U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill that would install a ban on TikTok if owner ByteDance does not sell the application. The bill requires the company to seal a deal within nine months, and also provides a 90-day extension to close it. It will then bar app stores from offering the app.

TikTok will challenge this in courts, and we have a long legal battle ahead of us. Many countries worldwide, however, have banned the app, and ByteDance hasn't had an opportunity to revive it. These moves impacted the operations of ByteDance in those countries, creators as well as startups related to the creator economy.

How a TikTok ban is playing out in other countries

India:
This is perhaps the most high-profile TikTok ban as India is one of the largest consumer markets in the world. Earlier this year, in June 2020, the Indian government banned the short video app alongside many more Chinese apps due to reasons of national security. ByteDance's other popular app Helo was also on the list of banned apps at the time.

Afghanistan:
In 2022, the Taliban banned TikTok and PlayerUnkown's Battleground, or PUBG, for "deceiving youth." In February, Wired said that most of the content creators within that country were using VPNs to create videos and to reach various audiences on TikTok. The article stated that TikTok users in Afghanistan numbered between 325,000 and 2 million.

Uzbekistan:
Uzbekistan, since July 2021, has also banned the country from using TikTok. In 2022, legislators proposed an outright ban following the fact that a few people were use VPNs to continue using the service.

Senegal:
In August 2023, Senegal banned TikTok after the conviction of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Citizens utilized the platform to enlist dissent and the reason for banning the social media site. In October, authorities asked ByteDance to devise a way for officials to delete accounts.

Somalia:
Likewise, Somali media report that TikTok, Telegram and gambling portal 1xBet were recently banned in the country. However, Somali authorities said the services were distributing "horrific content and misinformation to the public."

Kyrgyzstan:
August 2023 was not exactly a great month for TikTok. It got banned in Kyrgyz by the authorities, citing that this platform is harmful to "the health and development of children." Since it is the country's culture ministry, teenagers were in a habit of trying to emulate certain videos that pose danger to their life.

Nepal:
In November 2023, Nepal banned TikTok, stating that it was disrupting "social harmony" and had an impact on "family and social structures." Local media reported that there were 1,600 cases related to TikTok over the last four years, stating that cybercrime on the application was growing. According to a report from the BBC Media action in 2023, TikTok ranked third place among the most popular social media websites in the country following YouTube and Facebook.

Other prohibitions:
TikTok is banned in Iran by most of the social media available in the country. However, its date of ban is unclear. Besides, several countries and regions, among them being the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Belgium, the EU, New Zealand, and Australia have forbidden TikTok on official devices.

Effects of Ban on TikTok
Dozens of reports have captured the fallout of the ban of TikTok on the creators who rely on the short video platform for reach and even money-making. Many small businesses also use TikTok in promoting their brands in different ways.

In many ways, India's banning of TikTok came as a wonderful opportunity for Instagram to rush into releasing Reels as an alternative platform. Meta went ahead and launched the service in the US some months later. Meanwhile, YouTube also joined the bandwagon and introduced Shorts in India.

Yet, the TikTok ban also gave life to a number of the local short video applications. Local social network ShareChat, which had backing from the likes of Twitter and Google, released Moj; Verse Innovation, parent company behind news aggregator DailyHunt launched Josh; Times Internet, launched MX Takatak and eventually merged with Moj in 2022; ad company InMobi released Roposo and other competitors like Mitron, Chingari and Trell that aim to somehow dominate the market.

Developers in Nepal also launched their TikTok rival, Ramailo, in November 2023, but its life is short-lived.

Because of so many apps, creators have had to waste resources putting their content on multiple platforms. Critically, the short videos may not be centering the focus of those platforms like TikTok is, and their algorithm might be different too. So the creator loses their audience. A similar effect may soon be seen in the U.S., as creators scramble to find a new platform or platforms for their work — even if only to hedge against the possibility that TikTok's influence wanes under the threat of a ban.

This left ByteDance with little option but to scale back its operations following a ban on TikTok in India. Earlier this year, the company's music streaming service called Resso was also ordered to shut down in India following a government demand on app stores to pull the app.

Besides the effects on creators, digital rights activists also claimed that the banning of platforms like TikTok curtails free speech. Some of these angles may play out in the U.S., too, as the government and ByteDance will indulge in legal battles.

Last year, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said that India set an "incredibly important precedent" by banning TikTok in 2020. In the same month last year, he made another statement about the necessity for the U.S. to follow the steps of India regarding the removal of nefarious apps.