Talks of banning TikTok, formally known as Musical.ly, go all the way back to 2020.
As the app’s popularity continued to rise, so did concerns about national security, as ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company, owns TikTok. On April 24, 2024, former President Joe Biden signed legislation requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. owner within a year and created the threat of being shut down if it wasn’t sold. Despite ByteDance filing a lawsuit against the U.S. claiming that the law violates the First Amendment, on Jan. 17, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law banning TikTok and on, Jan. 18, the app went dark two hours earlier than intended.
I was recently scrolling on TikTok and reminiscing about funny posts and what it felt like to have Musical.ly with my cousins. I scrolled one more time and saw, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” plastered all over my screen.
At first, I thought I didn’t care, as Meta’s Instagram Reels and YouTube’s Shorts were alternatives. I was also there when Vine got shut down. The threat of the TikTok ban made me think about how much time we spend online and consider that it might be a good change.
Photo Courtesy of Theodora Boateng
Then the panic settled in when I realized I wouldn’t be able to find quick and easy hair tutorials, have the perfect algorithm or even use it for content creation. As someone who is pursuing PR and wants to use social media in my career, I found TikTok easy to use for building engagement and community. I never felt judged on the app because I would post and move on with my day, compared to Instagram, where I have a smaller audience and struggle to grow.
Kellan Rice, a first-year finance major, downloaded TikTok during his freshman year of high school and deleted it soon after.
“I love connecting with people on social media and talking to my friends and sending them funny posts, but it just got too addictive and the posts that were shown were low quality. I would just end up wasting time instead of doing homework,” he said.
Photo Credit: Theodora Boateng
When it came to the ban, Rice understands those who are devastated by it, and those who are alright with it. Despite the app not being American-owned, he recognizes that the app has helped support influencers by generating revenue and encouraging entrepreneurship worldwide. But, he also understands the government’s concern about U.S citizen’s data being in the hands of ByteDance.
Tianyi Lu, an exchange student from the University of Hong Kong and a third-year psychology major, doesn’t use TikTok but is a user of Xiaohongshu, or Red Note, the Chinese alternative for American “TikTok refugees”.
Photo Credit: Theodora Boateng
“Red Note includes the functions of TikTok – you can send short videos, you can create content on it,” she explained.
However, Lu goes on to explain that she and her friends do not solely use it for entertainment, but for advice when traveling or living abroad. Because of this, Lu isn’t sure if Americans can find the same joy, or addiction, on Red Note as they did on TikTok.
Isabella Gallegos, a first-year political science and public policy double major, described the mixture of panic and nostalgia she and her sisters felt the night the app went dark.
“We were at my grandma’s house, and my grandma does not have the best internet, so we were saving our videos. We’re trying to save them, but they’re not saving,” Gallegos said.
Photo Credit: Theodora Boateng
So, the sisters jumped in Gallegos’ car and headed home with hopes of salvaging TikTok videos and drafts. They successfully saved all of their videos within two hours — by hand.
Gallegos has been a TikTok user since she was a seventh grader and when it was Musical.ly.
American TikTok users all over Instagram and X claimed they were going through “TikTok Withdrawal” — physical and psychological symptoms such as continuously clicking on the app despite the “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now” message, wondering what to do with their free time, and even individuals posting videos of themselves crying about TikTok on other platforms.
On Jan. 19, TikTok went back online in the U.S. The app thanked President Trump for his efforts in bringing it back.
Photo Credit: Theodora Boateng
Currently, if former users deleted the app, they cannot re-download it. Sinit Tesfamariam, an undeclared first-year student, is facing this issue.
“I was just on TikTok scrolling and I got a warning — that’s when I accepted that TikTok was actually going to get banned. I kept trying to use the app every five minutes, but it never worked, so I just deleted it and now I can’t download it,” she said.
On Jan. 20, President Trump’s first day in office, an executive order was issued to not enforce a ban on TikTok, giving it 75 more days to live.
