed, aiming for a share of the pie as the platform's potential to connect with new viewers became more and more apparent. As a result, famous esports became readily available to viewers, led by mobile games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Free Fire, Arena of Valor, and Brawl Stars.
If TikTok was to be banned in the US, this rapid development of its Live feature would take a major hit. Among regions where non-mobile users are higher, English ranks among the top languages, with many of its top streamers coming from America.
Moreover, its quickly improving esports broadcasting segment would suffer a blow as many of the top organizers hail from the powerhouse North American nation. In 2024, quite a few Western esports organizations entered the mobile esports scene, led by Team Liquid, Fnatic, and Team Vitality, bringing more audience reach to games like MLBB and AoV.
Many of these mobile esports games are popular in SEA, where TikTok livestreams have shown massive growth and introduced new games to new viewers. In that sense, it would be pretty disappointing for fans of competitive video gaming if one of the most promising livestreaming services, especially in Western countries, were to be banned in the United States.
Donald Trump and his imminent (re)inauguration as the President of the United States already has a lot riding on it. The future of TikTok can be added to this list as the platform aims to stay alive in one of its biggest markets.
