TikTok Ban Delayed for 75 Days After Trump Signed Executive Order

By Lauren Steinbrook

Staff Writer

Two days after TikTok went dark in the United States, Donald Trump signed an executive order to delay the ban.

TikTok went dark in the United States on Saturday night, less than two hours before a ban was set to go into effect.

Visitors to the app were greeted with a message reading: “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”

CapCut, an editing app popular among TikTok users and Lemon8, a photo-sharing app, also owned by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, displayed a similar message and became unavailable to many U.S. users Saturday evening as well.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday unanimously voted to uphold a federal law banning the app due to concerns that TikTok’s ties to China pose a threat to national security.

According to an article from CBS News, Congress voted last year to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company to sell its stake in the app or face a ban from the U.S. market.

“The saddest part about the ban will be losing all of my past TikToks because those hold so many memories,” said Rico Paradis, a senior nonprofit social justice and entrepreneurship in administration major at Trevecca. “My main usage of TikTok is to see what my friends post and to post my own things. I kind of think it won’t actually go away, though, because so many people want to buy it.”

President-elect Donald Trump, in an interview Saturday with NBC News, said he “most likely” would issue a 90-day extension to the Jan. 19 deadline. Trump added that if he decides to save TikTok from its Saturday deadline, he would “probably announce it” during his first day in office.

“I believe there is a lot more to the ban than we probably understand. I don’t think our president would take away such a fun and lighthearted social media platform,” said Caroline Foster, a sophomore, pastoral ministry and religion major at Trevecca. “So while I’m sad that it will be going, I’m sure there is a much better reason than we really are understanding or are aware of.”

Many students posted on their social media accounts Saturday evening, saying things like “RIP TikTok” or expressing outrage with the situation.

According to CNN, on Apple and Google’s app stores, the most popular free apps for the past week have been TikTok-like apps, Lemon8 and RedNote, both also owned by Chinese companies. Many users are downloading these apps in protest of the government’s decision.

Both Paradis and Foster said they would turn to Instagram/Facebook Reels or YouTube Shorts as alternatives.

TikTok released a statement in the morning of  Jan. 19 through X saying “in agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service.” Users around social media stated the app was back and working again.

Hours after his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States, Trump signed an executive order in an attempt to delay the ban on TikTok for 75 days. 

“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” said Trump, according to the New York Times,  while he signed the executive order.