On Jan 19., the short form video app TikTok was set to be banned in America, but the ban was short-lived.
From when the app was created in 2017 to now, it has caused a lot of people including the United States government to be concerned with how the app is run and whether or not it is a national data security concern.
According to NPR,”TikTok’s parent company is based in China, and there are fears that it could harvest data about its U.S. users and provide it to the Chinese government or that TikTok’s videos and algorithm could be programmed by the Chinese Communist Party to influence Americans’ political and cultural views”.
Because of these national data concerns, on April 24 of last year, former president Joe Biden signed a new legislation requiring the sale of TikTok and any other ByteDance owned apps to an American company within the year. If this didn’t happen, the apps would be banned from the American app stores and would be non-accessible to the Chinese owners to update or change the app.
ByteDance’s owner, Zhang Yiming, and CEO, Shou Chew, claimed the ban was unconstitutional and would violate the American users First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of the press.
According to American Civil Liberty Union, ByteDance challenged the ruling in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals in early May 2024. The company argued that in addition to violating the First Amendment rights, the ban also violated the app’s Fifth Amendment right to protection. ByteDanced claimed that by singling out the platform in the legislation, the ban took away the protection for the app.
Removing the app would lay off many creators and take a large communication tool for the United States. TikTok has been around for so long that a lot of people depend on it to make their money and get their information.
CBS News reports, “Many of TikTok’s 170 million monthly active U.S. users rely on the app to generate secondary and even primary income streams” and, “That includes 7 million small businesses that use the platform to drive growth”. The small businesses use the app to generate sales and drive their business growth and without the app, they would struggle.
Over the 2024 summer, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris used the app to promote their campaigns and values.
After the summer was over President Donald Trump stated to The New York Times, “I’m now a big star on TikTok…we’re not doing anything with TikTok but the other side’s going to close it up. So if you like TikTok go out and vote for Trump.”
Then in early December of 2024, there was a unanimous vote by the federal appeals court to uphold the law that would lead to the ban of ByteDance apps, mainly TikTok.
Later that month, Trump asked the Supreme Court to wait for the ban until he took office on Jan. 21;. however, the courts shut him down and upheld the ban for Jan. 19 unless it was sold to an American owner.
On Jan. 18, the time ran up for the sale of TikTok and the app was shut down that night, preventing any American users from using the app and preventing anyone from downloading the app from the App Store.
Where most users expected a long term ban, in reality, the app was only down for a number of hours. Upon return, users found a popup message on their screens.
“Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support,” the message read. “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.! You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.”
Although users welcomed the return of the app, it is reported that the return may only be temporary as President Trump has enacted a 75-day extension.
“The extension ends on April 5,” USA Today stated, “75 days from when Trump enacted it on Jan. 20.”
According to TikTok users, people that deleted the app during the ban aren’t able to redownload it and some say the app’s algorithm has changed since users have returned.
