Why is TikTok being banned in the US? When will it happen? What to know

On January 14, 2025By Littum

The The US Supreme Court will decide the fate of TikTokthe wildly popular video social media app used by 170 million Americans, this week. Depending on how they rule, TikTok could be banned in the US in just under a week and the endless scrolling will stop.

If the US Supreme Court does not stop the ban, TikTok’s parent company has until Sunday to sell the company to avoid the ban itself. There are offers on the tablebut the company has yet to confirm whether they are interested in selling to keep their platform available in the US market.

In case TikTok loses and can’t or won’t sell in time, here’s what you need to know.

At the time of publication, there is no verdict yet on TikTok in the US. On Friday, January 17, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the fate of TikTok.

The US Justice Department says TikTok, whose owner, ByteDance, is based in Beijing, has access to US data and shares it with the Chinese government and could manipulate content on the app to shape US opinion.

Biden signed legislation requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to a US company by January 19, 2025.

TikTok says the government has yet to prove such a security risk ever occurred, and claims the ban violates First Amendment rights and threatens the votes of millions of Americans. They have an uphill battle. The lower court’s decision regarding comply with the law was unanimous, from justices appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents.

If ByteDance doesn’t sell TikTok by Sunday, January 19, 2025, the law says it will be banned in the United States.

If ByteDance does not sell TikTok to someone less resistant than a Chinese company, the app will be removed from US app stores and US ISPs will be instructed to block access to the site.

If you have the app on your phone, it won’t disappear, but services may be limited or unavailable, and no further updates will come. It is unclear whether you will be able to add new content.

If you want to keep a copy of your activity on the app, you can do so now.

Yes; if you would like to request a copy of your data on the app, you can. This is how you do it.

In TikTok, go to your profile page and tap the 3-line menu at the top right.

Go to yours Profile page (press Profile at the bottom)
Press on Menu below, three lines stacked vertically
Press on Settings and privacy
Press on Account
Press on Download your data
Choose your data to download (all info or just select data) and the file format (plain text or JSON, which allows other services to import your file)
Press on Request data

You will be notified in the app when the file is ready. It may take a few days to prepare the file, depending on how many videos you have uploaded and how many others are doing the same.

How to download your TikTok data:

Go to yours Profile page (press Profile at the bottom)
Press on Menu below, three lines stacked vertically
Press on Settings and privacy
Press on Account
Press on Download your data
Press on Download data to see if your request is ready and press Download if it is.

Your file will be available for up to four days.

Perhaps? Late last year, President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause any ban on the app so that his administration, which begins the day after the deadline when he formally takes office on Inauguration Day, to “pursue a negotiated resolution. “

At a press conference in December, Trump — who currently has nearly 15 million followers on the app — told reporters “TikTok has a ‘warm place in my heart,'” and credited the app with growing his relationship with young voters. He also voiced his support for app on Truth Social and writes “Why do I want to ban TikTok?”

But he was against it before he was for it.

Trump issued the first TikTok ban of announcement in 2020. His ban, which also gave ByteDance a deadline to sell to an American company, happened to come a month after TikTokkers gleefully trolled him blithely organizing a campaign through the app to sign up for places at his rallies, prompting Trunp to brag about the number of responses received, then not showing up.

While ByteDance was in talks to sell to Microsoft and Oracle, the company filed for a preliminary injunction to prevent the app from being banned and got it, so Trump’s ban never took effect.

Biden later revoked the order and ordered the Commerce Secretary to investigate the app. In 2022, Biden signed a bill banning the app on public entities.

From John Green to Carmel High School, Indiana has made its mark on TikTok.

Carmel High School went viral in 2023 when students showcased the amenities their school has to offer that most others don’t, including a bookstore, jewelry room, a planetarium, and a 10,000-seat football stadium.

The first video garnered 1.3 million likes and 7.6 million views on TikTok. A part two was posted that got 163,000 likes and 1.3 million views.

Indiana author John Green has gone viral several times on the platform over the years. In 2023, Green went viral to once again hype Indianapolis and give a special shoutout to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum.

The video received over 57,000 likes on the platform and received over 442,000 views.

In 2022, another video explaining why he lived in Indianapolis received 250,000 likes and 2.1 million views.