On Friday, January 17, the United States Supreme Court voted to uphold a law banning TikTok across the country unless it was divested from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, by this Sunday, January 19.
While the news came as a devastating blow to the short-form video-sharing app’s hundreds of millions of American users, TikTok had been flagged as a possible threat to national security for years—going back at least to the dismal summer of 2020.
That September, the Commerce Department announced its plans to restrict access to TikTok and WeChat, a messaging app, in response to an August 2020 executive order from then President Donald Trump. The order, which underlined TikTok’s potential to share user data with ByteDance, as stated in the app’s terms of service, noted that such “data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
Yet those initial actions eventually hit a dead end. After Trump ordered that ByteDance sell off any of its TikTok-related business assets, or else face a nation-wide ban, President Biden, on taking office in January 2021, postponed that ban—that is, until a new TikTok-related bill began gathering support in Congress in March 2024.
Ten months later, on January 19, 2025, TikTok did indeed go dark: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” a pop-up message on the app read that morning. “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!”
Within a few hours, however, service was restored. “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” a new message read.
“As of today, TikTok is back,” Trump declared at a pre-inauguration rally on the evening of January 19.
So…what was all of that about? Read on for an explainer.
What sparked the first TikTok ban under President Trump?
Trump’s fraught history with TikTok goes back to July 2020, when he announced plans to ban TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps due to alleged national security concerns. On August 6, 2020, Trump signed an order stating that any transactions between TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and US citizens would be outlawed. The ban was due to go into effect at midnight on Sunday, September 20, 2020, though the deadline was later extended—and, by February 2021, with a new president in office, it ultimately fell apart.
What happened after President Biden took office?
For a while, any legal action between the US government and TikTok was put on hold. But by February 2023, the White House had ordered the app’s removal from any government-issued mobile devices; and the following month, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew sat down for a six-hour congressional hearing, during which he was grilled on TikTok and ByteDance’s relationship to the Chinese government.
A year later, in March 2024, a TikTok ban-or-sell bill, known formally as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), passed in the House and the Senate, before being signed into law by Biden that April.
A flurry of lawsuits followed. First, in May, TikTok and ByteDance sued the US federal government, claiming that PAFACA violated TikTok users’ First Amendment rights. Then, in August, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice filed a joint lawsuit against TikTok and ByteDance, claiming the app imperiled children’s online privacy.
Yet in December, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the ban-or-sell bill—prompting TikTok’s appeal to the Supreme Court this month.
“The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” an official statement from the app read on December 6. “The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025.”
What did Trump have to say about those developments?
His tune changed, to put it mildly. After briefly meeting with Jeff Yass, a billionaire American investor in the app (and major Republican donor), in March 2024, and himself joining TikTok in June 2024, the president-elect urged SCOTUS to pause the looming ban in an amicus brief filed on December 27. It read, in part:
“President Trump is one of the most powerful, prolific, and influential users of social media in history. Consistent with his commanding presence in this area, President Trump currently has 14.7 million followers on TikTok with whom he actively communicates, allowing him to evaluate TikTok’s importance as a unique medium for freedom of expression, including core political speech…
President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government—concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged.”
Nevertheless, SCOTUS proceded with its hearings on January 10—and upholding the ban.
So, why is TikTok suddenly back?
Even as ByteDance staunchly refused to offload TikTok, despite interest from various American parties, Trump told media outlets late last week that he would “most likely” give the company another 90-day extension upon taking office.
“You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Saturday, January 18.
A day prior, on Friday, January 17, Trump also revealed in a post to Truth Social that he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the phone. “The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A,” Trump wrote. “It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately. We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects. President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!”
Then, on January 19, mere hours after TikTok disappeared from Apple’s App store and ceased to function for US-based users, service was restored. In a statement shared on social media, the company announced:
“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive. It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
“As of today, TikTok is back,” Trump announced at a pre-inauguration rally on January 19.
Then, on Truth Social, he confirmed that upon taking office on January 20, he would sign an executive order that would give TikTok more time to find a buyer. He also proposed that the US or an American firm take a 50% ownership stake.
“By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to [stay] up,” Trump wrote. “Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars—maybe trillions.”
What have other Republicans had to say about this?
On Sunday, Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, indicated that he still intends to uphold the TikTok ban. Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, he said: “When President Trump issued the Truth post and said save TikTok, the way we read that is that he’s going to try to force along a true divestiture.”
“Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date,” added Senate intelligence committee chairman Tom Cotton and Senator Pete Ricketts in a joint statement on Sunday. “For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China. Only then will Americans be protected from the grave threat posed to their privacy and security by a communist-controlled TikTok.”
