Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re looking at the impacts of the looming TikTok ban in the U.S., including the “TikTok refugees” moving to

More good news for those looking to exit Meta's social app ecosystem in favor of a more open alternative: An independent developer is building a

Thankfully, despite the fickle nature of most app users, Bluesky seems to have managed to break through and become a really promising alternative. And thanks to the fundamental nature of its open protocol, anyone can build their own apps that piggyback off the Bluesky social graph.

Well, it officially happened. At around 10:45 p.m. ET on Saturday night, TikTok officially halted operations in the United States prior to a law banning

Time is running out for TikTok to avoid being pushed out of the US — and millions of creators are trying to figure out what’s next.

Since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and turned it into X, the biggest beneficiary of the ensuing exodus of mostly left-leaning users has been Meta. Its rival offering, Threads, has attracted some 300 million users, far outpacing alternatives such as Bluesky and Mastodon.

Considering that budget is also a concern, one way to lower risk is to partner with micro-influencers, including those on local and regional levels. And don’t forget about your own team. Employee brand ambassadors can bring a level of authenticity to your brand persona that speaks to potential customers on both the B2C and B2B sides.

In April, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to a U.S. company or shut down operations in the United States by Sunday, Jan. 19 — arguing that the app poses a risk to national security.

The TikTok ban is just days away unless the Supreme Court or new legislation stops it. Here's where users are going.

It doesn’t feel like a mistake that one of the last songs to go viral on the American side of TikTok was Bad Bunny’s “DtMF,” a nostalgic ode to Puerto Rico. In response, TikTokkers have been posting photos of their families, along with the saddest lyrics from the song, sometimes translated: “I should have taken more photos when I had you.”

TikTok has until Jan. 19 to divest from its China-based parent company, one day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.