Late Saturday night, millions of TikTok users across the United States were caught off guard when the popular video-sharing app abruptly became inaccessible. Users attempting to open the app were met with a message stating, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” accompanied by an explanation that U.S. lawmakers had imposed a ban, rendering the app temporarily unavailable.
The ban, embedded within a federal funding bill, mandates that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, divest its American operations within a year or face a permanent shutdown. With 170 million U.S. users as of July last year, according to company data, this development represents the latest in a series of challenges for the app, which has become a cultural mainstay for many Americans.
It is also the newest front in America’s tech war with China, with lawmakers arguing that the app poses a national security risk because it allows the Chinese government to monitor and manipulate user data and control their devices. FBI Director Christopher Wray told congressional members last year that TikTok’s algorithm is vulnerable to manipulation by Beijing, raising concerns that the app could be used to compromise personal information or even infiltrate devices.
However, it is unclear whether the app will be banned in the long run, as Trump has vowed to “save” TikTok and said on Friday that he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the issue. Constitutional and business law expert Kirk McGill says the new president likely has no legal authority to suspend the ban. Still, he is unlikely to try to overturn it in court either. He adds that if he does not enforce the law, app stores like Apple and Google will still be fined because the law is on the books.
While it is unclear how TikTok will continue to operate in the United States, it has already made plans for an apparent comeback. The CEO filmed a thank-you video for the president-elect last week. He has been invited to sit on the dais at his inauguration on Monday, and its U.S-linked accounts and devices are not working. Internet traffic monitoring firm Kentik, which tracks data flow for significant internet services, showed an instant and dramatic drop in connections to TikTok when the ban took effect on Saturday.
However, it is unclear whether the company can find a buyer. And even if it does, there’s no guarantee that the deal will stop Congress from imposing further restrictions on the app. The Supreme Court has ruled that when the government restricts speech based on its content or viewpoint, it must meet a high standard to ensure it does not violate the First Amendment’s free speech protections. Congress has argued that divestiture must address its “well-supported national security concerns” about the app’s data collection practices and its relationship with a foreign adversary. Those concerns are rooted in worries that the app’s algorithms can be manipulated to reveal sensitive information, including private conversations or revealing personal details such as sexual health information.