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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Technology
Kari Paul

‘It’s just not hitting like it used to’: TikTok was in its flop era before it got banned in the US

The TikTok office
The TikTok office in Culver City, California, on 13 March 2024. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

TikTok is facing its most credible existential threat yet. Last week, the US Congress passed a bill that bans the short-form video app if it does not sell to an American company by this time next year. But as a former avid user whose time on the app has dropped sharply in recent months, I am left wondering – will I even be using the app a year from now?

Like many Americans of my demographic (aging millennial), I first started using TikTok regularly when the Covid-19 pandemic began and lockdowns gave many of us more time than we knew how to fill.

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