TikTok Ban Timeline

TikTok, a short form video service, is the most downloaded app in the world, boasting over a billion active monthly users. In recent years, TikTok has also become one of the most controversial apps in the world. 

Back in 2019, U.S. politicians began to raise alarms about the wide influence of TikTok, calling for an investigation into ByteDance, the Chinese-based company that owns TikTok. In 2022, leaked recordings of internal TikTok meetings revealed that ByteDance employees repeatedly accessed the nonpublic data of TikTok users, generating even more outrage in the United States.

In April of 2024, President Joe Biden signed legislation requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. owner within a year or to shut down their services. ByteDance consequently filed a lawsuit against the United States, claiming that the security concerns were unfounded and a ban on the app would violate the First Amendment. 

In January of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok. The app went dark on January 19, 2025 before newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed an executive order granting ByteDance a 75-day extension to comply with the federal law intending to ban the app. At the time of writing, ByteDance has still not sold the company to a U.S. owner. 

During this 75-day extension, users previously on the app can continue posting and interacting with others on TikTok, but the app cannot be downloaded from any app stores.

Student Perspectives

Northside community members have mixed feelings about a potential ban of the social media platform.

Some students believe that a ban of Tiktok would be positive for United States citizens on both a societal and personal level, with senior Claire Dawson stating that a TikTok ban would “help society progress,” as they are concerned about the impact of social media on politics. Inversely, Claire asserts that TikTok has positively contributed to their life, claiming that TikTok “has the best queer representation” out of the social media sites they use.

Students consistently said that following a TikTok ban, they would replace the daily time spent on TikTok with more enriching hobbies. Senior Katie O’Brien said she would spend more time reading, while sophomore Dalia Friend-Goldberg said she would like to practice candlemaking instead of “doomscrolling” on TikTok. 

Junior Luca Candelaria says that while he is “too addicted to TikTok,” the reported security breaches of user data are “not that serious” and “the United States government is focusing on the wrong things.” Junior Liz Worley agreed, saying that a TikTok ban would be a form of “censoring free speech” in America.