As of February 2025, TikTok has not been permanently banned in the United States. However, on Jan. 20, 2025, the app was briefly inaccessible for about 12 hours, with service disrupted for all users connected to servers within the U.S.
Discussions of banning TikTok date back to 2018, when then-President Donald Trump first indicated his desire to remove the app over concerns about cybersecurity. Some of Trump’s supporters appeared to misinterpret his reasoning, with some believing the move was tied to protecting children’s safety online.
“They could have just had an age restriction on it,” said Junior Issac Vanderweide, implying that Trump’s motivation may have been rooted in safeguarding the future of America’s youth.
The brief TikTok ban occurred under the Biden administration but was lifted after 12 hours. When the app was restored, users were met with a pop-up message from TikTok’s administration reading: “Thank you to the president-elect Donald Trump,” despite Trump—set to become the 47th president—having no official executive power at the time.
Bytedance, TikTok’s parent company, also owns several other popular apps used by Western audiences, including the video editing app CapCut and the mobile game Marvel Snap. Both apps were also temporarily banned, leaving content creators and comic book fans in a state of panic. Many feared they would lose access to the platforms they regularly used.
Although CapCut and Marvel Snap were unbanned along with TikTok after about 12 hours, concerns continued to circulate among fans of Marvel Rivals, a newly released game owned by a different Chinese company, which some mistakenly believed was also at risk.
The brief Bytedance ban sparked widespread concern among young Americans, highlighting how much of their digital lives are tied to Chinese-owned platforms. While the question of TikTok’s potential security risks as alleged “Chinese spyware” remains under separate review, the temporary ban served as a wake-up call for users, reminding them just how much Bytedance-owned apps play a role in their daily lives.
