By: Michael SalisburyWebsite Manager
On Jan. 18 at about 8:30 p.m. EST, American TikTok users opening the app were greeted with a message that it had finally been shut down: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.” Other apps owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, including Lemon8 and CapCut, featured similar messages. The pop-up also claimed that “President Trump has indicated that he will work with [ByteDance] on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”
The long-awaited ban was finally in place for good – or so we thought.
By the morning of Jan. 19, the app was back up and running with a new message that said “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” Some users have expressed confusion about the reason for the two mentions of President Donald Trump, who was not yet inaugurated and was once a proponent of the ban.
What does this mean for TikTok? Most people still aren’t sure, as there are some things that are different since it has been back. As it stands, livestreams on the app are no longer available. Advertisements and TikTok Shop also seem not to be featured on the For You Page anymore but are still available through the “Shop” tab.