TikTok, the globally popular social media platform was restored in the U.S. Jan 19, nearly 12 hours after a national ban on the social media platform went into effect. The restoration is a product of President Donald Trump’s “efforts,” according to a message displayed on TikTok to all users upon logging back into the app after its presumed ban.
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The app has faced threats of an impending ban since July 2020, when then-acting President Donald Trump first considered banning the app as “retaliation for China’s alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the Associated Press (AP).
By August of that year, Trump issued a “sweeping but vague” executive order, banning American companies from any “transaction” with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, including TikTok. Days later, he issued a second order, demanding ByteDance divest itself of TikTok’s U.S. operations within 90 days, according to AP.
The company failed to comply, instead suing the Trump administration for allegedly violating due process of executive orders.
Efforts to ban the app nationally were seemingly halted when Trump lost re-election in Nov. 2020, however, Congress passed a ban-or-sell bill of the app in April 2024. Then President Joe Biden signed the bill into law. ByteDance sued the federal government, saying the law was unconstitutional. It was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS).
Following the Jan. 17 2025 SCOTUS decision to uphold the ban, it was not enforced by President Joe Biden during his last few days in office, leaving President-elect Trump to decide the app’s fate, according to the AP.
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Trump pledged to save the app upon returning to office. He did so less than 24 hours before taking his second oath, despite having called TikTok a threat during his last presidential tenure.
TikTok’s official message to users which thanked Trump by name elicited strong feelings, with some users taking to the platform and pledging Trump “saved us” as its latest trend, according to AP.
The app underwent a brand resurgence from its former title, Music.ly, when the platform was bought by China’s ByteDance in Nov. 2017. TikTok, a merger between Music.ly and ByteDance, was first introduced to the public Aug. 2, 2018, according to a timeline of the app’s history released by AP in May 2024.
Since its rebranding in 2018, the social media platform has been credited by many users as a way to network as a small business owner or find a target audience as a content creator. TikTok Shop, an e-commerce feature of the platform, generated $17.5B in 2024 for small businesses nationally.
Kat Hawthorne, a second-year acting major at Ball State University, is a content creator on campus and part of the generation who grew up around the same time TikTok’s popularity dominated mainstream media.
At age 15, Hawthorne was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that prompted a slew of other disabilities.
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When the COVID-19 pandemic began around the same time as her diagnosis, Hawthorne turned to various social media outlets as a way to cope with quarantine isolation and make sense of her new identity as a disabled person.
She found support through TikTok, specifically, and the online disabled community on the platform.
“TikTok has always been, I feel, like a nice safe space. I love posting on TikTok [because] I end up on the algorithms of people who are interested in the type of content I post,” she said.
Hawthorne, in light of the app's resurgence, said she now feels differently.
“If, in order to use this app, I have to thank him, then I will just give up. I'd rather never use TikTok again than have to thank him for this,” Hawthorne said. “Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but a lot of this seems like he wants to be a hero. It feels like a ruse to get people to like him more.”
Ke’Juan Smith, a third-year student at Ball State, is a student ambassador for Ball State Bound, the university’s communications program with the primary objective to engage with prospective or newly admitted Ball State students.
Smith said TikTok's purpose as an outlet for short, fun videos — alongside its user-curated algorithm — served as a way for the university to offer “a sprinkle of college life to aspiring and incoming cardinals.” Without it, Smith and his team of ambassadors were prepared to be flexible.
“There’s always another app on the horizon,” he said.
As the TikTok ban loomed, many Americans were turning to supplementary apps, including Lemon8, RedNote and Instagram’s Reels feature.
Lemon8 is a sister app of TikTok that “resembles an amalgamation of the types of short-form videos found on TikTok and the picture-perfect aesthetic of Instagram and Pinterest,” according to AP. However, it is unclear whether or not Lemon8 will suffer the same trepidation as TikTok with both platforms being owned by ByteDance.
RedNote, known in its homeland as Xiaohongshu, is the Chinese variation of TikTok. When SCOTUS seemed likely to uphold TikTok’s ban, RedNote became the top downloaded app in the U.S., according to AP, with the hashtag “#tiktokrefugee” trending in-app Jan. 13.
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Hawthorne, whose content has evolved throughout the years to include a variety of baking techniques, LGBTQ+ advocacy, fashion inspiration and disability representation, has met many through TikTok who are “uplifting” and “embracing.”
Although she recognized her niche audience, it has helped Hawthorne feel more confident in her disability. She credited her curated viewers to the TikTok algorithm, as opposed to the algorithms of similar social media platforms like Instagram reels.
“I feel like Instagram Reels’ algorithm is a lot less specialized on what you want to see, so that is where I've gotten hundreds of hate comments,” she said.
Hawthorne strives to produce authentic content but has adapted through the years to sustain a sense of privacy online. Because of that, she said hate comments do not affect her in the same capacity they did at a younger age. In fact, Hawthorne now encourages them.
“I am monetized on Instagram reels, so I do make money from posting reels — not that much — but that means every comment gives me a little bit of money. So, comment hate — you're paying me,” she said.
Instagram, the American-owned social media platform for sharing photos and videos, first introduced its reel feature in August 2020 — nearly two years to the day after TkTok’s rebrand. Instagram reels allow users to “create multi-clip videos up to 90 seconds, and get creative with easy-to-use text, augmented reality filters and audio,” according to Instagram’s website.
During TikTok’s 12-hour shutdown, Instagram introduced “Edits," a new video editing app the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, said in a video that is set to launch in February 2025. However, users were quick to point out that the new app is strikingly similar to TikTok’s video editing companion, CapCut.
Simultaneously, Facebook — which owns Instagram — began asking users to link their TikTok account to their profiles the morning the app was banned.
As a cybersecurity major, Smith struggled to understand why lawmakers viewed the app as a threat to national security in the first place.
“I’m no politician,” he said. “Personally, do I think it’s a threat? Probably not. It’s just for fun videos.”
However, Smith acknowledged the gray area of the ban as technology advances and digital media becomes more mainstream.
“In the world of cybersecurity, you never know,” he said.
While it is unclear what influence Meta Platforms, a multinational technology company, had over the TikTok ban, the sequential events beg the question of their involvement. TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, attended Trump’s inauguration following a message from TikTok that praised the president by name for its nationwide restoration.
Smith and Hawthorne agreed a TikTok ban never should have been the priority of government officials and policymakers. Hawthorne traced the responsibility of recognizing online deception back to the user, underscoring the importance of media literacy in today’s digital age.
“The internet, as a whole, has so much you can be deceived with. So, yes, I do think TikTok does [deceive its users], but I also think anywhere online does that. Social media should not be your source of news. It's a cool way to learn about something, but further research is so important,” she said.
As of a Jan. 20 executive order from Trump, TikTok will remain “open” for 75 days, until early April, while his administration determines “the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown” of TikTok.
Despite the reprieve, a host of questions remain including whether Trump has the authority to issue such an order and if TikTok’s China-based parent would be amenable to selling the popular social media platform, according to AP.
“Nothing is perfect,” Hawthorne said. “I know our government controls things, but [TikTok] is so directly linked to Trump now, and I don’t trust it. It makes me want to step back from TikTok,” she said. “I don’t like the level of control our government has over it.”
Contact Katherine Hill via email at katherine.hill@bsu.edu.
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