On Jan. 18, around 120 million users in the United States opened TikTok to find a message displayed on their For You Page that read, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.” The message explained that a law banning TikTok was enacted in the United States, and “President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok…” While users could still open the app, they could not view videos, like videos, or access their profile.
The timeline starts back in July 2020. President Trump said he’s considering banning TikTok in the U.S. in retaliation for the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this, in Aug. 2020, Trump issued an executive order to ban TikTok, but was blocked multiple times by multiple federal judges, citing a lack of evidence of wrongdoing, a lack of due process for TikTok and its parent company ByteDance and Trump simply exceeding his authority with the attempt.
Jumping ahead to July 2021, President Biden revoked the Trump administration’s attempts. Talks of the ban were quiet until Dec. 2022, when the Senate Intelligence Committee (SIC) proposed a bill to “block and prohibit all transactions” by social media companies that are based in countries considered foreign adversaries. This passed unanimously.
After briefings from cybersecurity experts on the risks of TikTok, house lawmakers approved legislation that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok into U.S. ownership. After this announcement, then-presidential candidate Trump stated he wouldn’t ban TikTok if he had a choice, despite security concerns in March 2024.
President Joe Biden signed a bill into law last April that stated ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, must sell the app to a non-Chinese company or else it would be banned. After joining in June 2024 and gaining millions of followers, Trump promised to save TikTok if elected, stating, “…But I’m now a big star on TikTok!”
Now that we’ve all been caught up, on Jan. 17, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law and effectively banned TikTok from being available to download and update on app stores, even though the Biden administration released a statement saying the final decision would be left up to the Trump administration.
While President-elect Trump stated he would “most likely” sign a 90-day extension for TikTok once he’s inaugurated, it is unclear if this is possible because the law has already been enacted.
The initial message announcing the ban plastered on users’ For You Pages was followed by about 12 hours of unavailability. When users opened their app out of habit the next morning, they were met with a new message welcoming them back and praising Trump; “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
The “efforts” in the statement are an executive order signed by freshly inaugurated President Trump instructing the attorney general not to take any further action enforcing the bill for 75 days. The Trump administration’s explanation for the period is “to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.”
While the app is fully accessible and usable to American users who had previously downloaded it, Apple and Google have kept TikTok out of their app stores for now.
While everyone waits to see what will happen in the next three months, users can freely enjoy making and posting videos, viewing content and buying TikTok Shop merchandise.