Tiktok is actually surprisingly national in how it serves its content. If you're outside the US you don't see most American accounts except the ones that go very viral.

Edit: I should clarify. This might mean most content you see is English, if you're interested in English content. However it matters where the video was geographically uploaded from. If you upload a tiktok video and check the stats you'll see most views are from your region or country.

Tiktok shows videos locally, then regionally and then finally worldwide if yoo have a big hit.

It would be interesting to know what fraction of the English content people see is posted geographically from within America.

> This is going to be an interesting experiment: A widely used social network across the world WITHOUT american content.

China has had such social networks for a long time. Their Weibo and Xiaohongshu are two prominent examples. Weibo started as a copycat of Twitter, but then beats Twitter hands-down with faster iterations, better features, and more vibrant user engagement despite the gross censorship imposed by the government.

My guess is that TT can still thrive without American content, as long as other governments do not interfere as the US did. A potential threat to TT is that the US still has the best consumer market, so creators may still flock to a credible TT-alternative for better monetization, thus snatching away TT's current user base in other countries.

> Will we see internationalized Chinese content dominating it?

This is a weird fantasy, but it brings up an interesting point. The complete lack of Chinese influence on global pop culture. Especially when compared to Japan or Korea, countries with a fraction of the population but many, many times the influence.

I wish the CCP didn't wall off their citizens from the rest of the world in the name of protecting their own power. Think of the creativity we are all losing out on.

> This is going to be an interesting experiment: A widely used social network across the world WITHOUT american content.

For whom? UK users?

TikTok users who use the Chinese version are not consuming content from US creators. They won't notice this ban at all.

> but Vk was never truly popular outside Russian speaking countries.

Can't really disagree, but it's my favorite place to pirate fonts. Typing out site:vk.com <thing I want> feels like a real life cheat code.

> widely used social network across the world WITHOUT american content.

As of January 2025, the countries with the most TikTok users are:

Indonesia: Has the most active users with 157.6 million

United States: 120.5 million

Brazil: 105.2 million

Mexico: 77.5 million

Vietnam: 65.6 million

Pakistan: 62.0 million

Philippines: 56.1 million

Russian Federation: 56.0 million

Thailand: 50.8 million

Bangladesh: 41.1 million

I presume the US market is the dominant target market for ads / influencing, a quick google search suggests it is 75% of the global spend. So the other issue is not just losing US influencers but all influencers will take a haircut. I don't know how much of popular content is paid for by such revenue but taking a 75% haircut could put a real damper on content producers - especially those who make it a full time job. I don't know if that'll make it better with an increase in proportion of more organic content. I personally don't use TikTok - I waste enough time on HN.

There is an additional separate issue that influencer is a coveted 'career' for many children (~30%), so not only would it wipe out many jobs it'll kill their dreams. I guess like cancelling the space program at a time when kids really wanted to be astronauts.

I think there is a lot wrong with society and TikTok is part of it - but that's a much longer discussion for some other time.

It will still legally have American content, but only propaganda :)

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/biden-administration-quiet...

India also banned TikTok a while ago

Orkut was one American social network that barely had any American content because it was taken over by Brazilians.

I don't think it will survive because non American cultural exports are not quite there yet you have to be born outside the US to understand the reach of Hollywood/cultural export as an opinion shaping tool

But then again Telegram survived and they had to resort to kidnapping the CEO so if it does survive the US pretty much gifted that space to a geopolitical adversary

But I'm pretty sure Langley/MD folk thought about this and are betting on it not surviving

It will take ages for that to happen. AFAIK the "ban" only really removes it from app stores, I don't think it even requires store owners to force it off of phones that have downloaded it already.

There are such products. Outside of America whatsapp is a dominant social app but its use internally is almost mute despite being an american social app.

Tiktok america is over 50% of tiktok revenue I think that more than anything else would choke out growth world wide.

> Will we see internationalized Chinese content dominating it?

TikTok does not exist in China, they have their own version -- Douyin -- that complies with their more stringent privacy laws.

How will YouTube shorts, and instagram stories pivot? They already aren’t seen as true rivals, but maybe they can change or spinoff a third brand. The gold in TR has always been its algorithm. Maybe they can fake it. How easy will it be to circumvent via vpn? Will other English content on tt skyrocket? Eg uk and Canada.

I think it’s going to be a lesson to Americans about just how little their content actually matters to the other 96% of the world.

Some other countries banned tiktok too, e.g. India

How about WeChat, little red book, … in fact the mainland version of tt, …

If a US-based alternative appeared which not only substituted performatively, but also monetized creators and influencers enough to put everyone else to shame, people could not help but notice and migrate there in droves.

It would be pretty cool if there was a respectable capitalist with enough money, or if that won't do it then a bigger more-respectable political organization or something, and Tiktok would be nothing but a memory of how things used to be before they got better.

Think about it, a social force or financial pressure strong enough to reverse unfavorable trends, even after they have already gained momentum.

And all it takes is focusing that pressure in an unfamiliar direction that could probably best be described as "anti-enshittification".

I know, that's a tall ask, never mind . . .

Is TikTok big in Europe? Is Europe big on social media?

> This is going to be an interesting experiment:

Unclear. Biden and Trump both have stated that they will decline to enforce this law.

Until trump lets it sink, tgis is mwaninvless.

Cash bribes are how laws are define now. Is america avaluable audiemce?

First, I still don't think the ban will actually happen. The current administration will punt the issue to the next and Trump has already signaled he wants to save Tiktok, whatever that means. That might be by anointing a buyer that he personally is an investor in. Tiktok may choose to still shutter in the US rather than being forcibly sold.

But there's a biger issue than loss of American content should this come to pass: the loss os American ad revenue for the platform and creators. A lot of people create content aimed at Americans because an American audience is lucrative for ad revenue. If that goes away, what does that do to the financial viability of the platform?

Or Indian content. It will probably end up getting banned in a lot of places over time.

Instagram and Facebook is more popular outside the US and China than TikTok.

India also just banned TikTok, I wouldn't be surprised if bans became widespread outside of America with any country worried about China's geopolitical power.