A couple of weeks ago, Americans lost access to their favorite app, TikTok.
On January 18th, 2025, TikTok was shut down in the U.S. The application’s almost 170 million U.S. users were blindsided by the deactivation.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) was signed into law on April 24th, 2024, with overwhelming support from Congress.
PAFACA requires that by January 19, 2025, any apps controlled by foreign entities must transfer their U.S. operations to non-foreign ownership or be banned in the U.S.
This law was passed with bipartisan majority for a few reasons, all regarding national security concerns.
On Jan 17th, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld this law, ruling that it did not violate users’ First Amendment Rights.
This left TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, with only two options. ByteDance must divest its U.S. operations by January 19th, 2025, or face ban in the U.S.
UCF student, Alex Khoriokav said “Leading up to the anticipated TikTok ban, I felt more upset about losing all the saved videos and info than about my own account disappearing.”
TikTok was not sold before this deadline, resulting in its precautionary shut down in the U.S. on January 18.
When users tried to open the app, it stated, “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
Photo by: Landen Looker
The statement follows with, “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”
This left Gen-Z users wanting answers.
On Sunday, January 19th, 2025, the app reactivated in America. U.S. users were able to access TikTok just the same as before, only 12 hours later.
“When it did get banned I did definitely expect it to last longer than a day, I was definitely not expecting it to come back so quick.” says Haley Mcleer, former DSC student.
That Sunday, President Trump stated that he will use executive order to “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”
The executive order delayed the ban by exactly 75 days.
While he originally backed the idea of banning TikTok in his first term, Trump took a different approach during the 2024 election, openly opposing the ban.
For now, ByteDance is using the 75 days granted by President Trump to search for potential buyers. If TikTok isn’t successfully sold to a U.S. entity, it may face permanent ban in America. Only time will tell the fate of the app, but the adverse effects of the application being banned would be noticeable.