The popular social media app TikTok went dark in the United States for 14 hours beginning on Saturday, Jan. 18. The Supreme Court supported a law aimed at protecting privacy, which ordered TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell to a U.S. buyer by Jan. 19 otherwise the app would become unavailable in the U.S.
When the TikTok ban was first announced, Americans were concerned about how many people would lose their jobs. TikTok is an app where social media managers, Etsy sellers, musicians, YouTubers, Twitch streamers and more come to share their creations or content and make a living from it.
“I didn’t realize how much I used TikTok until it went dark, especially just laying in bed scrolling before I went to sleep, so it just felt weird to have it gone,” said Meredith Peyton, a junior sociology major.
YikYak, a social media app with anonymous posts, was used by several students to express their frustration about constantly attempting to open the TikTok app out of habit and being unable to use it.
Users were taken by surprise as they began to receive access to TikTok, on Sunday, Jan. 19, after 14 hours of it being deemed banned in the U.S.
“The following morning I had plans that kept me off my phone, and I didn’t realize the app was back up at first. So, overall those 14 hours barely affected me,” said Georgia Barham-Taylor, a junior biology major.
President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on Jan. 20 delaying the enforcement of the ban for 75 days. The delay gives TikTok more time to find a U.S. buyer to continue future use within the states.
Many Americans have questioned an infringement of rights when it comes to this ban. TikTokers and content creators alike have expressed discomfort in the return to the app after a short period and indicate suspicions of censorship of certain news and topics of politics.
“TikTok is a major source of information for me, so if it was permanently banned, I wouldn’t be able to access major news in the way I had before,” Peyton said, “America is also very big about freedom of speech so I feel as though the TikTok ban hindered that as well.”
The potential ban has left many Americans questioning how they will stay informed and connected in the future.
“It not only limits our freedom of speech but could also be seen as restricting freedom of the press, as many news stations rely on the app to reach a broader audience,” Barham-Taylor said.
The TikTok ban was initiated in 2020 by Trump when an attempt to ban the app fell through and the company made changes to U.S. data protections.
After the bipartisan bill was signed by former President Joe Biden, Trump asked the Supreme Court to stop the ban on Dec. 27, 2024, so he could negotiate the dispute through political means once he took office.
Posts made by GCSU students on YikYak, shared anger over Trump using the ban as political gain and abusing his presidential powers. One student made a post claiming this was a social experiment since the app was banned for less than a day, while others are concerned about the future of the app.
“If TikTok was sold to Meta, the only social media I will be using is YouTube,” said a GCSU student in an anonymous YikYak post.
When the ban was imminent many American users vowed to move to other forms of entertainment including Instagram reels and the Chinese app Red Note. For now, the pending doom of TikTok will continue and many GCSU students will continue to enjoy the app while they can.
“If they want me to stop using the app, they are going to have to ban it again,” Peyton said.
