On Jan. 18, American TikTok users were greeted with the following message upon opening the app: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
Users in the U.S. were subsequently locked out of the app and unable to access any of the short-form videos that populate the platform.
About fourteen hours later, the original message was replaced with a new one: “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
Many Americans came out of the brief TikTok blackout with confusion about why the ban went into effect in the first place and why the app made its return less than a day later. The days prior were a whirlwind of contradicting information from a slew of sources, whether they be posts from creators, stories from news outlets or video updates from TikTok CEO Shou Zi.
News seemed to suggest that the app would be saved one minute and that TikTok would be gone forever the next. For days, no general consensus seemed to be reached, leaving many longing for a definitive and clear explanation of what to expect.
But confusion only continued to flurry until the in-app message appeared that read the app had returned due to the efforts of the, at the time, not yet inaugurated, President Donald Trump.
This display of presidential power and the uncertainty regarding TikTok’s future call into question the future of media censorship and government transparency, or lack thereof, in the U.S.
A TikTok ban would be a loss for the 170 million Americans on the app, as well as the millions of creators and small businesses that make either a complete or supplementary income on it.
TikTok, nor the U.S. government, gave creators adequate time to transition to alternate platforms, rebuild their audiences or cope with how a ban would change their livelihoods.
The TikTok ban has been a topic of conversation for several years now. In 2020, during Trump’s first term, he was one of the main voices advocating to ban TikTok.
Today, however, he appears to be on the opposite side, supporting the app by passing an executive order that paused the TikTok ban for 75 days.
The rationale shared by Trump, Congress and the Supreme Court for advocating for, passing and upholding the ban is the threat of the Chinese-owned company to U.S. national security.
While there’s an important conversation to be had on ethical data collection and privacy, the lack of clarity regarding TikTok’s future makes the given reasoning for the ban seem false. We believe it was never about the safety of Americans; instead, it’s about the monetary value of the algorithm.
In a post on Truth Social, a social media platform owned by Trump Media and Technology Group, Trump said, “I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars — maybe trillions.”
There has since been talk of Microsoft, Perplexity AI, Amazon and Elon Musk, among others, buying the platform. Some offers include giving the U.S. government a chunk of the operation’s stock.
That said, there is little conversation being had about how the app, its algorithm or its data collection and usage would change if the company is sold.
The perceived “mercy” exhibited by Trump toward TikTok has only strengthened his relationship with the company. In what seems like a show of support, TikTok CEO Zi attended Trump’s inauguration.
The insinuated intertwining of the fifth most popular social media app in the world with the U.S. government only brings more concerns about the government’s involvement in Americans’ media consumption and potential censorship.
In 2024, just 22% of Americans reported they trusted their government, according to the Pew Research Center. We believe this percentage will only drop if people continue to feel they are being left in the dark on decisions that affect their daily lives.
This social media proxy war has only created anxieties, that are possibly unfounded, about the future of social media. The U.S. could have rectified this by providing more specific guidance on how TikTok is a threat, what a ban means for its users and a clearer transition timeline for creators and small businesses.
Whether 14 TikTok-less hours is something worthy of mass panic remains unclear. But if a lack of transparency from the government becomes a common occurrence or theme, Americans can expect the future of U.S. media to be threatened.
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