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By Sonny Aragba-Akpore.

While the American ban of Tik Tok is on hold for 75 days beginning from January 20,2025,the European Commission is currently scrutinizing Tik Tok,s practices regarding data protection,advertising transparency and potential addictive design features,particularly concerning young users.

African countries have high usage in general in some countries with Kenya being at the forefront.But some have frowned at its usage.

The restrictions in Europe on the app, are particularly on government employee devices due to security concerns, while in Africa, some nations have completely banned TikTok due to worries about inappropriate content and potential political misuse, with Kenya being a notable exception where usage is high.

Some African governments have banned TikTok due to concerns about the spread of inappropriate content, political rhetoric, and others.

Despite concerns, many African creators use TikTok to showcase their culture and creativity.
The ban in the USA could affect American companies like Apple, Google, and Oracle.

The ban could chill certain types of investment and create a slippery slope that applies to other companies.

A TikTok ban in the United States could have several implications, including:

App store removal where TikTok would be removed from app stores like Apple and Google.
Updates would no longer be available as users are unable to update the app, which could lead to performance issues and compatibility problems.

The app could eventually become unusable without updates.
Data security stands risks of inability to associate with a TikTok ban.

There will be Geopolitical consequences as the ban could raise concerns about the government targeting individual companies.

The ban could send a message that the U.S. government is afraid of the Chinese government influencing Americans.

The ban could make online experiences more insular and inconsistent from country to country.
As the future of the social media platform remains murky, plans for an American entity to purchase TikTok appear to be narrowing in scope.

While several individuals and companies have thrown their hats into the ring with interest, President Donald Trump recently expressed his support of two tech giants: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle. Oracle, a software company, houses most of TikTok’s U.S. servers.

Plans are already on to meet the 75-day window to stabilize Tik Tok.
General Atlantic CEO Bill Ford said last week that a deal would get done to save TikTok in the U.S. after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that halted a ban on the app for 75 days.

“It’s in everybody’s interest,” Ford told journalists at an event in Davos, Switzerland. Ford is on the board of directors for ByteDance, Tiktok’s Chinese parent company.

“We’ll get on with it, as soon as maybe the end of the week in terms of negotiating what might work … The Chinese government, the U.S. government and the company and the board all have to be involved in this conversation,” Ford added.

Trump’s executive order paused the enforcement of a bipartisan law passed by Congress last year that required ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets by Sunday for the app to continue functioning in the country. It was passed amid national security concerns that the Chinese government could get access to Americans’ personal information through the app.

Tik Tok was taken down for 24 hours after the Supreme Court ruling for its ban before President Trump,s Executive Order for a 75-day stay of enforcement.

But the service interruption TikTok instituted hours earlier caught most users by surprise. Experts had said the law as written did not require TikTok to take down its platform, only for app stores to remove it.

Current users were expected to continue to have access to videos until the app stopped working due to a lack of updates.
The company’s app also was removed from prominent app stores, including the ones operated by Apple and Google. Apple told customers with its devices that it also took down other apps developed by TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance including one that some social media influencers had promoted as an alternative.

Under the federal legislation, which remains in place despite Trump’s order, companies could be fined $5,000 per users they help access TikTok. For Google and Apple, this could mean a $5,000 fine for each user who downloads or updates TikTok. For internet hosting services like Oracle, it could mean a $5,000 fine for each user that accesses TikTok using their services.

To break that down, if reportedly 170 million Americans use TikTok and companies could be charged $5,000 per user, that amounts to about $850 billion in fines, spread across different types of tech companies.

Even for tech giants like Google, Apple and Oracle, these are “hefty fines” they could be facing, according to agency reports.
> Apple and Google will be mostly hit by the ban .App Store specifically listed Tik Tok apps including

TikTok,TikTok Studio,
TikTok ,Shop Seller Center,CapCut,Lemon8,
Hypic,Lark – Team Collaboration
Lark – Rooms Display
Lark Rooms Controller will be affected.

Apple said if a user already has the apps on their device, they will remain there but can’t be redownloaded and won’t provide updates. The apps also won’t allow in-app purchases or new subscriptions during the ban.

Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Triller are similar to TikTok in functionality but with some minor differences. Reels allows videos up to 90 seconds, Shorts up to 60 seconds, and Triller supports longer videos (up to 3 minutes) with advanced editing tools, ideal for music videos. For more editing flexibility, use Movavi Video Editor to customize your clips before posting.

For adult content creators seeking creative freedom, Triller offers advanced editing tools and music-powered features that turn basic videos into pro-level content, while Likee provides a wide range of effects to make your videos more engaging. When you need even greater flexibility and control, try Movavi Video Editor to fine-tune clips, adjust audio, add special effects, and create smooth transitions.

Prior to the Supreme Court ruling in more than two-hour appearance before a panel of three judges at a federal appeals court in Washington, attorneys for the two sides – and content creators – were pressed on their best arguments for and against the law that forces TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance to break ties by mid-January 2025 or lose one of their biggest markets in the world.
Andrew Pincus, a veteran attorney representing the two companies, argued in court that the law unfairly targets the company and runs foul of the First Amendment because TikTok Inc. – the U.S. arm of TikTok – is an American entity. After his remarks, another attorney representing content creators who are also challenging the law argued it violates the rights of U.S. speakers and is akin to prohibiting Americans from publishing on foreign-owned media outlets, such as Politico, Al Jazeera or Spotify.

On Monday September 16,2024,ByteDance and it’s short video platform,Tik Tok appeared at a crowded court in Washington DC,the United States of America (USA) before a panel of three judges to appeal against a law that was likely to ban the company from doing business in the USA by January 2025 if it does not divest its operations.

While this legal tussle was ongoing,Nigerian content creators appeared to be the first victims of this long drawn battle between Tik Tok and the American government.
While the content creators wondered what becomes of their trade,Facebook and Instagram were also making things more difficult for them.

Tik Tok ,Facebook and Instagram may have strong reasons for their actions but not as much as we know.

Meta Group,owners of Facebook,Instagram and WhatsApp last week deleted over 1,600 users in Nigeria for alleged scamming activities.
The deleted 1,600 Facebook groups are allegedly linked to Yahoo Boys.