TikTok Ban Lasts Only Hours Before Returned to Americans

By Ty Regan | Editor In Chief

January 24, 2025

Following years of federal investigation, TikTok was taken off of all domestic app stores—returning to the fingertips of 170 million Americans just twelve hours later.

As federal officials became aware of potential threats to national security and user privacy, each of Chinese parent company ByteDance’s services, including TikTok, were banned in the United States late on the evening of Saturday, January 18, 2025. 

Several hours after companies began removing ByteDance’s platforms from their app stores, then-President-elect Donald Trump made clear plans to extend the time until the law’s effect. In this post, he also suggested a joint venture, where ownership is split 50-50 between American and Chinese companies.

Following this statement, TikTok and other ByteDance platforms began restoring service around noon on Sunday, assured by the incoming president’s message.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order pushing back the ByteDance ban for 75 days, in an effort to allow his new administration to gather themselves and properly approach the situation.

Until the date when the ban goes into effect again, which lands in early April, several have already expressed interest in entering joint ownership or complete ownership, including the “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, YouTube star Mr. Beast, Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, and many others.