Technology

The TikTok ban, and what comes next

How the Supreme Court will decide TikTok’s fate, whether Donald Trump or Elon Musk might save it in the US, whether China will sell, and more on The Vergecast.

Published a month ago on Jan 18th 2025, 2:00 pm

By Web Desk

Goodbye to our personal Chinese spies. With five days left until the date by which TikTok is to be either sold or banned in the United States, millions of users are reckoning with what happens when one of the internet’s most important media platforms just up and disappears. (Or, more likely, sticks around for a while, consistently gets worse, and then dies with a whimper.)

On this episode of The Vergecast, we reckon with how we got here, and where we go next. The Verge’s Lauren Feiner walks us through the years-long history of the fight over TikTok, and takes us inside last week’s Supreme Court hearing, where the country’s highest court appeared to be in favor of the ban. Even with a few days left, though, the story’s not over: Donald Trump has said he wants to save the app, and he’ll be inaugurated as president the day after the ban is set to go into effect. And now there are rumors Elon Musk might be involved with the app’s future, too. If we’ve learned one thing about the TikTok ban, it’s that it’s always coming and seemingly never actually here. But it sure feels close now.

After that, we chat with Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor about a different kind of creator platform. Kickstarter has long been an important launching place for tech inventors and creators of all kinds, but it has also had its share of messy failures and sketchy ideas. Taylor tells us what he’s seeing on the platform, what it takes to be an upstart inventor these days, and what Kickstarter can do to help. It doesn’t involve trying to be TikTok, apparently, but we asked about that anyway.

Finally, we take a question from the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com) about those “magic link” login systems that send you an email instead of asking you for a password. Nobody loves them, but there’s a good reason they’re around.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are a few links to get you started, beginning with TikTok:

TikTok’s last stand: Supreme Court weighs ban as deadline loomsTikTok still seems headed for a ban after its Supreme Court argumentsWhat it will take for TikTok to survive in the USChinese social media app RedNote tops App Store chart ahead of TikTok ban‘Goodbye to my Chinese spy’ might be the last great TikTok trend

And on Kickstarter:

Kickstarter is adding the ability to collect money indefinitelyKickstarter’s CEO on why he doesn’t think the company will only do crowdfunding foreverBrandon Sanderson’s surprise novels overtake Pebble watch as most successful Kickstarter ever

And on magic links and passwords:

Passkeys might really kill passwordsFrom 404 Media: We Don’t Want Your PasswordFrom Recyclebin.zip: Magic/Tragic Email Links: Don’t make them the only option