It's official, TikTok is likely going to be banned in the United States. I don't think it is going to banned forever, but I do think it will at least be banned for a few weeks, kind of like how Twitter was banned in Brazil.
Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, was given the option to sell TikTok to an American company to not get the app banned. However, Bytedance has refused, as they don't want to give up their technology. However, losing the American users would be a huge blow to the platform.
Bytedance has another social networking service, titled Lemon8, and this is how people think that Bytedance will get around the US TikTok ban. Lemon8 is a lifestyle based application. Basically, it's a knockoff of Pinterest and Instagram. There is nothing special about it.
People are starting to speculate that Bytedance will use this app to get around the ban due to the fact the app announced its now "Powered by TikTok". Currently, all this means is that it copies your TikTok username, and a link to your profile on Lemon8 is automatically added to your TikTok profile. Your TikTok followers are synced to Lemon8, and you can search Lemon8 posts on TikTok. But that's about all.
However, people are starting to think that Bytedance will add a proper "For You" video page to the app, which will be integrated with TikTok. If they do this, they don't have much time, as the ban is about a month away as of writing. Not only that, but they would also have to move all the data, and recreate all of TikTok's other features. It would be musical.ly all over again. And even if they did pull this off, why wouldn't the government just ban this app too?
Anyways, if somehow this "plan" worked, I really hope they change the branding of the platform. Lemon8 is a stupid name, and I don't think that anybody wants to call a major social network that. And although using bright, highlighter yellow as a brand color is... unique, I don't think most people will enjoy it, especially users with low vision. Judging with how the Twitter rebrand is going, I bet most people will continue to refer to it as "TikTok", or maybe just call it "8".
They thought they Lemon Ate with this one.