Over 170 million TikTok users go into a state of panic as the app suddenly goes completely dark on Saturday evening after the Supreme Court upholds the law of banning Tiktok in the United States.
On January 17th, the Supreme Court upheld the law banning TikTok starting for two days. The popular app had been facing bans in certain countries due to concerns of national security. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is a Chinese technology corporation that has created many other platforms such as Douyin, Capcut, Hypic, Gauthmath, and Lemon8.
The U.S. government called for an immediate ban throughout the country, fearing that ByteDance had been taking personal data and information from all their users on these apps. It also sparked unease about how younger generations on the app would be influenced by potential propaganda on their feed.
TikTok users had been enjoying their last few hours on the app, when a message notified them, “A law banning Tiktok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
14 hours after the ban, TikTok notified American users with the message, “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, Tiktok is back in the U.S.!”, seemingly thanking the new and 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump.
“I think the ban was needed to be honest. Kids are constantly on their phones, scrolling away for hours and not even going outside to get a breath of fresh air,” David Lee says “Hopefully the ban can come back again so people on the app are more focused on things like school work, quality time with friends and family, and discovering that there is more to life than a silly app.”
“People shouldn’t be thanking Trump at all since he was the one who proposed the ban to begin with, and people are willing to overlook that fact since the app was brought back” TikTok user Marisol Gomez says. “It was infuriating simply because we all knew it was propaganda and that it was going to come back sooner or later, but the fact that it came back 14 hours later is what made it pointless.”
The brief ban and return of TikTok leaves many citizens questioning the extent the U.S. government will take in order to maintain state security, but also the freedom to enjoy social media platforms in America.
