A timeline from The Associated Press describes as follows: Beginning in Oct. 2019, the federal government began investigating the possible security threat posed by TikTok. As part of preventing possible security breaches to government data, the Pentagon strongly advised all military personnel to delete the app from both personal and government-issued devices in Dec. 2019.
In July 2020, India banned the app, which then led to President Donald Trump issuing a broad and vague executive order barring American companies from engaging in any form of transaction with TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, and another order for ByteDance to divest itself from U.S. operations within 90 days in August of 2020.
Fast forwarding to December of 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray raised national security concerns that TikTok’s algorithm can be influential in swaying the views of the American people, which occurred a year after former President Joseph Biden had ceased all legal investigation into the app and its parent company.
Two years later, a bill was proposed in Congress that forces the app and any apps of the parent company to either be sold to a U.S. media company or face a nationwide ban in March 2024. Former President Biden signs the bill, and ByteDance sues the federal government for violation of First Amendment rights.
The Supreme Court issued a unanimous vote to proceed with the outlined bill, but President Trump urged the court to allow his administration to reach a political resolution in December of 2024.
Jan. 18 2025 was the day TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps were temporarily banned for less than 12 hours, which then led to users who still had the app to regain access. As of Jan. 29 2025, TikTok, CapCut, and other apps owned by ByteDance are still unavailable in all app stores, both for mobile devices and computers.
Many creators were unsure of their future incomes as the ban had come into effect, one of which was former Penn West California student, Kimberly Rhoades, a popular comedy skit and activist creator known for her imitation of her parents and advocating for people with POTS syndrome, a fainting disorder that causes one’s blood pressure to become dangerously low.
Roades reflected on how much the platform has given her opportunities, stating “It’s been the main seed that helped me grow elsewhere, if that makes sense. So now, because of TikTok, I have 500,000 (followers) on YouTube, 475,000 on Instagram, almost 300,000 on and three million on TikTok. So yeah, it’s been the main thing that’s helped everything.”
Roades continued describing her initial reaction to the ban, “You know, for those few hours, I was like that was very difficult because that is where I do have my main following…I was like, you know, there goes my main audience, community. That was a difficult thing for a lot of us to go back and forth and grapple with….”
Roades noted that she knew other content creators who had been affected by the ban, who all described the situation as “…having a different vibe here now.”
Roades offered Penn West students sound advice if they do choose to pursue content creation or any related creative outlet, “Do not put all your eggs into one basket. You can start there, but once you get a solid foundation, you better start growing. You have to keep building yourself. You can’t stay stagnant.”
Whether one wants to begin their career as a content creator or enjoy watching the endless creative media those personalities have to offer, it can be agreed upon that bans, primarily TikTok, CapCut, and other ByteDance apps, only limit the ability to create without societal limitation. Despite the bans being lifted not so long ago, many creators have deleted the apps and pursued other platforms, like Instagram or the newly created BlueSky. Uncertainty may hover over the minds of creators and consumers alike, but one thing can be ensured: Art made by the human hand will never phase out of existence.
