On an ordinary Saturday night, WO students and people from all over the country watched the deadline for TikTok to be banned slowly get closer and closer. Users across the country took to the app to post heartfelt farewells, reminiscing about the countless memories they’d made on the platform. With rumors swirling and hope fading, it seemed like the inevitable was about to happen. At exactly 9:00 PM on the 18th, the app went dark. Students at WO were in shock as a chilling notification popped up on every device, announcing that TikTok was now unavailable due to a new law banning it for all U.S. users. A collective silence fell over the nation as hearts sank, and millions were left staring at their screens, grappling with the reality that the app they’d come to love—and for some, depend on—was now gone for good. Or so they thought, TikTok’s ban was short-lived, later becoming available again. WO Students were frustrated during the ban and continue to wonder what is next for the app.
TikTok is one of the biggest platforms of our generation. The simple concept and the ability to connect with others very easily made it a nationwide success, especially with the younger generation. Before TikTok there was “Musical.ly” which had the same concept and was filled with dances, trends, challenges, etc. “I remember Musical.ly pretty well honestly, I joined I think in 2016. I used to post so many videos and it’s crazy to think about how the audios on Musically vs Tiktok is. I remember many popular artists there such as Loren Gray, Baby Ariel, Lisa and Lena, and even Selena Gomez. Everyone who had musically was pranked by saying we got a chance to do a duet with her. I felt so special.” Said Sr. Myah Beltran. Musical.ly was later bought and merged with TikTok by ByteDance in 2017.
Over the last few years TikTok has been under fire in the US due to TikTok being owned by a Chinese company “ByteDance” The US Government has suspicion that TikTok is stealing information from US citizens and being used to spy on us. This has been an ongoing process since 2020. After other countries such as China and India banned the app, the US started looking into it as well. The Trump administration was forcing TikTok to sell to a US company to allow it to still be available in the US. With Joe Biden being elected for President in November of 2020, the Trump administration extended the deadline for TikTok to sell and ended up letting it slide all together. While Biden was in office, countless articles were being published saying that TikTok is stealing information and promoting inappropriate content to children and teens. Leading up to 2024, TikTok has been in a huge legal battle with the US Government with TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew.
There seemed to be no hope for TikTok leading up to the app being shut down the evening of January 18, 2025. The app being shut down did not last long, later being brought back the next day but still continues to be unavailable on app stores. Phones with the app still installed are being sold online for $10k or more! 3 students gave their initial thoughts about the app being down. “I feel like people were overreacting to the app being down, the ban threat has been going on for so long and nothing has happened.” Said Sr. Lauren Espy. “When I saw that TikTok got banned, I was kind of upset because it was the main source of media that I used for entertainment when either I’m bored or to pass time.” Said Sr. Jaeshawn Akhavong. “When I found out the app got banned I was like, ‘hello what happened?,’ because they banned it earlier than we were told! Even though I agree and TikTok is an addictive app, I have so many memories there I wouldn’t want to lose. And especially since I wasn’t able to save my data from my accounts in time. When the app eventually came back the next day, I was honestly happy and it wasn’t even a full 24 hours.” Said Sr. Myah Beltran
During the ban, some students migrated to the Chinese app “rednote” (Xiaohongshu) as a substitute for TikTok and to poke fun at the US Government for going through with the ban. Also showing their frustration on other platforms. rednote is very similar to TikTok and even added some features of their own and users were close to making rednote their new home until TikTok became available once again. Sr. Kylie Kruithoff is one of many who is stuck using rednote due to TikTok not being back on app stores. “When I first joined rednote it was okay, it felt mostly the same, I like that it feels almost the same as TikTok and I like how the content varies more.”
With TikTok being available again for users, students were relieved but frustrated, saying they were worried for nothing. Students are still wondering the future of TikTok and where it will end up. Will TikTok sell to a US company? Will it be banned permanently? Or will it be left alone. Students gave their predictions for the future of TikTok. “I think in the future, another event may happen where the U.S may want to ban TikTok again for a particular reason of whatever the issue may be.” Sr. Jaeshawn Akhavong. “I think TikTok will have more legal battles, or I think they will sell to a US Company and stay in the US for good.” Sr. Kylie Kruithoff. “I think TikTok will sell to a US company in the near future because I believe if they don’t the app will end up getting banned.” Sr. Lauren Espy.
