Tik Tac Toe (A Loser?)

Before TikTok, there was Musical.ly, and before that was the original video making app — Vine. The premise of these apps is to record short, usually funny videos to capture attention and hopefully fame. Musical.ly was an app that first hit phones in the summer of 2014, following the loss of another popular app, Vine. Musical.ly was an immediate hit, with young teenage users like Baby Ariel and Jacob Sartorius — two of the most popular figures to come out of Musical.ly with their lip-syncing techniques — gaining a new fame that had only ever been reached on Vine before. In 2017, the company “Byte Dance” bought the app and the following year they changed it to what is now known as TikTok. Though the controversy first surrounding the loss of Musical.ly, TikTok became a new kind of social media that every teenager, young adult, or mostly anyone with a phone had it installed at one time. 

Almost 5 years ago, the president at the time proposed a ban on this app. A fun, relaxing app that allowed people to unwind and have a giggle after a long day, a simple app that fed countless videos of Crumbl Cookie mukbangs to users’ For You Pages, (a feature on the app that was personalized to one’s data). Fast forward four years later when this president is reelected…and he’s had a sudden change of heart! Now, he believes TikTok is a great app, and should not ever be banned! The funny part is that the day of his inauguration is the day after the ban was to take place. On January 19, 2025, TikTok was to be banned in the United Stated on account of Byte Dance being operated by a Chinese team, and the government believing TikTok and its CEO, Shou Zi Chew were leaking private, personal information from Americans profiles to the Chinese Communist Party. The same data that was people’s liked videos of Triple Dipper Mukbangs from Chilis and Subway Surfer videos to Reddit stories. The belief was that for people’s For You Pages to be personalized, it had to be because the app was collecting information on the person and secret data, which was simply the data of people liking videos they had interest in. 

On the night of January 18, 2025, teenagers all around the world were laying in bed doom scrolling, hoping to soak up their last moments on this app before it was  ripped from their little hands. Many people posted sentimental videos, crying, and thanking everyone they’d met from the app…and crying some more… However, instead of the ban taking place the next day, or even at 12 am on the 19th, a notification took center screen around 10 p.m. stating that a TikTok ban was happening and to hope that “President Donald Trump” would save the app and all its users and small businesses. Now, I’m no expert, but it’s quite silly how the same man that was the reason for the ban being brought up, was now being praised for saving it. Seems to me like a bit of a conspiracy, maybe even an Illuminati scheme. 

The next morning, around 12 pm on the day of the ban, the app was suddenly back up and running. A little low on the quality, but there, nonetheless, was everyone’s favorite videos. Of course, it was all thanks to the president. He and the CEO of TikTok had a meeting, and Chew was to attend his inauguration the following day to talk more. Today, the ban is looked back on with PTSD and trauma, many people trying to forget its presence. However, the ban isn’t gone forever as Trump signed an executive order to delay the ban for at least 75 days to find someone to buy and save the app. So far, there have been talks of Mr. Beast, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and all of Trump’s other billionaire buddies. Personally, I have one message. Trisha Paytas, save us.