TikTok is Down. It’s Back? That was Fast!

It feels like we’ve just watched a technology version of kayfabe over the last few days, right? TikTok was nearing its deadline to sell or shut down. ByteDance closed access to the app, and all of their other apps. And then, like a Christmas miracle, the app was back, thanks to the incoming administration.

Yeah… ok. I’ll preface this by saying that I am not hooked on TikTok, nor do I have a large presence on it outside of the advice that streamers should be using as many platforms as is possible and they’re comfortable with. So I have videos–I mean content–over there, but I don’t actively scroll it in my idle moments.

Still, I can acknowledge the loss of the platform to those who used it to earn money, and those who used it for a much needed distraction from… *gestures vaguely* …all this. But let’s look at the history (condensed from the linked AP article):

• July 2020: President Donald Trump says he is considering banning TikTok as retaliation for China’s alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• August 2020: Trump issues a sweeping but vague executive order banning American companies from any “transaction” with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, including TikTok. Several days later, he issues a second order demanding that ByteDance divest itself of TikTok’s U.S. operations within 90 days.
• November 2020: Joe Biden is elected president. He doesn’t offer new policy on TikTok and won’t take office until January, but Trump’s plans to force a sale of TikTok start to unravel anyway. The Trump administration extends the deadlines it had imposed on ByteDance and TikTok and eventually lets them slide altogether.
• December 2022: FBI Director Christopher Wray raises national security concerns about TikTok, warning that Chinese officials could manipulate the app’s recommendation algorithm for influence operations.
• February 2023: The White House gives federal agencies 30 days to ensure TikTok is deleted from all government-issued mobile devices. Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission warn that ByteDance could share TikTok user data with China’s authoritarian government.
• March 2024: A bill to ban TikTok or force its sale to a U.S. company gathers steam in Congress.
• April 2024: The bill is sent to President Biden, who signs it.
• December 2024: President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.
• January 2025: The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company, holding that the risk to national security posed by its ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app.

As I said on Bluesky, how convenient that the same person who started this in 2020 is the one who resolves it in 2025 after another administration has been in place in the meantime. It’s great when you can take credit for solving a problem that you created!

Aside from getting a screenshot, I haven’t started browsing TikTok again, nor have I posted a video and I’m wondering if I should wean myself off of it. Similar to thoughts in my previous article, is it time to move on? Only using it when I have to, to keep in touch with people, or satisfy sponsored obligations?

Right now, however, these TikTok thoughts serve as a welcome distraction from the fact that just a few miles away from me, the Inauguration of the new administration will be taking place–on MLK Day, at that–and I could use other things to think about.

Stay warm, stay safe, and be good to yourselves out there. 💖