TikTok had an incredibly wild whirlwind of a weekend
The extraordinary developments for one of America’s most popular social media apps over this weekend will be one for the history books. The banning — and unbanning — of TikTok involved actions from a former president, a sitting president and a future president and gripped 170 million Americans who use the app daily.
With just hours to go before a nationwide ban was set to come into effect, TikTok went dark late Saturday. By midday on Sunday it was back online, crediting then-President elect Donald Trump. But its long-term fate in America remains undetermined.
So what on earth happened? Here’s a countdown to the ban – and its unbanning:
August 6, 2020: Trump, in his first term in the White House, issues an executive order effectively banning TikTok, saying the app’s data collection “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information” and could enable Beijing to “build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
January 2021: President Joe Biden postpones Trump’s TikTok ban.
April 2024: Biden signs the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which passed Congress with broad bipartisan support. The bill effectively bans the video app unless it is sold to a buyer from the United States or one of its allies.
May 2024: TikTok and its China-based owner, ByteDance, sue the US government, claiming that the new law violates TikTok users’ First Amendment rights.
December 18, 2024: The US Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments on whether the ban violates the First Amendment for its users.
January 17, 2025
Morning: The Supreme Court unanimously upholds the federal law banning TikTok unless it is sold to a non-China-based company, ruling that the risks to national security posed by China are more significant than arguments on whether the ban could limit free speech. TikTok now has two days before the ban becomes effective on January 19 at 12:01 am.
President-elect Donald Trump writes on Truth Social that he has spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping and that they discussed TikTok. Trump also writes that “My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”
Biden says: “TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law.” He also notes in a statement that “Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday.”
Afternoon: TikTok says it will go dark, posting on X that “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.”
January 18, 2025
Overnight: The White House releases a statement criticizing TikTok’s warning that the popular app would go dark unless Biden intervenes, calling the warning a “stunt” and saying, “we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday.”
Morning: Trump tells NBC’s Kristen Welker in a phone interview that he will “most likely” delay the ban on TikTok for 90 days after he takes office.
Late evening: The TikTok app begins displaying messages warning its users that the ban is near. “We regret that a U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable. We’re working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support. Please stay tuned.”
At around 10 pm: TikTok officially goes dark. A message on the app reads: “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
January 19, 2025
10 am: Trump posts on Truth Social that he is planning to sign an executive order Monday to delay the ban for 90 days, noting that he prefers “the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture” with the new buyer or current owner. That would, he wrote, “save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. Without US approval, there is no Tik Tok.”
Midday: TikTok comes back online after Trump announces he intends to sign an executive order following his inauguration Monday in order to “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect.”
January 20, 2025
8:30 pm: Trump signs an executive order delaying enforcement of the TikTok ban for 75 days. The action directs the Justice Department to not enforce the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. “I have the right to either sell it or close it, and we’ll make that determination,” Trump added in remarks from the Oval Office.
What’s next?
Trump could still face challenges from within his own party: Republican Senators Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, and Pete Ricketts, of Nebraska, said in a joint statement Sunday that they oppose any extension of the ban.
For now, the only possible solution appears to be to either force a sale to a new buyer — though ByteDance has said it has no intention of selling — or to pass a new law reversing the old one, which seems highly unlikely given that the existing bill had such broad bipartisan support in Congress.
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