The digital marketing landscape stands at a crossroads as the United States prepares for a potential TikTok ban on January 19, 2025. This seismic shift in social media will force marketers to completely reimagine their strategies, budgets, and approaches to reaching younger audiences. Let’s dive deep into how this ban will reshape digital marketing and what businesses need to do to prepare.
The Current State of Affairs
The TikTok ban has been a topic of discussion for several years, with concerns over national security and data privacy being the primary drivers. In 2019, President-Elect Donald Trump issued a national emergency, citing the threat posed by “foreign adversaries” exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services. This led to a prohibition on any transactions with ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok. There are concerns that the Chinese government could potentially access American user data through ByteDance.
In 2021, President Joe Biden issued a new executive order, stating that ByteDance “continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” This order led to a bill being passed in 2022, prohibiting the use of TikTok on government devices. The national security threat posed by ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese government has been a significant factor in these legislative actions.
The current ban, signed into law by President Biden in April 2024, requires ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19, 2025, or face a ban in the United States. The ban has been upheld by the federal appeals court, despite TikTok’s arguments that it infringes on the free speech of its over 170 million American users. TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance continue to face ongoing legal challenges in contesting this legislation.
This uncertainty has already begun affecting the platform’s advertising ecosystem. TikTok projects a substantial “29% loss of total targeted global advertising revenue for 2025” if the ban takes effect (Oboh, 2024). This figure underscores the massive disruption awaiting both the platform and its advertising partners.
