TikTok is a beloved social media platform used by many. It is for creating, sharing, and discovering short videos. The app is used as a creative outlet for people to express themselves, which is why you can find a wide range of videos. Ranging from artwork being shared to people dancing to the latest hits to tasty recipes posted to jokes that will knock your socks off, TikTok has it all. However, the platform will soon disappear for American users as the TikTok ban approaches.
What is the Tik Tok ban?
In April 2024, President Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) which grants the government the authority to ban foreign-owned apps that it deems a threat to national security.
The bill was passed with the majority of bipartisan support, as many lawmakers worry that the Chinese government could use the platform to access American data, surveil Americans, spread misinformation, and sway public opinion. The law also makes it illegal for such entities to distribute, maintain, and update a foreign adversary-controlled application through marketplace or internet hosting services.
This means that on January 19, 2025, TitTok will be shut down on American users phones. The app won’t automatically disappear from people’s devices but rather it will get harder for the platform’s American users to get access to the app. TikTok officials predict that when U.S users try to open the app, a prompt will show up indicating that the service is no longer available in the country. This is what happens when someone tries to launch TikTok in India, which banned the app five years ago in 2020.
While the law focuses on TikTok, it also affects U.S. companies, such as app stores like Apple’s App Store and Google Play, and cloud service providers like Oracle, since the companies make TikTok accessible in the U.S.
Timeline
Prior to the ban, TikTok has faced many conservancies since its rise to popularity.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company created in 2012. In 2016, they launched Douyin, a video-sharing app for Chinese users. The popularity of it then prompts the company to create a spin-off version for foreign audiences called TikTok. A year later, in 2017, ByteDance acquired Musical.ly for $1 billion. Musical.ly was launched in 2014 and, similar to TikTok, was used to post short videos lip-syncing to music. Months after purchase, ByteDance merges it with TikTok.
TikTok’s conservancies would start two years later in 2019 when the app became a sensation after Rapper Lil Nas X released the country-rap song “Old Town Road” on TikTok, where it went viral. In a record of 17 weeks, the song would reach #1 on Billboard Hot 100 charts. Consequently, the song would bring in many users, including musical artists who now see TikTok as a critical way to reach fans. That same year TikTok settled federal charges of violating U.S. child privacy laws and agreed to pay a $5.7 million fine.
Months later the Washington Post reported that images of Hong Kong democracy protests and police crackdowns are popular on social media sites but are absent on TikTok while posts with the #Trump2020 tag received more than 70 million views. The Guardian also reports on internal documents that allegedly detail how TikTok instructs moderators to delete or limit the reach of “videos touching on topics sensitive to China.” TikTok would then release a statement insisting that the platform is for entertainment, not politics. With events like these unfolding, U.S. politicians began to become concerned about TikTok’s influence. Federal investigations of its Musical.ly acquisition and national security begin.
In 2020 the Pentagon bans U.S. military personnel from having the app on all devices, including government-issued ones. Privacy groups also filed complaints alleging TikTok is still violating U.S. child-protection laws despite the 2019 settlement. Meanwhile, then President Donald Trump says he is considering banning TikTok as retaliation for China’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. This prompts him to release a series of executive orders banning American companies from “transaction” with ByteDance and demanding that ByteDance remove itself from TikTok’s U.S operations within 90 days. As a response, TikTok sues the Trump administration for alleged violation of due process in his executive orders. Joe Biden is then elected president yet doesn’t offer a new policy on TikTok. Nonetheless, Trump’s plans start to unravel anyway. The Trump administration extended the deadlines it had imposed and eventually let them slide altogether. In 2021, after Biden takes office, he postpones the legal cases involving Trump’s plan to ban TikTok, bringing them to a halt.
Fast forward to 2022, BuzzFeed reports that China-based ByteDance employees have repeatedly accessed the nonpublic information of TikTok users based on leaked recordings from more than 80 internal TikTok meetings. TikTok then releases a statement that remains adamant on its commitment to security but does not directly address BuzzFeed or the report. And after enough pressure, it also announced that it has migrated its user data to U.S. servers managed by the U.S. tech firm Oracle. After becoming a “trusted technology partner,” Oracle began vetting TikTok’s algorithms and content moderation models to ensure they aren’t being manipulated by Chinese authorities yet U.S. officials are concerned about the risk of Chinese authorities accessing the data. As a result, Oracle enacted Project Texas. The $1.5 billion plan was aimed at ensuring Americans that TikTok is safe, their data is secure, and the platform is free of external influences. That same year, ByteDance claimed to fire four employees who accessed data on journalists from Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while attempting to track down leaks of confidential materials about the company.
In 2023, President Biden made a move against where the Biden administration sought to regulate TikTok and eventually ban it altogether. TikTok CEO would then appear in front of legislators at a six-hour congressional hearing, during which Chew attempted to defend the company. The CEO would repeatedly downplay the app’s connections to China, referencing being a native to Singapore. Still, the House committee came out in support of a full ban of the app in the U.S. with several Republican-led states signing legislation banning TikTok but a federal Judge would then block it before it took effect. The House of Representatives passed the TikTok bill which would then land on President Biden’s desk, bringing us back to current events.
Current Events
After the bill was passed, events began unfolding fast starting with TikTok and ByteDance suing the U.S. federal government to challenge the bill, arguing that it was unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment right of free speech. Another lawsuit would then be made. The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice filed a joint lawsuit against TikTok, alleging that the app violates privacy laws and threats to national security. At the end of 2024, the debate on the law went to the Supreme Court. The Judges ruled that the TikTok law is constitutional.
Conclusion
As of right now, it looks like TikTok’s fate in the U.S. is sealed as it is set to be banned on January 19, 2025, after years-long battles. However, much new information is continuing to arise. This includes Senator Ed Markey, a supporter of TikTok, asking Congress to extend the TikTok ban deadline by 270 days. It is also important to note that TikTok users are switching to an app called Rednote. Rednote is a Chinese app that is a mix of Pinterest and Instagram. It is currently the most downloaded app by Americans. Others plan to use VPNs to say they are in a different country to access TikTok. With events like these occurring, it’s hard to tell if the decision to ban TikTok will be swayed or not.
