TikTok Ban?

Story By Ashlynn Meyer-Huffmaster

The last few weeks have been quite busy and full of stress if you are a TikTok user. From influencers telling their secret lies to constant updates from private journalists, TikTok has been on the brink of a ban. Politicians are looking to ban TikTok for privacy concerns. While TikTok’s CEO is Singaporean, as he said multiple times in talks with Congress, the company that owns TikTok, ByteDance, is owned and operated in China. While it took some time to lay out the timeline of all the events that led to TikTok still being functional today, this story has the timeline made simple. 

On January 9th, TikTok was set to shut down on the 19th. January 10th, arguments from both TikTok and the government were held in front of the Supreme Court. While a few of the Supreme Court Justices seemed concerned with the first amendment rights concerning the ban, it seemed that the arguments were going in favor of the government. On the 13th, House of Representatives member Ro Khanna made a speech on the House floor. He shed light on how the TikTok ban could be delayed. He said how either president, Biden or Trump, could sign a 90-day extension, giving more time for TikTok to divest itself from their Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Later that day, Senator Ed Markey filed a bill that would extend the TikTok ban by 270 days. He talked about how 170 million Americans are using TikTok everyday, for not just socializing, but for small businesses. While rumors flooded of a certain X owner, Elon Musk, buying TikTok, a TikTok representative said in an email “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction.” On the 14th, Representative Ro Khanna signed Markey’s extension bill, which gave it a sponsor in the House. 

With the looming of the TikTok ban, many thought they would be ok as long as they had it downloaded on their phones. Though President Biden’s administration says that “Americans shouldn’t expect to see TT suddenly banned on Sunday”, TikTok said that they will still shut down without a more “definitive” answer from the government. On the 16th, the 270 day extension was blocked by Congressperson Tom Cotton. He is quoted saying “It’s not Instagram or Facebook, or X, or anything else, it is a Chinese Communist spy app”. On the 17th, the Supreme Court upheld the ban, stating that it is in fact constitutional. On the 18th, Donald Trump said that he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day extension when he gets in office on the 20th. Around 7:50 p.m. on Saturday the 18th, Tiktok sent out a message to users that the ban will take effect on the 19th. Less than two hours later, TikTok was no longer usable in the U.S.. 

While TikTok came back by one o’clock p.m. the next day, the ban was still in effect. On January 20th, freshly inaugurated President Trump signed a 75-day extension for TikTok. While other people like Mr. Beast threw around the idea of buying TikTok, Trump has talked about a joint venture of TikTok and the U.S. government. A joint venture would mean that the U.S. government would own 50% of TikTok, and then the ban would be lifted. In any case, in less than 75 days, TikTok will either be owned by the government, bought by another company, or banned.