Is Tik Tok finally banned in the United States? Many people have questioned this and wondered, did it actually happen this time? Is Tik Tok gone for good? 

Freshman Marley Winters stated, “I think TikTok should be banned because it’s way too addicting and personally, I believe Instagram is better.” 

As many of you know, the ban for TikTok went into effect on January 18th. The app was deleted from the app store and the services were shut down, making it unavailable for both people who had the app and others who haven’t downloaded it.  

Many people speculated that the ban wouldn’t happen. By chance, the deadline could’ve gotten extended by 270 days, or the owner of TikTok decides to sell the app to an American buyer, which neither happened.  

Although many people were devastated, the ban did not last long. The next day, on January 19th, the services for TikTok in the U.S. got restored thanks to President Trump. And just recently, the app was added back to the app store. 

Freshman Madelyn Menendez stated, “I guess I understand why they need to ban TikTok. I don’t really have an opinion on if they should or shouldn’t ban it, but if they have proof people are actually stealing our data, then I guess it makes sense.” 

However, this isn’t the first time that TikTok has been said to be banned. Over the past few years, we have been told by our government that Tik Tok will get banned and be unavailable for Americans, only for it to just now happen but only for a short period of time.  

Starting in August of 2020, President Trump issued executive orders to ban TikTok from the U.S. market due to national security concerns. The main concern is that the Chinese government could potentially access Americans’ data through TikTok.  

Three years later, in February, the Biden Administration banned the app from federal devices. A month after, TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew, appears in a hearing before lawmakers to defend the company.  

In March of 2024, the House of Representatives passed the TikTok bill. Biden later signed the bill in April, which would force TikTok to divest from its U.S. operations or a nationwide ban would be put into place.  

The owner of TikTok, ByteDance, sued the U.S. federal government in May, arguing that the ban in unconstitutional. A few months later, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission then filed a lawsuit against ByteDance, stating that TikTok violates children’s online privacy law.  

In December, the TikTok law was ruled Constitutional by a federal appeals court.