In the beginning of 2025, TikTok, a social media platform that allowed others to create and watch videos, faced many challenges due to assumptions over data privacy risks, national security threats, content manipulation, and impacts on mental health. TikTok became one of the most popular apps worldwide, especially to younger audiences. TikTok previously known as Musical.ly, which was known for lip-syncing, created by two Chinese entrepreneurs, Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang in August 2014.
Two years ago, in an interview hosted by Andrew Brown, Zhu revealed that their original goal was previously to ‘aim to create an educational platform, but [they] realized that entertainment [became] a better way to capture users’ attention.’ However, Musical.ly did not reach the number of audiences that Zhu and Yang targeted, so they decided to use a strategic move to expand its global footprint by merging Musical.ly into TikTok. ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) completed the acquisition of Musical.ly in November 2017 and officially rebranded Musical.ly into TikTok in August 2018. Despite its success, TikTok is under intense scrutiny by the United States government due to suspicions and concerns about TikTok that later became the first serious rumor to ban TikTok in late 2019 and gain traction in 2020 during the Trump administration.
Former president Donald Trump feared TikTok could leak data privacy to the Chinese government. Trump’s concerns resulted in the decision to issue an executive order in August 2020 that sought to ban Tiktok unless ByteDance sold Tiktok to an American Company. During this time, ByteDance was reluctant to sell TikTok but thought about potential deals in 2020 to avoid a full ban. While Trump issued an executive order, ByteDance began to attempt to negotiate with many U.S companies, including Microsoft and Walmart. Legal challenges and the transition to the Biden administration in 2021 caused the ban on TikTok to be delayed. Since then, discussions about the ban and restrictions have not been the U.S government’s biggest concerns but ended up getting resurfaced multiple times, especially in 2023 and 2024. Lawmakers later continued to push for stricter regulations on foreign owned apps that engage with U.S audiences.
In January 2025, discussions about the future of TikTok intensified. Lawmakers continued to debate whether the Chinese government could easily access American user data. Earlier in the month of January, Congress passed a new bill that gave ByteDance a deadline to face a full ban or sell TikTok to a U.S company. Since this bill received strong bipartisan support, it became a harder fight for the CEO of TikTok, Shou Chew, to fight in court. Protests began and encouraged users with both small and large platforms to speak about TikTok as a major platform for creativity and income. Since TikTok, a platform that has spread, has made a lasting impact into people’s lives. Liam Tan (10) spoke on how it has become a daily routine to open TikTok that “people [who] have gotten too deep into TikTok [feel] they cannot live without it.” The U.S government pushed forward about how protecting user data is far more important than money.
As the January 19, 2025 deadline approached, TikTok got temporarily banned from the U.S and anyone who opened TikTok got a pop up that explained, “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately that means you can’t use Tik Tok for now.” The temporary ban reached worldwide and users flooded other social media platforms with reactions, ranging from not understanding why to frustration on how TikTok has become a daily routine for them. Siana Yarbrough (11) shared how the TikTok ban is going to “change a lot throughout [her] life because [she is] always making TikToks with friends and family.” Trump opposed the TikTok ban now, even though he used to support the ban. He has recently expressed positive feelings about TikTok, even posting “SAVE TIKTOK” Sunday Morning, January 19, 2025. However, the ban did not last a day because Trump indicated he would “most likely” grant a 90 day extension for ByteDance to finalize a deal to prevent the U.S ban that will be set to last until April 19, 2025. The 90 day took effect on January 25, 2025. With this extension granted, users are waiting to see if ByteDance can secure a new deal before the new deadline to determine the future of TikTok.
