On the morning of January 19, 2025, TikTok was banned in the U.S., but the ban did not last that long which was about 3 hours long of the ban. The government had concerns about TikTok being owned by a Chinese company (ByteDance). The U.S. Government were worried that they could access the American user’s data and confidential information and spread the information. Because of these concerns, they thought it would be a great idea to ban TikTok so that nobody would have access to American users’ information. 

Most people who use TikTok were disappointed in the ban. This made many people protest the decision, arguing that TikTok is just a normal social media app like many other social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Some people even took legal action to fight against the ban. Meanwhile, Influencers and business owners who make money from TikTok lost that place of income, and since TikTok was banned, they were worried that the ban could hurt them financially. 

“The TikTok ban was so unnecessary, and the government is dumb for thinking that TikTok is spying on us,” said DBHS Junior Katherine Landero. 

It has been rumored for years that Tiktok would get banned, so many thought this was just another false alarm. But the surprise shocked them all when it happened this time. 

Those who deleted TikTok off their phones and tried to get it back realized that it was no longer available once deleted. Other people who had TikTok on their phones would go as far as selling their phones for 10k+ dollars and people who were too obsessed with the app would buy it. Some people would change their regions to Canada to get the TikTok app back on their phones. The ban on TikTok, though it was only for a short time greatly impacted the United States. 

On February 13, 2025, at 1 PM EST, TikTok was finally back up on the App Store and working again. When Tiktokers heard about this, they were relieved, especially influencers and business owners who relied their money on TikTok. This brought everyone’s hopes up that TikTok is not getting banned for now.