1-12-2025 7:47pm

History and What Happens If Tik Tok Ban Holds in the US

Chris Edwards Editor

Local content creators and those across the nation concerned on the impact of Tik Toc being shut down. With 170+ million US consumers and creators on TikTok, and brands now using it as a major part of their customer acquisition strategy, many are keeping a close eye on this conversation which comes to a head January 19th, 2025.

Last year, the app drove more than $10 billion in consumer spending on its own. That’s not even counting the influencer marketing investments on TikTok. These are projected to increase in 2025 thanks to the great results that brands are seeing on the platform.

History of events around Tic Tok...

TikTok is owned by a Chinese Internet company, ByteDance.

July 2020: Rumors swirl that the United States may ban TikTok due to Washington's concerns that the Chinese government could have control over an app that so many Americans use. Meanwhile, TikTok positions itself to be sold back to an American company. They instate an American CEO (former chairman of Disney), ensuring that its data centers are not in China and separated TikTok’s American operations from its parent company. This wasn't difficult since TikTok was originally an American company named Musical.ly, purchased by ByteDance in 2017.

August 2020: President Trump signs an executive order banning TikTok if the app is not sold to an American company within 45 days. Oracle and other investors seek a bid to purchase TikTok’s US operations.

September 2020: TikTok files an injunction to prevent the app’s impending ban. The ban stalls as a result.

December 2020: A federal judge blocks the Trump administration’s TikTok ban. Lawmakers call the proposed ban “arbitrary." The ruling also cites a lack of a “reasonable alternative before banning TikTok.”

June 2021: Under the Biden administration, Trump’s TikTok ban attempts are officially dropped. The new administration calls for reviews of apps like TikTok for security threats. Their goal is to take an “evidence-based” approach.

June 2022: TikTok officially transfers its traffic to US-based Oracle servers. Prior to this, user data was stored in TikTok’s US-based data centers in Virginia with backups in Singapore. Despite rumors, TikTok claims that the Chinese government never accessed US data.

December 8, 2022: TikTok touts new security plans under the oversight of national security agencies. The platform announces a Trust and Safety Team in the US to protect user data and privacy.

December 22, 2022: Forbes releases a report stating “An internal investigation by ByteDance, the parent company of video-sharing platform TikTok, found that employees tracked multiple journalists covering the company, improperly gaining access to their IP addresses and user data in an attempt to identify whether they had been in the same locales as ByteDance employees.” Lawmakers propose bipartisan legislation supporting a ban on federal devices.

December 27, 2022: TikTok is banned from the mobile devices of lawmakers and staff in the US House of Representatives.

December 30, 2022: A revised ban is issued which restricts TikTok from the mobile devices of all federal government employees. Some exceptions are made for research and law enforcement purposes.

March 1, 2023: The US House Foreign Affairs Committee votes to give President Biden approval to ban TikTok. Reporting by Reutersnotes that this would be "the most far-reaching US restriction on any social media app" if a ban were to happen. TikTok releases an official statement calling the legislation "rushed." The statement also describes the proposed ban as having a "considerable negative impact on the free speech rights of millions of Americans."

March 7, 2023: A bipartisan group of US senators introduces the RESTRICT Act. The proposed legislation would give the federal government new powers to restrict and potentially ban technologies coming from China. This would include TikTok.

March 23, 2023: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies in front of Congress in a five-hour hearing. Chew touted TikTok's commitment to security and free speech. Congress grilled him on data privacy and TikTok's ties to China.

April, 14, 2023: Montana becomes the first state to approve a full, state-wide ban on TikTok. According to NPR, the ban would not go into effect until January 2024 if it was actually enacted. Some critics feel that Montana's ban is largely performative and would be impossible to enforce. Beyond that, it's likely that a federal decision on the TikTok ban will be made prior to January 2024

May 7, 2024: TikTok officially files a petition in federal court to overturn the attempted ban. The petition describes the suggested divestment as "impossible" and the January 2025 deadline as "arbitrary."

Jun 17, 2024: As reported by Reuters, a US appeals court announces that it will hold oral arguments regarding TikTok's divestment and ban on September 16, 2024.

July 27, 2024: Ironically, both major American parties' respective Presidential nominees have joined TikTok (with Trump joining in June and Kamala Harris joining in July). Both have mixed records on their attempts to ban the app. Both candidates were not fully committed to banning TikTok as of August 2024.

August 16, 2024: TikTok claims that the Department of Justice misstated the app's ties to China, therefore making factual errors in the case against the app.

September 16, 2024: TikTok presents yet another challenge to the ban, this time to a US federal appeals court. ByteDance and TikTok's lawyer cites violations free speech protections as a key reason to not ban the app.

December 6, 2024: The US Court of Appeals upholds the law which officially denies TikTok's previous challenge of the ban. In response, TikTok claims they will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

December 9, 2024: TikTok files an emergency injunction to extend the ban timeline to give the Supreme Court more time to consider the app's case and not rush a decision. TikTok and ByteDance also cite the upcoming Presidential transition as a key reason for extending the ban deadline. While the push to ban TikTok is bipartisan, President-elect Trump's stance on the app has been inconsistent.

December 13, 2024: TikTok's emergency injection is rejected. Google and Apple are informed by US officials to prepare to remove the app from their app stores by January 19th.

December 16, 2024: TikTok appeals once again to the US Supreme Court to temporarily block the law that would see the app banned. President-elect Trump reportedly meets with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew this week.

December 18, 2024: The US Supreme Court agrees to hear TikTok's arguments on January 10, 2025.

December 28, 2024: President-elect Trump urges the Supreme Court to delay its decision until after his inauguration (January 20, 2025). As it stands, TikTok's ban would move forward a day before that.

January 6, 2025: The Justice Department urges the US Supreme Court to reject Trump's request to delay a decision on the TikTok ban.

The Supreme Court heard arguments Friday over whether TikTok can be banned in the U.S. later this month in a case pitting two major issues − freedom of speech and national security − against each other.

At the end of two and a half hours of questions, the justices appeared ready to uphold a law requiring TikTok's Chinese parent company to sell off its U.S. business or face a ban.

Unless the high court intervenes, Google, Apple and internet providers won't be allowed to make TikTok available after Jan. 19. Those on the platform locally and across the nation are in limbo on rather they will continue to get paid on the platform after January 19th. The Ap would still be usable and available if already downloaded but would soon become obsolete as updates would no longer be available for security patches and user updates. Stay tuned as this is an evolving situation.