To very briefly recap, the government has been gunning to ban TikTok since the first Trump administration. Last year, Congress and the Biden administration passed a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the United States, unless ByteDance divested its stake in the app by Jan. 19. ByteDance insisted it wouldn't sell, and as the deadline approached, things got heated. TikTok went to the Supreme Court to argue the ban violated the company's First Amendment rights, but SCOTUS ruled in favor of the government.
Saturday, Jan. 18
That brings us to Saturday, one day before the ban was set to take effect. All eyes were on the situation, since no one really knew what would happen once we reached Jan. 19 in the U.S. The law is quite clear that, once the deadline passed, no companies could distribute, maintain, or update TikTok or its services, so it was reasonable to think TikTok would disappear from app stores in the country.
Well, TikTok didn't do that. Instead, the app went totally dark Saturday night, at least an hour and a half before the deadline was official. Users trying to access the app were greeted by a message informing them the app was banned in their country, and they could not use it at the moment. Shortly after, however, the pop-up was updated, to include an appeal to incoming President Trump: "A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!" Pretty subtle, TikTok.
TikTok remained dark through Sunday morning and into the early afternoon. It wasn't clear what the timeline would look like: Trump was being sworn in the next day, so would TikTok wait until a theoretical executive order before returning service?
Monday, Jan. 20
Of course, Trump took the oath of office on Monday, returning to the White House and reassuming the power of the presidency. (In attendance was TikTok CEO Shou Chew.) As part of a flurry of executive orders following the inauguration, Trump issued an order to delay TikTok's ban by 75 days. The order directs the Justice Department not to enforce the law during this time period, in an effort to find a buyer for TikTok. ByteDance and China both have remained steadfast that TikTok would not be sold, but following Trump's inauguration, the latter has shown potential interest in selling.
Where do we go from here?
This unprecedented situation has certainly been volatile. It was Trump himself who wanted to ban TikTok during his first term. Now, he and TikTok want to spin the situation to make Trump a "savior."
Trump has said he wants a U.S. company to have a 50% stake in TikTok. That's not as strict as the original law, which wants a U.S.-based company to control the app outright. Perhaps that type of deal would appeal more to ByteDance or the Chinese government, who would still regain half of the assets.
I'll keep this article updated with the latest news regarding TikTok's ban. For now, you can continue to use it as normal—assuming you downloaded the app before Saturday night.
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