On Friday, January 17, america Supreme Court docket voted to uphold a regulation banning TikTok throughout the nation until it was divested from its Chinese language mum or dad firm, ByteDance, by this Sunday, January 19.
Whereas the information got here as a devastating blow to the short-form video-sharing app’s lots of of tens of millions of American customers, TikTok had been flagged as a attainable menace to nationwide safety for years—going again at the very least to the dismal summer time of 2020.
That September, the Commerce Division introduced its plans to limit entry to TikTok and WeChat, a messaging app, in response to an August 2020 government order from then President Donald Trump. The order, which underlined TikTok’s potential to share person information with ByteDance, as said within the app’s phrases of service, famous that such “information assortment threatens to permit the Chinese language Communist Celebration entry to People’ private and proprietary data — doubtlessly permitting China to trace the places of Federal staff and contractors, construct dossiers of private data for blackmail, and conduct company espionage.”
But these preliminary actions ultimately hit a useless finish. After Trump ordered that ByteDance unload any of its TikTok-related enterprise property, or else face a nation-wide ban, President Biden, on taking workplace in January 2021, postponed that ban—that’s, till a brand new TikTok-related invoice started gathering assist in Congress in March 2024.
Ten months later, on January 19, 2025, TikTok did certainly go darkish: “A regulation banning TikTok has been enacted within the U.S. Sadly, meaning you possibly can’t use TikTok for now,” a pop-up message on the app learn that morning. “We’re lucky that President Trump has indicated that he’ll work with us on an answer to reinstate TikTok as soon as he takes workplace. Please keep tuned!”
Inside a number of hours, nevertheless, service was restored. “Thanks on your persistence and assist. On account of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is again within the U.S.!” a brand new message learn.
“As of at present, TikTok is again,” Trump declared at a pre-inauguration rally on the night of January 19.
So…what was all of that about? Learn on for an explainer.
What sparked the primary TikTok ban underneath President Trump?
Trump’s fraught historical past with TikTok goes again to July 2020, when he introduced plans to ban TikTok and different Chinese language-owned apps as a consequence of alleged nationwide safety considerations. On August 6, 2020, Trump signed an order stating that any transactions between TikTok’s mum or dad firm, ByteDance, and US residents can be outlawed. The ban was due to enter impact at midnight on Sunday, September 20, 2020, although the deadline was later prolonged—and, by February 2021, with a brand new president in workplace, it in the end fell aside.
What occurred after President Biden took workplace?
For some time, any authorized motion between the US authorities and TikTok was placed on maintain. However by February 2023, the White Home had ordered the app’s elimination from any government-issued cellular gadgets; and the next month, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew sat down for a six-hour congressional listening to, throughout which he was grilled on TikTok and ByteDance’s relationship to the Chinese language authorities.
