TikTok users have been in a state of flux over the past few days.
On January 17, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a law banning TikTok, citing security concerns about the app’s ownership in China. TikTok shut down its services the next day, but returned after President Donald Trump announced he would sign an executive order to postpone the ban. Although TikTok is still up and running for existing users, its future is uncertain.
Why did we write this?
Congress and the Supreme Court acknowledge national security concerns related to China’s ownership of TikTok. These issues will need to be clarified as President Donald Trump seeks to reach an agreement to keep the app running for American users.
About a third of US adults use TikTok. Some see it as a source of entertainment, while others build successful businesses on it. Both Instagram and YouTube have tried to present themselves as alternatives to users, but TikTok fans say these platforms are not the same – and some are moving on to another Chinese app.
President Trump’s efforts to negotiate a deal to keep TikTok in the United States face unresolved legal challenges and data privacy issues.
Mr. Trump’s legal authority regarding the executive action that delayed the ban is unclear. Under the terms of the law, Mr. Trump has the power to extend the life of TikTok for up to 90 days if there is “significant progress” in divestment. But TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has not yet expressed any willingness to sell.
TikTok users, including about a third of US adults, have been on a roll over the past few days, amid a legal tussle involving all three branches of the US government as well as China.
On January 17, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a law banning TikTok, citing security concerns about the app’s ownership in China. TikTok shut down its services the next day, but returned after President Donald Trump announced he would sign an executive order to postpone the ban. Although TikTok is still up and running for existing users, its future is uncertain.
Millions of Americans They became fans of the social platform built on short, engaging videos. Many see it as a source of entertainment, while others have built successful businesses on it. Both Instagram and YouTube have tried to present themselves as alternatives to users, but TikTok fans say these platforms are not the same – and some are moving on to another Chinese app. President Trump’s efforts to negotiate a deal to keep TikTok in the United States face unresolved legal challenges and data privacy issues.
Why did we write this?
Congress and the Supreme Court acknowledge national security concerns related to China’s ownership of TikTok. These issues will need to be clarified as President Donald Trump seeks to reach an agreement to keep the app running for American users.
What’s the latest on the status of TikTok?
The law upheld by the Supreme Court requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell or shut down the app by January 19. Although the Biden administration said it would not enforce the ban, TikTok shut down its services one day before the Supreme Court’s announcement. Delivery time. The app restored services on January 20 after Mr. Trump Announce He will sign an executive order to extend the time period before the ban takes effect.
On his first day in office on Monday, Mr. Trump made good on that promise, signing a document Executive order To postpone the ban for 75 days. The order instructed the Attorney General not to enforce the law, and stated that companies that distributed TikTok would be protected from penalties. TikTok currently runs on users’ phones but is not available in app stores.
What is the Trump administration doing?
Mr. Trump tried to ban TikTok during his first presidential term, but has recently become an advocate for saving it. He credited his change of heart in part to sympathy with the young people who came out to vote for him. In a Brief Approaching the Supreme Court last December, Mr. Trump cited users’ rights to free expression and warned that the ban could set a “dangerous global precedent” for government overreach.
Mr. Trump’s legal authority regarding the executive action that delayed the ban is unclear. Under the terms of the law, Mr. Trump has the power to extend the life of TikTok for up to 90 days if there is “significant progress” in divestment. But TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has not yet expressed any willingness to sell the app.
Mr. Trump suggested he would use the next 75 days to try to make a deal with China to save the app. Ali said Social truth He said on Sunday that he would like the United States to take a 50% ownership stake in a joint venture. The details of how this happened are vague. ByteDance considers TikTok’s algorithm — which chooses the content shown to users — to be important intellectual property and was therefore not prepared to sell it. To meet the terms of the ban passed by Congress, both TikTok and its algorithm must be under US control.
How do users respond?
Since its inception, the controversy has pitted growing concerns about data security — and an algorithm that critics say amounts to a harmfully addictive, pro-China take on social media — against a user base full of ardent fans of the platform.
A number of TikTok users have recently flocked to a Chinese app called RedNote. The platform, which was originally designed as a foreign travel guide, features videos similar to TikTok. By January 14, the RedNote hashtag “TikTok Refugee” had 36.2 million views.
The move to RedNote is an act of protest for users, but interest may wane if TikTok is brought back, says Justin Huang, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who studies social media. “They were looking for an action that would really express a lot of that frustration,” he says.
Some technology experts say RedNote poses more of a national security threat than TikTok, because it stores user data in China. If its popularity continues to grow, RedNote could face a ban of its own.
Julia Demarie Nickinson/AP
For some TikTok creators, there’s more at stake in the ban than just entertainment. Josie Stofan planned to get a work-study job at the University of Michigan, but after one of her TikTok videos “exploded,” the college sophomore realized she could use the app to help pay her tuition. She posts college lifestyle videos at least once a day, and makes money from brand deals. Now it’s all up in the air.
“There’s so much uncertainty, and I feel like I’m walking on eggshells all the time,” she says. “Between ByteDance and Trump, I feel like we creators are being used as pawns.”
What are the national security concerns?
Supporters of the ban fear that TikTok will give the Chinese government access to users’ personal data. This is because ByteDance is subject to Chinese cybersecurity laws that allow the government to force it to hand over consumer data for national security reasons.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew insisted that the Chinese government never asked TikTok for its data. That wasn’t enough to placate most lawmakers in Congress, who questioned Mr. Chiu at a 2023 hearing and passed the ban the following year with strong bipartisan support.
Another concern is that China could use the app’s algorithm to influence Americans’ political views, which some experts say is already happening. A 2023 a report Two research groups found that posts on topics such as the Hong Kong protests were noticeably missing from users’ feeds.
Some believe that these threats are purely theoretical. Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently posted a video on TikTok video Regarding the ban, he told viewers, “What was presented to all the members who voted on this thing was not very convincing. “There was no real information provided to prove that, that was anything specific.”
However, the possibility of these threats is enough for others. Last March, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told the US Senate that Chinese influence operations were “extremely difficult to detect, which is part of what makes the national security concerns posed by TikTok so significant.”
