News
TikTok Ban in the United States
Sahar Ali
Image Provided by Sahar Ali
JANUARY 2025 – On the evening of January 18th, users of the popular social media platform, TikTok, received a pop-up message that read “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” further adding that a U.S. law banned the app, yet President Trump was working on a solution to bring the app back to users. Many users of the app, including myself, were beyond upset; the app so many loved and relied on the most was gone. But why did this happen?
U.S. lawmakers feared that TikTok threatened national security with its tie to China through ByteDance, the app’s parent company. According to The American University (AU), lawmakers were worried that ByteDance would share American user data or manipulate TikTok’s algorithm and release misinformation or propaganda against the United States; therefore, the app created fear amongst individuals, and many believe that it could be used as a tool for espionage. During TikTok’s hearing in front of the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar claimed that the app gathered “unprecedented amounts” of user data that can be used by China against the United States (CBS News). However, there is no noticeable evidence that TikTok shares users’ data with the Chinese government (AU). According to CBS News, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky claimed, “Most of the reasons the government banned [TikTok] were based on accusations, not proof . . . [TikTok has] never been tried and found guilty of sharing information with the communist government.”
As a result of these allegations, TikTok launched “Project Texas,” an initiative used to protect American user data. According to NPR, the social media platform spent $2 billion dollars to enforce the agreement which essentially “[walled] off any potential influence by Beijing by placing Austin-based Oracle as a supervisor of sorts over the data exchanged between ByteDance and TikTok.”
TikTok had its appearance in the United States Supreme Court and was represented by lawyer Noel Francisco who “did not deny the potential national security risks,” instead claimed “I’m disputing the means that they have chosen” (CBS News). During the hearing, Justice Brett Kavanaugh claimed that Congress, along with the President, were worried about China’s access to millions of American teenagers’ and adults’ information who were on the app that could be used to develop Chinese spies and blackmail hundreds of people (CBS News). In early January, TikTok argued that the Supreme Court’s law to ban the app in the United States “[represented] an unprecedented suppression of free speech” (NPR). However, the Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision that “divestiture is necessary” in an effort to dissolve American lawmakers’ fears regarding what China can do with the information of users (NPR). The Supreme Court also found that Congress’s law was not unconstitutional.
From 2017 until 2021, during his first term as President, Donald Trump aimed to get TikTok banned in the United States; now in his second term, Trump affirmed to keep the popular social media platform in the United States, which is apparent by the message TikTok displayed for American users when the app shut down that Saturday night. But TikTok’s ban was extremely short-lived. The following day, Sunday, January 19th, American users of TikTok were surprised to see that the app was no longer dark and was functioning as it regularly did less than 24 hours after the ban. Similarly to how a pop-up message appeared when TikTok was no longer available, the app presented a new pop-up that read “Welcome Back!” and thanked users for their patience. The message further claimed, “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” The social media platform’s revival was due to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump (Forbes). This executive order according to CNN Business would extend the ban by 75 days in hopes to get TikTok sold to an American owner.
The future of TikTok remains rocky even after its revitalization in the United States just a day after it was inaccessible to users. Fortunately, the app did not stop working on April 5th, the deadline for the ban’s extension, but the search for an American owner continues for TikTok.
SOURCES:
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/18/nx-s1-5266146/tiktok-offline-supreme-court-ban
https://www.american.edu/sis/news/20250123-national-security-and-the-tik-tok-ban.cfm
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-is-tiktok-being-banned-supreme-court-congress/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/01/tech/tiktok-ban-deadline-trump-what-to-expect