The app became inaccessible to those in the U.S. for a short time Saturday evening into Sunday morning ahead of the inaguration.
The app became inaccessible to those in the U.S. for a short time Saturday evening into Sunday morning ahead of the inaguration.
TikTok, the social media platform synonymous with short-form video content, was briefly inaccessible to its millions of American users Saturday night and Sunday morning after the app’s parent company, ByteDance, said a lack of clarity surrounding the app’s long-debated U.S. ban forced it to cut service.
TikTok was made available again Jan. 19 after being offline for around 14 hours. Users were greeted with a message stating the app was able to restore service after President Donald Trump, soon to be inaugurated, said he would take action to delay the ban from taking effect.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump wrote Jan. 19 on Truth Social, the social media site he owns. “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped TikTok from going dark before my order.”
Trump issued the promised executive order Monday evening after being officially sworn in as president earlier in the day. The order gives ByteDance 75 additional days to find a buyer for the app, The Associated Press reported. It instructs the Department of Justice not to enforce the law until the new administration can “determine the appropriate course forward.”
Second-year computer science major Julian Gonzalez said he was on the app when the stoppage first occurred.
“I was actually scrolling and I was like, ‘Oh it’s banned, it’s gone,’” Gonzalez said. “‘What am I gonna do in the middle of the night?’”
Gonzalez said in the short time the app was unavailable, he pivoted to using YouTube Shorts. Meanwhile, Sarah Martinez, a first-year who hasn’t declared a major, said she used a VPN to get around the ban.
“Why they banned it is dumb because other apps use your information as well, I don’t get why TikTok is so important,” Martinez said.
Eddie Bitew, a first-year finance major, said while TikTok was down he continued to open the app out of habit and went back to using it almost as soon as service returned. He said he also uses other similar platforms such as Instagram Reels, but he thinks TikTok is more entertaining.
“I would have a big change and a chunk of my time would be available, because from the moment I wake up to the moment I sleep I’m on TikTok a lot,” Bitew said.
Trump has said he’d like to see the U.S. government broker a deal where an American company would assume a 50% ownership stake in a joint venture either with ByteDance or unspecified new owners.
Fourth-year Frank Lang, who has never used the app and said he was ambivalent to the potential ban, said he felt Trump was being opportunistic and trying to take advantage of the situation.
“He gave it 70 days to figure out what’s going to happen, but if someone was going to buy it and make it an American company they would’ve already done it,” Lang, a marketing major, said. “So he’s just trying to get support among Gen Z or whatever, and when the 70 days are up, it will go away again.”
It’s unclear whether Trump can use his presidential authority to override the enforcement of an act of Congress, and it’s possible his actions could face legal challenges, The AP reported. As of publication, TikTok remains accessible for U.S. users but isn’t available for download on major mobile marketplaces.
ByteDance hasn’t yet moved to sell the app to a U.S. company, as called for by the bipartisan ban. The company has previously stated it has no intentions to sell the app and would rather it become unavailable as it views the attached algorithm technology too valuable to sell, The AP reported. At time of publication, it’s unclear whether Trump’s intervention will change the dynamics at play and prompt ByteDance to reconsider a sale.
In an official statement Jan. 19, a ByteDance spokesperson said the company will work with Trump on “a long-term solution” to keep TikTok available in the U.S.
Trump’s actions received pushback from Republican lawmakers, including Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, who contradicted the president by saying companies who violate the ban’s conditions would still be punished. The disagreement could pose a potential rift between the new president and congressional allies who remain committed to the ban, which passed the Senate 73-19, The AP reported.
“Any company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from the DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs,” Cotton wrote in a Jan. 19 X post. “Think about it.”
The cut in service followed a unanimous decision Jan. 17 by the Supreme Court to uphold the terms of the ban, rejecting ByteDance’s contention the ban violates free speech protections. ByteDance went ahead with the stoppage, citing a lack of clarity from the Biden administration, despite Biden officials saying they wouldn’t enforce the ban on the administration’s final day in power, The AP reported.
The company’s decision to go dark and subsequently credit Trump for the app’s return gave the new president the trappings of an early victory, specifically with young people who make up the majority of TikTok users.
Bitew said he didn’t give Trump credit for preventing the ban.
“I do give him credit for taking it away,” Bitew said. “I feel like he took it away and brought it back to be seen like a hero among the younger generation and those who use TikTok.”
A Trump Flip Flop
TikTok was originally released in the U.S. in 2018 after ByteDance merged their existing product with the app Musical.ly. The U.S. launched its first investigation into the app in November 2019 after fears arose surrounding national security and censorship of anti-Chinese sentiment, The AP reported.
It was Trump in 2019 who heightened the profile of national security concerns relating to TikTok, raising the debate to national headlines.
In December 2019 the Department of Defense recommended all U.S. military personnel remove the app from their phones, and in January 2020 the Pentagon outright banned the app from all official military devices.
In August 2020, due to concerns over Chinese influence, Trump issued an executive order banning American companies from doing business with ByteDance or any of its subsidiaries. Days later, he issued another executive order which demanded ByteDance divest from TikTok’s U.S. operations within 90 days.
Despite interest from Microsoft, Oracle and Walmart, a deal never materialized, and upon his inauguration in 2021 President Biden postponed Trump’s efforts to ban the app, The AP reported.
The conversation surrounding the app reignited in December 2022 after then FBI Director Christopher Wray publicly raised concerns the Chinese government could control the app’s algorithm to manipulate content. He also asserted China could collect data on U.S. users that could be used for espionage activity.
The Biden White House ordered the app be deleted from all government-issued devices within 30 days in February 2023.
After months of debate, Congress officially passed the bill in April, forcing ByteDance to divest or face a U.S. ban, The AP reported. Biden signed the bill into law a few days later.
Meanwhile, while leading his third campaign for the Oval Office, Trump began to change his tune on the app he previously sought to see banned. During the campaign, Trump embraced TikTok as a means of connecting with younger voters.
After winning the election, Trump told reporters in December he had “a warm spot” in his heart for TikTok and went on to credit the app for some of his gains with young Americans.
After signing the executive order which extends ByteDance’s timeframe for finding a buyer Monday evening, Trump was asked by reporters why he’d changed his mind about the app.
“Because I got to use it,” he said.
An Uncertain Future
As Trump’s focus shifts to other areas of his agenda, including immigration restrictions and rolling back Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, TikTok’s users have been free to keep scrolling their For You pages.
As it stands, TikTok could still face a ban in the U.S. if a sale isn’t lined up after the 75-day extension runs out. Second-year Ian Epstein said he thought another short-form video platform would quickly take TikTok’s place if this came to pass.
“This form of short-form content has already made its way in — every major social media platform already has a short-form content section,” Epstein, a multimedia journalism major, said. “I don’t think it’s gonna make a major impact, but I think a lot of people will miss TikTok’s formula and setup.”
Some users and activists have continued to advocate against a ban on free speech grounds. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the American Civil Liberties Union, a legal advocacy organization which seeks to protect free speech and other political rights, slammed the court and called its decision a major blow to online expression.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling is incredibly disappointing, allowing the government to shut down an entire platform and the free speech rights of so many based on fear-mongering and speculation,” Patrick Toomey, deputy director of ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a written statement.
Gonzalez said he felt the ban is partially an issue of free speech.
“I feel that the way they are going about this, especially with the recent announcement that Facebook is getting rid of fact-checking, they are trying to censor at least some speech, whether its critiques, or judgements, or slander whatever is yet to be seen,” he said. “But I do believe they are at least trying to silence part of it.”
Epstein agreed, saying he felt the government’s actions infringe on free speech. He said he would support the reasoning if TikTok did pose a national security threat, but he said he doesn’t feel there is ample evidence to back the U.S. claims.
“There’s other platforms, but TikTok is one of the biggest, at least at the moment, and lots of people use it to share their thoughts or do funny stuff on it,” he said. “So I think it would be a shame if it was to be banned for frankly not any good reasons.”
Lang disagreed and said he didn’t think the ban violates free speech.
“There’s so many other platforms you can use, I think there is no argument because it’s not restricting your right to make content, it’s just restricting a platform,” Lang said. “I just think it’s funny. All those people who spend their lives on it think it’s the end of the world, and it really isn’t.”
Epstein said he hopes to see a resolution that benefits everyone, including continued access for U.S. users, but he said he believes the app will most likely be banned.
“I don’t think it’s as big of a deal as a bunch of people make it out to be, but you know we’ll move on,” he said. “We’ll be alright in a couple months when it’s all said and done, but we’ll miss it for sure.”
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