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TikTok is a social media platform allowing users to create content, sell merchandise, connect with friends and so much more. Over the last decade this platform has taken the world by storm. 

TikTok was originally launched only in China by the Chinese Tech company ByteDance, who then bought the American company Musical.ly in 2017, for $800 million. Then ByteDance merged all users and contents to TikTok. It has made a significant amount of technical updates over the years from length of videos to all of the different things the platform has to offer. Short, funny videos gained popularity around 2013 thanks to Vine, which turned people to Musical.ly and then ultimately to TikTok. 

The platform has so much popularity due to the success of their algorithm, which is the way the app decides what videos to show you and when. Based on what videos you like and what creators you follow, it filters the videos that it thinks you will like best, also known as the For You Page (FYP). 

People of all ages are TikTok users from age 5 to 105. TikTok has content that appeals to all different kinds of users whether you are a student who needs a studying hack, someone looking for new recipe or someone who just wants to hear some news for the day.     

Currently TikTok has around two billion users, 170 million of those users being from the U.S. 

In 2020, there was talk that TikTok was going to be “banned” in the U.S. This was a rumor because at the time President Donald Trump and other government officials were made aware of how ByteDance can access the personal data of TikTok’s users and they found that to be a threat to the people of the U.S. 

Trump wanted the app banned, unless it was bought by a U.S. company, but Byte Dance would not give it up. With Trump being out of office in 2021, there was still chatter about the ban, but nothing significant ever came of it because it was not one of Joe Biden’s concerns. 

On January 19, 2025 TikTok was unavailable for all users in the U.S. The platform released a number of messages to users trying to keep them in the loop about the situation. Before it was unavailable a message popped up with an important message saying, “We regret to inform you that a U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable. We’re looking to restore our services in the U.S. as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support. Please stay tuned.”

When the app was officially banned another message said. 

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!” 

The message would disappear and the app would automatically close. 

In 2020, when TikTok was first on the chopping block it was by Donald Trump himself because he saw it as a government security threat, during his 2024 reelection campaign he told voters he intended on working to keep it available in the U.S.

Around 12 hours after the original ban was put into place, TikTok was back just the same as when it left but, with a new message, 

“Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.! You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.” 

Even though the app was only unavailable for 12 hours, for some individuals it felt like forever. Ella Hutchinson is a sophomore at Grand View University, who admits she is dependent on TikTok. 

“I was kind of panicked because I spend so much time on TikTok, but then I kind of thought, maybe this could be a good thing, because I do spend so much time on TikTok. But I definitely kept opening the app, like multiple times I caught myself and then being like, oh, well, I can’t see anything,” Hutchinson said. 

When Hutchinson found out that TikTok was going to be banned she had some passionate thoughts. 

“I was so upset, I was so mad. I was like this is ridiculous,” Hutchinson said. 

She was not fully convinced that something of this nature could even happen in this country. 

“I felt at first because they’ve been talking about banning it forever, but then when it got closer to time and more and more people were freaking out, I was like, ‘okay, this could be a possibility,’” Hutchinson said. “I feel like the reason why they said it was being banned was because it was like a museum of information or whatever, that is just false. They just didn’t like what people were saying about the U.S. government on the app. And so I feel like when it was first talked about banning it, it was because Trump didn’t like how he was being viewed on the app.”

“After they brought it back, I think it was because he talked about wanting to keep it around because this time around the election polls were very different from the 2020 election. I think it favored him this time around, so that is why he was more in favor of it,” she Hutchinson said. 

Hutchinson’s biggest takeaway from the situation is as follows, “I think it is ridiculous that in the United States that an app can be banned,” she said.

TikTok being banned, even for a short number of hours, shook many U.S. residents all over the country.   

Looking bigger picture, what does this mean for the future of social media? The future of foreign social media platforms like TikTok and Capcut are unclear and this speaks volumes as to what the goals of our federal government are.