By Tommaso Vaccaro
The TikTok ban has finally been settled, well at least for now. Back in October 2024, the potential ban of TikTok had caused panic throughout the United States. Students at Adelphi and throughout the nation were concerned.
Months before, in April 2024, Congress passed a bipartisan bill forcing TikTok to find a new owner within months or be banned in the US. Then President Biden signed it on April 24, 2024. There were rumors and misinformation swirling on social media such as TikTok would not be allowed for people under 14 in some states, for people under 18 in America, and some people claimed it should be banned because China steals information from American users.
On Jan. 17, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the decision requiring ByteDance (TikTok’s Chinese parent company) to sell its interest in TikTok (sell it to a non-Chinese owner) or be banned. A few days before it happened, there was talk that TikTok would be shut down in the United States. People who relied on the app for marketing and promoting their businesses panicked. In fact, research shows that over 7 million small businesses use TikTok to drive growth for their businesses, according to a joint report from Oxford Economics and TikTok released in March 2024.
On Jan. 19, TikTok went dark. Anybody in America who opened up the app couldn’t get in and would be confronted with a message: saying “We regret that a US law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable.”
Once that happened, Americans started accepting the reality that TikTok was likely done for good. However, the next day, Monday, Jan. 20, was Inauguration Day and President Donald Trump took over the office. The legal battle and ultimately the ban was planned to happen when the last US president Joe Biden was in office, but Jan. 19 was his last full day.
Trump then made a statement that he would bring TikTok back for American citizens and signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with the law banning the app if it is not sold. It was very surprising. Trump’s executive order directs the attorney general to not impose fines against app stores and service providers that continue to help TikTok. When Americans were able to open up TikTok without having that message pop up to kick them out of the app, American TikTok users were able to rejoice.
Still, TikTok is not in the clear as the ruling that ByteDance must sell to a non-Chinese investor is still applicable. The clock is ticking. This is a short-term fix. In order for TikTok to become permanently safe, one of two things must happen.
One option is for the law to change. A bill would have to be passed in order to repeal the law. It’s unlikely that Congress will reverse a law that received bipartisan approval just last year.
Another option is for ByteDance to divest and get a new, non-Chinese owner. People are guessing who the new owner may be — Elon Musk? Kevin O’Leary? Microsoft? Oracle? The verdict is still pending on who will save the social media giant, but for now, TikTok is safe.
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