A half day ban of TikTok causes frenzy further than just dopamine decrease. The late night of January 18, Tiktok no longer loaded videos for American users.
If you are in America, a notification came up at around 11:30 saying, “a law banning Tiktok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!” After this notification, your only two options are to close the app or learn more.
The whole beginning of January, anyone’s TikTok For You Page was full of doubt. It started bringing viewers to reality, seeing popular influencers like Charlie Damielo and Haley Baylee post their old drafts or goodbye videos on their page.
Starting the morning of January 19, many influencers and social media users alike were moving fast to other platforms. Nothing specifically filled the absence of the app.
“I felt pain and thought about all the transitions I wasn’t able to finish,” NHS sophomore Marcela Corral said.
Before the official announcement in late January, people had slowly been moving to other apps. One app in particular is known as “Red Note,” a Chinese owned version of Tiktok. There is no clear interpretation whether this was done in the vein of the government's choice or just for pure entertainment.
The ban was over within half a day later. There was little to no time to mourn tiktok. “It's confusing. It doesn’t make sense that it was banned for thirteen hours than how it just magically reappeared,” NHS sophomore Mauricio De La Garza said.
So why is TikTok back? Trump ordered the Attorney General “not to enforce the ban”, just like the Tiktok notification said he would do.
TikTok was banned initially due to the rising concerns of the US government and their worries over user privacy and alleged user data collection. The biggest fear from the government was the influence of operations by the government of China.
When TikTok came back to American users, the notification stated, “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US.”
“When it became unbanned, it said ‘Thank you President Donald Trump,’ before he was even officially the president or in office to make a move like this. Biden was still the president during the time of the TikTok ban,” NHS sophomore Rusa Ellul said.
During Donald Trump's first presidency, he was first in line to have this app removed, due to its Chinese origins. The night before his claim to his second term, he becomes “TikTok’s savior” being praised by the app itself.
“I don’t think Donald Trump had anything to do with it since he wasn’t even inaugurated yet,” De La Garza said.
Although hope is still there for doom-scrolling enjoyers. Famous youtuber Mr. Beast finds himself in the loop. Jimmy Donaldson made a joking post on X saying ‘Ok, fine, I’ll buy TikTok,’ which was completely satire originally. That was before a solid amount of other richer persons or businesses owners came in contact with him saying they’d pitch in enough to make a solid bid on the app.
“It’s ‘unbanned’ but it’s not on the app store so you technically can’t download it on any device. But you can use it if you kept it,” Ellul said.
As of now, TikTok is on a 90-day extension which states that it can exist in America as long as an American bidder buys TikTok soon, for the safety of user security. Although, when the 90-day extension ends, TikTok can potentially be banned again or can face another extension, and another one after that, sending TikTok into a permanent state of limbo.
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