Talks of an official ban of the popular social media app, TikTok, circulated throughout the United States Government as the result of security concerns.
With the conversation starting around Summer of 2020, President Trump has initially implied pushing for the app’s ban as a response to China’s alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, there’s been multiple attempts towards making a transition of the ownership of the app from being a Chinese-run app to an American-ran app. On August of 2020, Trump executed two orders to push for this. One of the orders declared a vague banning of any American transaction with the company in charge of TikTok, ByteDance. The second order commanded that ByteDance sells itself or its app to an American company within the next 90 days. With no progress done, the Trump administration extends the deadline for ByteDance and it eventually blows over.
At the beginning of 2021, former President Joe Biden came into office, ordering all of Trump’s plans for TikTok to come to a halt, eventually stopping the entire operation all together. During a couple months of peace, TikTok became the most popular app to download and use, with over a billion users per month. In December 2022, however, FBI Director Christopher Wray raised concerns over national security concerning TikTok and the United States. In February 2023, the White House ordered that all government-issued mobile devices delete TikTok within 30 days.
On March 2023, the viral hearing between the U.S Congress and TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew took place, discussing TikTok’s data management, and the app’s future within the United States amongst many other topics. One year later, the idea of a national banning of the app began to sink into congress. The House of Representatives finalizes their opinion on the matter, approving the TikTok sell-or-ban bill. A month later, the Senate and President Biden sign the bill in agreement.
In May 2024, ByteDance sues the American government, claiming that the bill was an unconstitutional act from the government, violating the first amendment. In light of the upcoming election, and despite all the drama surrounding the app, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, who are against each other in this election, join TikTok and begin posting various campaign advertisements. Around this time, Donald Trump expresses a controversial change of opinion regarding the ban, opting for the app to stay active in the United States. After his victory in the 2025 Presidential election, Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause actions toward the Tiktok ban until he is settled into his presidency and is able to make a “political resolution” to the problem. The Supreme court decided against this request, unanimously deciding to accept the banning of Tiktok nation-wide, effective January 19, 2025. After the decision, Tiktok stated “The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans. Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19.”
As a response to the banning, various influencers and entrepreneurs have shown immense interest in buying TikTok to try to reactive tis usage in the United States. Those individuals include Elon Musk, Kevin O’Leary, and Jimmy “Mr. Beast” Donaldson amongst many others. However, Donaldson has seemed to be the one with the most progress concerning the transaction of TikTok’s ownership. On January 13, 2025, Donaldson stated “OK fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned.” on X, showing initial interest in the app and blatant approval from the public. A couple days later, Donaldson took to TikTok to announce a possible offer between his team and TikTok, possibly making him the new CEO of the company.
While the majority of the American users approve of the idea of Donaldson buying TikTok, some people have some concerns about the quality of the app after the possible purchase. If sold, TikTok’s US assets would be sold without the algorithm, leaving the buyer to figure out a replica of the famed “For You” pages’ algorithm themselves. According to Dan Ives, Wedbush’s Security Analyst, the price is estimated to be “worth between $40 billion and $50 billion [without the algorithm]”. With the app becoming active once again 15 hours after the original ban, the fate of the app seems yet to be determined.
