The end of TikTok has begun. As the dust settles from a week of shockingly fast legislative action by the US Congress, it\u2019s clear that TikTok next year will look much different<\/a> from the TikTok we\u2019re using today.<\/p>\n When President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion dollar foreign aid package on Wednesday, it brought to life a nightmare that has haunted TikTok for more than four years. If TikTok\u2019s Chinese owner, ByteDance, refuses to divest its stakes in the company, the United States will ban the app nationwide. The signing started the clock, giving TikTok 270 days to find a new owner. (As The Washington Post\u2019s<\/em> Cristiano Lima-Strong<\/a> noted, TikTok\u2019s time will run out the day before Inauguration Day 2025.)<\/p>\n There are a few ways this could all shake out. An American company or private equity fund could buy TikTok and its powerful recommendation algorithm. Or, a buyer might have to accept just the bones of the platform without that algorithmic muscle<\/a>; The Information reported<\/a> on Thursday that ByteDance has already started gaming out what a sale without the algorithm would look like. Or, perhaps no buyer can be found and TikTok goes poof.<\/p>\n Unless TikTok or a horde of its users were to somehow win a lawsuit challenging the law signed this week\u2014a lawsuit the company has already said it plans to file\u2014all the potential outcomes lead to an app that is dramatically different.<\/p>\n If a US tech company were to, miraculously, buy out the app and algorithm from ByteDance, it\u2019ll likely integrate the app into its own products and services. But I doubt we\u2019ll ever see a \u201cTikTok by Meta.\u201d Meta and other tech giants have come under intense<\/a> antitrust<\/a> scrutiny<\/a> in recent years. If any company with a big social platform were to gobble up one of its top competitors, that would set off alarms at the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission.<\/p>\n Microsoft has suggested that it<\/a> has an interest in buying TikTok, and it might be one of the app\u2019s only viable choices for a buyer. Microsoft\u2019s biggest subsidiary otherwise is, well, LinkedIn\u2014and can we even call LinkedIn a TikTok rival with a straight face?<\/p>\n Separately, if, say, a private equity firm like Blackstone were to purchase TikTok without its much-envied<\/a> algorithm<\/a>, rebuilding the heart of the app could be difficult. A company without a deep bench of algorithmic wizards on hand likely wouldn\u2019t have the expertise to quickly reengineer a feed-based social media platform from scratch. If they tried, I doubt the results would be pretty.<\/p>\n And if there\u2019s no new owner? Well, I guess we\u2019re left with YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. TikTok\u2019s popularity in the US forced Google and Meta to invest in vertical video, but those platforms mostly cater to the younger \u201cSkibidi Toilet\u201d generation<\/a>. They wouldn\u2019t easily fill a TikTok-shaped gap on the US internet.<\/p>\n Still, the law passed this week may not stand for much longer. In a statement calling it unconstitutional, TikTok seemed confident that the law could be overturned. \u201cWe believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail,\u201d a TikTok spokesperson said on Wednesday. The company used a similar argument last year to win an injunction blocking a ban passed in Montana.<\/p>\n Regardless of how this lawsuit plays out, TikTok will be different. The question is just what kind of \u201cdifferent\u201d that will be.<\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/5de5558cb4ac1c00080cd4fb\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/Divider_Look%2520Back.jpg\")