With New restrictions and as uncertainty grows, TikTok’s fate in the U.S remains uncertain. Here is what high school students need to know before it’s too late.
TikTok, a popular short video-sharing app, has been at the center of huge changes recently, teetering on the edge of being banned, and with so many new changes it’s been confusing for many students, so here’s a straightforward breakdown of what’s been happening and what’s going to happen.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) was passed by the US congress and signed by President Biden in April 2024. Their reasoning was that there were some concerns about data privacy and national security, essentially making ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, to give up all activity in the United States by January 19, 2025. If they didn’t do that, they would be forced to give up all operations in the U.S., essentially being banned.
That didn’t happen, so TikTok was eventually banned, and as many also know, it wasn’t for very long. On January 18, 2025, just before the deadline, TikTok was banned in the U.S, but just 12 hours later, the app was back up and running after it was restored by President Donald Trump, who had just been inaugurated, signed an executive order delaying the ban for another 75 days. This extension allowed time for further negotiations and to finally ultimately decide what is going to happen with TikTok in the U.S.
As of now, U.S TikTok users (who had the app installed before the bans happened), are still able to use the app, but new downloads and updates are currently unavailable on app stores like Apple and Google. The 75-day extension means that by early April 2025, a final decision is going to have to be made on whether TikTok can continue operating in the U.S or if ByteDance will sell it to U.S operations.
High School students and other users can still use TikTok, but will not receive any updates, potentially affecting how TikTok will run on your phone or device. The app’s future is uncertain, and if there is a lack of any decisions happening between now and April could lead to a full ban.As negotiations unfold between ByteDance and the government, the fate of TikTok hangs by a thread. Will we get to keep scrolling, or is this the end of an era for our generation? Users of the app should stay informed about these developments to understand how they will be affected, deciding if they should prepare for a future without TikTok, one that may leave a certain void of how we as a generation connected, created and entertained ourselves, or hold onto the hope that somehow, someway, a last-minute deal will save it. Even then, if ByteDance agrees to sell TikTok to a U.S. company, would it still have the same algorithm, policies, or features that made TikTok what it is? So even if TikTok survives, the question remains: Will it still feel like home?
