“Not even the most illegal thing he’s done”: James Charles' attempt to circumvent TikTok ban gets laughed off

James Charles’ latest move is giving you thought you ate energy. The beauty guru recently pulled a stunt that had the internet buzzing. On January 19, 2025, after the U.S. government decided to meet TikTok into oblivion, Charles popped up with a video from a burner TikTok account acting like a digital Houdini.

While most of us were mourning the loss of our endless scroll, James claimed to have found his way back online. But the internet wasn’t having it.

An X user hilariously noted: “Not even the most illegal thing he’s done.”

Another user took a jab: “doing anything to stay relevant and failing miserably.”

A user stated: “Why he acting like he was held hostage for months and finally got a phone 😭”

A comment read: “The last person id want to stay from TikTok, JUST GO.”

Meanwhile, a user highlighted: “Now why he under the sheets 💀”

A user speculated: “Girl he just sent the video to someone who isn’t in the US to post… use ur brain.”

A user declared: “can we leave this guy in 2018 PLEASE.”

A comment read: “James Charles please be quiet.”

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James Charles TikTok video

The makeup artist decided to go stealth mode, uploading a video from a fresh burner TikTok account, user748392822494, which had already racked up over 500,000 followers. Draped under white covers like a secret agent, James whispered to his audience:

“Hello, rest of the world. It’s James. I don’t know if you guys can hear me or see me or if this is even going to work. I think I may have found a loophole — the rest of America is banned.”

He continued -

“Things are not good over here and I have to make this quick before they get me. They told us the app was getting banned at midnight, but, surprise, they took from us two and a half hours early.”

“We were all just literally scrolling and doing our last couple of moments on the app when we get a f**king pop up on the app saying, 'Sorry, TikTok is closed'.

Hopefully, Donald Trump will bring it back.’ What? Land of the free home of the brave. I don’t f**king think so, but this is crazy.

“We are all crashing out. I don’t know what the f**k to do. I’ve opened and closed this app literally 50 times already just from muscle memory alone. You guys, please take good care of it while we’re gone. I don’t know if we’re ever coming back.”

Charles' TikTok rant did not stop at this video. In another video that has gone viral on Instagram, he can be heard saying:

"Oh my god, I've already opened and closed the app probably six times already just to keep getting the same stupid warning message. This is so dystopian."

James can be seen low-key spiraling because it’s "pathetic" to freak out over an app disappearing from their phone. But also, it’s TikTok we’re talking about.

As per James, it has been a whole vibe for the past six years. Normally, if something’s going down, they’d hop on TikTok and start venting in the most dramatic way possible.

"I feel, like, disconnected. I feel cut off from the world and my community."

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TikTok ban in the U.S.

TikTok was this close to being a ghost town in the U.S. In an almost full-on meltdown, your For You Page was just… empty.

But then, President-elect Donald Trump swooped in with an unexpected plot twist, and TikTok’s fate was not sealed. The app was back up and running after just 14 hours.

Trump gave ByteDance a 90-day extension to sort out their business. No, seriously. A whole 90 days to get their divestiture game on point.

And what about the other ByteDance apps? Well, they weren’t spared from the ban hammer either. Apps like Lemon8 and CapCut also got the boot.