On the evening of Jan. 18, TikTok’s American ban went into effect.
Of course, mass panic ensued when the app shut down and all the phone addicts of the nation rushed to other social media platforms to share their thoughts. The platform went dark for a total of fourteen hours before coming back—though not without a message thanking President Donald Trump: “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
I was shocked.
Before the TikTok ban was enforced, I was under the impression that it was because of Trump, and what he had pushed for during his first term. In 2020, Trump released an executive order that aimed to get rid of all applications (with a specific focus on TikTok) owned by the People’s Republic of China in the U.S. because they “threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States” and “allow the Chinese Communist Party access to American’s personal and proprietary information.”
So, what changed?
One of Trump’s big reasons for restoring the app on the American market is because “Americans deserve to see our exciting inauguration” that took place Jan. 20. Translation: He wanted TikTok for his own political gain, which is exactly the reason he wanted to remove the app in the first place. It seems a bit hypocritical to me, especially because of the number of young voters on the app.
However, the debate around individual privacy and national security has been around pretty much since TikTok (formerly musical.ly) was first acquired by Chinese company ByteDance in 2016. Trump’s push for banning it, which was blocked by a court injunction, only piqued interest.
In 2022, TikTok implemented Project Texas, which was a way for the app to store user data on U.S. grounds. However, the $1.5 billion investment took too long to pay off and eventually became stillborn.
In April of 2024, the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act was passed by former President Joe Biden and Congress, which forced TikTok to either cut ties with ByteDance within the year or lose its U.S. markets. This led to a lawsuit brought by the social media companies against the U.S. on the grounds the ban was “unconstitutional.” The U.S. responded with their own lawsuit, alleging “violations of the Children’s online Privacy Protection Act.” In December, a federal judge upheld the sell-or-ban law, which brought the case in front of the Supreme Court.
Before his inauguration, Trump petitioned the Court to hold off on the ban so he could resolve it “by political means” when he got into office. On Jan. 10, the Supreme Court heard the case before upholding the ruling, enacting the ban, on Jan. 17.
While the sell-or-ban law was put into place to protect American citizen privacy from TikTok’s political affiliation with the Chinese government, many users were upset by this seeming violation of constitutionally protected First Amendment rights. The ban, many argue, truly felt like a restriction of speech.
However, this isn’t just a critical hit on American freedom of speech—it’s propaganda.
Trump’s efforts to reinstate the app were very public ahead of his return to the presidency. With the quick resolution to the ban’s removal, the entire situation feels planned so that Trump comes out looking like a hero—even the CEO of TikTok attended his inauguration. But, is this not the man who pushed for TikTok’s removal in the U.S. four years ago? What could possibly have made him change his mind? The answer is the election.
It’s no secret that TikTok played a pivotal role in the election. KamalaHQ used British singer CharliXCX’s “Brat” album to promote Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid, and Trump’s campaign was also largely active through the app’s services. His campaign drew in about a million followers and over 22 million likes in the course of three months. Now that TikTok has helped him sway an audience, he’s all for its facilities.
By removing the app, however briefly (though long enough to make me panic), Trump made Americans realize how dependent they were on their doom-scrolling time. By bringing TikTok back and thanking himself no less, it feels like a publicity stunt, like we’re supposed to accept him for supporting our interests. But considering the app’s popularity with young adults, this strategy is more manipulation than it is mercy.
Just because he’s playing into this “American Hero” aesthetic by saving TikTok, we cannot look past, nor forget, all of the executive orders Trump has enacted to attempt to remove constitutional rights and the deportation raids he immediately approved on day one. These expulsions have far more severe consequences than the removal of an app, and yet, the TikTok ban is the most spoken-of event.
Currently, this is only a 65 day extension now to the app’s services in America until the government can decide what exactly they want to do to combat ByteDance and the Chinese government’s threat to Americans privacy. But in the meantime, what’s the solution? It’s complicated.
Obviously, this ban and quick restoration seems too easily settled in such a short time to not have ulterior motives—especially with TikTok thanking Trump on their removal and return postings.
As someone who has had historically long screen time for this app, I’m not going to propose quitting cold turkey because there are very clearly a lot of good things going on here from entertainment to building communities to creative expression. All I can offer is a warning to be careful of the political agendas who may be using TikTok as a platform to sway your opinion.
