At around 10:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Saturday, Jan. 18, TikTok went dark for more than 170 million U.S. users.
A message from the app appeared as it shut off access:
"A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.," the message said. "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!"
Khalil Crumes, a sophomore criminal justice and accounting major, was one of the users scrolling the app when the platform shut down.
“For me personally, it was a surreal experience, and made me think about what is my next step,” Crumes said. “I wasn’t one of those people who went to download RedNote.”
RedNote, an almost identical app to TikTok with its short-form videos, rose to No. 1 in the app store as a refuge for Americans denied access to TikTok. However, people like Crumes hesitated to download the Mandarin-dominated app, despite its apparent similarities. A feeling that TikTok might truly be at its end became a shocking reality.
The ban has been a long-awaited decision that has been circling since August 2020, when President Trump signed two executive orders, days apart.
The first executive order prohibited American companies from making “any ‘transaction’ with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, including TikTok,” and the second ordered ByteDance to “divest itself of TikTok’s US’s operations,” according to The Associated Press.
In April 2024, Congress passed the ban with bipartisan support. The push came from lawmakers primarily concerned with the parent company, ByteDance, and their links to the Chinese government.
On Friday, Jan. 17, the Supreme Court upheld Congress’s decision, saying that the ban did not infringe on free speech as the app posed security threats due to its link to the Chinese government.
ByteDance needed to divest in TikTok by Jan. 19 to stop the ban from occurring.
Though the app was restored within 24 hours, the app is no longer available on the app stores, which means anyone who deleted the app during its blackout can no longer access it.
Users who had not deleted the app, perhaps holding on to hope of its return, were able to see their “For You Pages” again, but accompanied by another message:
“Thanks for your patience and support,” the message said. “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
The message referred to President Donald Trump’s executive order, pausing the TikTok ban for 75 days. A pause means anything but certainty for TikTok.
Crumes opted to distance himself from using the app in case the ban becomes permanent.
“I’ve been trying to stay off the app, so if it does happen again, it won’t feel like the end of the world like some people did,” Crumes said. “Obviously some people depend on it for their career, but for me personally, I depended on it for other things.”
Lauren Ryan, a freshman graphic design and advertising major, said she worried about the loss of the influencers that have dominated the app.
“The ban scare took me away from some of my favorite influencers because TikTok is the primary way I can view their content,” Ryan said. “I think TikTok influences relationships between the creator and audience, effectively building trust and a following on the platform.”
Alessandra Paparo, a freshman in the 3+3 physicians assistant program, said she often used the app for cooking content, specifically baking and Buldak carbonara ramen noodles recipes.
Since Paparo often flips between TikTok and Instagram Reels, she said she did not feel a loss of community like many others. However, she felt the ban threatened her rights as a citizen.
“Personally, I feel that it is a threat to the First Amendment because it is a way for people to talk,” Paparo said. “People use it to tell their stories and bring awareness to certain things.”
When it comes to the ban itself, Naisha Guttikonda, a freshman biology major in the M.D. program, said she does not feel the same as the Supreme Court.
“I feel like they tried to give a valid reason, but I don’t think it’s valid,” Guttikonda said. “They never specifically told the public how [China] is a security threat.”
Paparo echoes this sentiment, finding no real reason to point out TikTok specifically.
“I don’t believe that [China is a threat] because there are other apps out there like Shein and Temu that are most definitely stealing your information, most likely, more than TikTok,” Paparo said.
Crumes also did not seem threatened by TikTok’s alleged data collection concerns.
“If they wanted our data, they could honestly have it,” Crumes said. “There are so many ways that they could be getting our data. If TikTok was the reason, wouldn’t they have all of our data by now?”
Amidst these concerns, Trump’s intervention has allowed U.S. citizens continued access to TikTok, despite previously being for the ban.
Ryan said she believes this decision has helped her generation, Generation Z, who make up a large portion of the app's users.
“I think it’s what the young people want, so having the app back up and running that quickly was a promising outcome that TikTok will survive going forward,” Ryan said.
While Paparo enjoys having the app back, she said she believes Trump did this for ulterior motives.
“Honestly, I think it was a PR stunt for the younger generation that doesn’t support him as much,” Paparo said. “Maybe it was a distractor for some other policies that he had.”
Guttikonda said she finds Trump’s alternating opinions lead to confusion on his reasoning for pushing back the ban.
“He switched sides a lot during the whole thing,” Guttikonda said. “At one point he didn’t want to and then he did want to, so it’s really confusing what he actually wanted to do. It kinda felt like he had other motives, and his motive wasn’t just that it was stealing data but wanted it for selfish reasons to make himself look better.”
TikTok is back now. Although students say the app feels different, the future of it remains uncertain.
Kaelyn Blizard is a writer for The Setonian’s Campus Life section. She can be reached at kaelyn.blizard@student.shu.edu.
