Last Saturday evening, TikTok went offline in the United States following an announcement on the platform two hours earlier stating that the app had been banned. The app was inaccessible to the estimated 170 million Americans who use the social media platform.
The move is part of a broader timeline of political decisions aimed at banning the app. For years, national security concerns have been raised in the Senate regarding TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance, a Chinese-based technology company. Legislation enacted by the Senate gave TikTok until Jan. 19 to sell the app to an American-based company or face a ban in the U.S.
Timeline Leading to the Ban
March-April 2024: The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a bill banning TikTok, is signed by President Joe Biden.
Jan. 17, 2025: The Supreme Court rules the law constitutional as part of TikTok v. Garland.
Jan. 18, 2025: TikTok blocks American users from viewing content, displaying the message, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.” The Apple App Store and Google Play Store remove the app.
Jan. 19, 2025: TikTok resumes service for those who already have the app installed, posting the message, “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
Jan. 20, 2025: President Donald Trump signs an executive order to delay the ban for 75 days.
After the executive order was signed, Americans backtracked to understand how they got there.
During his first presidency, Trump signed two executive orders in 2020 aimed at banning TikTok. However, this past Monday, shortly after his inauguration, he signed an executive order to pause the current ban.
Onur Bakiner, an associate professor of political science and head of Seattle University’s Technology Ethics Initiative, explained the strategic use of the term “President Trump” in TikTok’s message to users when the app went offline Jan. 18—two days before the inauguration.
Bakiner said the phrasing appeared to be a calculated move by TikTok to win favor with Trump.
“TikTok was supposed to go down and stay down in the United States as of Jan. 19. Encouraged by Trump’s promise of an executive order to extend the grace period, they went back online even before the inauguration,” Bakiner noted.
Currently, TikTok remains unavailable for download on Apple’s App Store and Google Play, as both companies have complied with the order to remove the app. Bakiner clarified that Trump’s executive order grants TikTok more time to secure a sale and provides users with additional time to say their goodbyes.
“Trump’s executive order instructs the attorney general ‘not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days.’ So, it is a delay in the implementation of the law, rather than overriding it. It seems like the executive order is designed to force ByteDance to sell TikTok to an entity outside of China,” Bakiner said.
Bakiner states that the future of the app in America remains uncertain.
“ByteDance may decide to forgo the American market to maintain ownership of TikTok or sell the platform to an American company. A third option would be Trump extending the delay of implementation with recurring executive orders. Honestly, nobody knows what is next,” Bakiner said.
Caitlin Carlson, chair of Seattle U’s communication and media department, weighed in on the implications of TikTok’s ban.
“It’s ironic to me that we’re having this bill come out and address national security issues around data privacy when we have no national-level data privacy law as they do in Europe and a lot of other places,” Carlson said.
She also addressed the disruption the ban has caused for communities built on the platform.
“I think in the short term it is a real blow to people, and there has been a lot of positive organizing and information sharing and news gathering that has happened on that platform that may not be accessible. But I am also very confident that alternatives will emerge,” Carlson said.
Another group significantly affected by the ban is social media content creators like Emily Berrol, a Seattle U alumna with a TikTok following of 22,000.
“The potential ban affected me quite a lot. I do TikTok content creation for myself, but then I also do social media management for work. Having the TikTok ban go into effect was a big deal. I was in denial about it at first; I didn’t think the ban was going to go through,” Berrol said.“I wasn’t certain that the ban was gonna last for long. A lot of creators were making goodbye videos and saying goodbye to the platform.”
Berrol explained that her reliance on TikTok extends beyond personal use, as she uses it for professional purposes as well.
Although TikTok’s operations in the U.S. have been extended, American users and content creators alike must wait to see what lies ahead for the platform.
