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August 2, 2018, was the day that ByteDance, a Chinese tech company acquired Musical.ly Inc. Today, the app is now known as TikTok. In 2024 TikTok was the most downloaded mobile app worldwide, with 825 million downloads that year. Despite this massive success, due to the company’s foreign ownership, the Supreme Court will uphold a law to ban the app in the United States.
TikTok has been accused of using the app to collect user data for years. The Supreme Court has used this argument as their reason to ban the app in the United States, believing it to be Chinese spy software. However, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has stated that ByteDance is not an agent for any country.
Ban, or Not?
On January 18, 2025, American TikTok users received a warning about the app shutdown. Later that night, the app became unusable. TikTok said that though the app would not be available for an undetermined amount of time, they were working on getting it back. Many users were distraught by the ban, some resorted to deleting the app so they would not mistakenly click on it.
Many TikTok users resorted to switching to apps that are similar to TikTok. Many decided to stick to Instagram, watching videos using the reels feature. Some moved to the app RedNote, a Chinese-owned alternative to TikTok. The developers of RedNote are working to translate the app from Mandarin to English, welcoming American users switching over.
Less than 24 hours after the ban, TikTok became available in America again. However, influencers with large followings on the app used VPN services to change their location. Katie Fang, a TikTok lifestyle influencer, used this method to access the app. James Charles, a makeup artist who gained fame on YouTube uploaded a video onto the app exposing that he also had found a way to use TikTok.
Video editing app CapCut, also owned by ByteDance, became unavailable in the United States. Though they are accessible to Americans, it is not available on the App Store. Those who deleted the foreign-owned apps used a similar loophole to be able to download the app again by changing their location via VPN.
Changes
In 2020, President Donald Trump claimed he had wanted to ban TikTok. However, for his 2024 campaign, he had utilized it to obtain young voters. Now in 2025, his opinions have changed, and has said that he will fight to keep the app. January 20, 2025, an executive order signed by Trump issued a 75-day extension for American usage of the app. This extension will not override the law of former President Joe Biden, who stated that TikTok is required to be mostly owned by an American company if it will continue availability in the United States. Delaying the ban gives time for ByteDance to negotiate with an American company about co-ownership over the app.
