In case you forgot: In 2020, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order looking to ban TikTok in the United States; and now in 2025, it is being left up to him to “save” the platform.
RELATED: President Joe Biden Decides Not To Enforce Looming TikTok Ban, Instead Leaves Chinese App’s Fate To President-Elect Donald Trump
In July 2020, Donald Trump first claimed he would ban TikTok from the United States, and then on August 6, 2020, Trump officially proposed, with an executive order, to ban TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance on September 15, 2020.
Months before Trumped signed the executive order, U.S. officials were planning to ban the app due to national security concerns and the possibility of sharing data with China’s government. ByteDance responded back to Trump and threatened to sue his administration, claiming, “We will pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and our users are treated fairly — if not by the Administration, then by the U.S. courts.”
Trump continued to demand that ByteDance sell its shares in TikTok to a U.S. ally, and soon enough he was out of office, leaving President Joe Biden to continue the fight to ban TikTok — which eventually took place. In March 2024, Joe Biden said if Congress passed a bill to ban TikTok, he would sign it and a month later, the House and Senate approved the bill forcing the sale or ban of TikTok and as promised, Biden signed the bill into law.
RELATED: Donald Trump Says He Will Most Likely Give TikTok 90-Day Extension After He Takes Office
As it had been doing TikTok and its CEO fired back and claimed they “weren’t going anywhere.” In May 2024, TikTok filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, claiming the potential ban violated the First Amendment. In December 2024, a federal appeals court decided that TikTok must find a new owner to avoid a ban and U.S. lawmakers told Apple, Google, and other web-hosting platforms to be prepared to remove TikTok from their app stores on January 19.
Days later, President-elect Donald Trump addressed the potential TikTok ban and urged the Supreme Court to delay it so that he can “negotiate a resolution to save the platform.” In January, days before the TikTok ban and Donald Trump’s inauguration, President Joe Biden announced that his administration would not be enforcing the looming ban and would instead leave the Chinese app’s fate to Donald Trump.
A day later, the Supreme Court upheld the ban on TikTok, despite their argument about a First Amendment violation. The ruling ordered ByteDance to shut down operations in the U.S. on January 19 and hours before the deadline, the Chinese-based company’s apps (TikTok, CapCut, and Lemon8) went dark and were pulled from app stores.
RELATED: White House Says TikTok’s Threat To ‘Go Dark’ On January 19, Without Joe Biden’s Support, Is A ‘Stunt’
However, what was most interesting was that not only did President Biden’s administration call TikTok’s threat to “go dark” on January 19 a “stunt,” but when TikTok shuttered, it left a message with its users claiming, “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!” Donald Trump, who is being looked at to “save” TikTok in 2025, is the same person who introduced the idea to ban the app in 2020.
Hours before TikTok went dark, Donald Trump also claimed that he will likely give its owner a 90-day extension as all parties try to figure out a solution to keep the app around indefinitely in U.S. But, for now, the TikTok, CapCut, and Lemon8 are no longer accessible to Americans, nor by VPN, and Trump is now left to “save” the day.
RELATED: Chinese-Owned ByteDance Apps TikTok, CapCut, And Lemon8 Officially Suspend Service, Pulled From App Stores Hours Before U.S. Ban On January 19
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