TikTok, a popular social media platform, has over 170 million users in the US alone. On January 17 2025, The US Supreme Court upheld the ban against TikTok forcing them to shut their servers down. On January 18th TikTok went dark. Dr. Thomas Apel, a history teacher at Convent and Stuart Hall, had this to say about it: “I think it’s one distraction removed from a pile of distractions, and it won’t help much.”

The reason for the ban was because of the app’s alleged security concerns along with the concern of China stealing users’ data. In April 2024, former President Biden signed a bill requiring TikTok to either shut down in the US or sell to non-China based companies. However, with TikTok being worth 161 billion dollars, the price made it difficult to sell to potential buyers. Therefore TikTok contested this bill and brought it in front of the Supreme Court citing free speech. However, the Supreme Court ruled against tik tok forcing them to shut down. 

This ban does protect users’ data but many don’t seem to care. Planning for a ban, many users migrated to another app called Xiaohongshu (Red note), another Chinese-based social media app. This app similarly has concerns about data privacy. This app became a haven for the users forced off TikTok. 

The implications of this ban are far reaching. Many creators rely on TikTok as either their primary income source or a secondary revenue stream, and with the ban happening they are essentially being fired. It also limits many small businesses from marketing their product or service. 

However, to the relief of many users less than 12 hours later TikTok’s servers were back up thanks to President Trump issuing an executive order allowing for TikTok’s servers to run. 

“That night I had a nightmare that TikTok would never come back, when I woke up I was so relieved I screamed for joy”, says 11th Junior Leo Mercado. 

 Some users were less fortunate, however. Those who had deleted the app are now unable to redownload it.