TikTok Keeps Ticking

After twelve hours of the 170 million American TikTok users losing access to their beloved app, the social media reappeared on Sunday with a “welcome back” message. For the past several months users were preparing for the app to go to dark on January 19th, but the app was shut down early on January 18th around 8:30 mountain time, but then reappeared on Sunday late morning.
The TikTok ban was mainly due to national security concerns. U.S. officials were concerned that the Chinese government could access user data because it was owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Other problems include misinformation, possible propaganda, etc. but to learn more you can read “The Tik Tok Takedown” below.

“If you cared about TikTok being banned, I think you’re being dramatic and it wasn’t that big of a deal. There are other apps and so much more to do in the world than scrolling on TikTok,” sophomore Sullivan Ramirez said.
When the app became unavailable late on Saturday night it popped up with a notification saying “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now”. The message continued, “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!,” It then offered users two options, either to close the app or click “learn more” which only offered the same information.
“I thought that the TikTok ban was very interesting, everybody including myself thought it would last longer, but then it only lasted 12 hours,” sophomore Kaylea Pike said.
Then when the app reappeared on Sunday, it sent a message welcoming back its American users saying, “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.! You can continue to create, share, and discover all the things you love on TikTok.”
“When TikTok got banned I was thinking about what app I was going to go to next and it was Reels. I know a lot of other people went to RedNote, but I didn’t trust that,” sophomore Penelope Dickinson said.
RedNote is another Chinese-owned app with a similar platform to TikTok that focuses on music and video content. Although TikTok is mostly short videos set to music, Rednote focuses on music discovery, collaboration, and community-building around music-driven content.
“I downloaded RedNote for less than 10 minutes and it didn’t compare to TikTok and was sketchy, so I deleted it. We don’t know anything about it, for all we know it’s worse than TikTok and I don’t recommend it,” Pike said.
In the past month, the RedNote app gained almost 200 million users in the last month (according to pcmag.com). Other users planned on using apps like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Lemon8, etc.
“I don’t have TikTok but I have looked at Rednote and it’s 100% just as dangerous if not more than TikTok. I heard it even will sometimes post your IP address publicly which isn’t safe at all,” senior Erich Bohn said.
. As one of President Donald Trump’s first moves after his inauguration, he issued an executive order on Monday to stop the ban on TikTok for 75 days.
“I intend to consult with my advisors, including the heads of relevant departments and agencies on the national security concerns posed by TikTok, and to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans,” Trump said in the executive order.
Due to the ban, some users deleted the app when it went black. These users are unable to redownload the app because it is still removed from the app store. The app has also stated that because it is unavailable in the app store, updates will be unavailable to all users so the likelihood of the app crashing soon due to bugs that are normally fixed is only increasing.
“I ended up deleting TikTok and I can’t get it back, of course, I’ll miss it but I think it will be better for me in the long run. I would always scroll on it for hours and it was unhealthy,” Dickinson said.
The future of TikTok is still unknown as to what will happen after the 75-day extension. Currently, no news sources are reporting on what will happen, but with Trump’s support for keeping TikTok available, hopes for the app are increasing.
“Even with TikTok back, I don’t know if I am going to get it back yet. I don’t need it anymore and when I want to scroll I’ll just go on Instagram Reels. At the end of the day, it’s just an app and no one needs it,” Ramirez said.