Infamous social media app known around the world as TikTok, was expected to be banned in the United States. After speculation that the Chinese app, made by Zhang Yiming, was stealing America’s private data and information; the government made the tough decision to ban it.
TikTok was created as a spinoff of Musically, an app where users post videos of lip syncing, but these users could make short fifteen second videos instead. TikTok was created in 2016 by a Chinese platform called ByteDance, with the original purpose of users to create, share, and discover short-form videos. Unexpectedly, by the year of 2020 the number of users grew by 58.6 percent and surpassed 1 billion.
By the following year TikTok had still grown another 35.8 percent and rose to 1.41 billion users. It got so popular because of a new invention of a “For You Page”; using a specified algorithm the app could see what a viewer most interacted with, and specify the feed for them. This data was personal to each user, which made President Trump and the U.S government skeptical about the intentions of this app.
During his fourth term as president, in 2020, President Donald Trump proposed a ban on the app. He viewed it as a national security threat, and approved a deal in concept. Rumors of the app were spread by users, that TikTok would be bought, with optimistic hope that the app wouldn’t be banned. But, the U.S government quickly put an end to those ideas. Plans of the app eventually fell through because of issues due to limitations of freedom of speech.
In May of 2024, the parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, sued the U.S federal government. To challenge the law that forced the sale of ByteDance, or face the ban; as it was “Unconstitutional”. Fast forward to January of 2025, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a law that led to the ban of TikTok, the ban would take place on January 19, 2025. Users would still be allowed to keep the app, but it would no longer run regular updates, nor be available in the U.S app store.
TikTok went dark for America at 10 p.m.. on January 18, 2025, Americans were banned for 14 hours, and allowed back on at 11 a.m the following day. “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service.” Was the statement that TikTok released. According to The New York Times, “Only 32 percent of Americans favored the ban, down from 50 percent in March of 2023.”
Gracie Grashorn, a Sophomore at Eaton High School, said, “Now I don’t know what to do in my free time.” Regarding the ban on TikTok, “It makes me upset,” Grashorn (27) expressed. As do so many Americans, who might’ve deleted the app. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said to the press, “Most of the reasons the government banned it were based on accusations, not proof.”