On Aug. 6 2020, NPR released an article, Trump Signs Executive Order That Will Effectively Ban Use Of TikTok In the U.S., that detailed the removal of all ByteDance apps, including TikTok, from US app stores. Ban scares like this were not uncommon whatsoever at the time, and people seemed to forget about the looming threat until it came to fruition on Jan. 18, 2025, when TikTok became unavailable in the US. The sudden loss of the app came with a message embedded on the home page that said “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.” Not even a day later, TikTok was online once more in the US, and Generation Z rejoiced.
On the revived app’s home page was a message crediting “President Trump’s efforts” in bringing TikTok back to the US, but the thanks were incredibly contradictory to ByteDance’s original message to Trump in 2020. NPR explains that “In a statement, TikTok says it is ‘shocked’ by the executive order, claiming the Trump administration “paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.”
The direct result of Trump’s actions in his first term were seen in the beginning of his second, but it seemed as if the majority of users completely forgot about the origins of their panic. An article by Jacobin, Unfortunately, Trump Played the TikTok Ban Perfectly, explains how the forgetfulness of users, paired with ByteDance’s crediting of Trump, led to almost universal acceptance of Trump’s actions among Gen Z–who also happen to make up over one third of TikTok’s database.
The ban elicited a sense of panic throughout the country, and when Trump swooped in to save the day, he was seen as a hero. Berkeley Beacon’s article, The TikTok ban stunned America. The political agenda behind it should too, noted that TikTok, being a prominent social media platform for voters, was the perfect piece of propaganda that Trump needed to convince America that he had their best interests at heart. Obviously, this is not the case.
For one, the resuscitation of the app only sets out to last an additional seventy-five days, and after that, when Trump no longer needs votes, TikTok goes back to being unavailable in the US. As it stands, according to The Verge’s, TikTok ban: all the news on the app’s shutdown and return in the US, TikTok remained unavailable in US app stores until recently, and no potential buyers have come forward. Trump’s actions do not overturn the ban and are even less consequential when considering the fact that he initiated the ban in the first place.
One of the best ways to look at the issue is through an analogy–if someone burns down a house and calls the fire department to stop it from fully burning down, that person is still absolutely responsible for the destruction that occurred. Crediting them as a hero would be a weird segue that avoids initial accountability. The revival of TikTok exemplified successful public manipulation, and instead of recognizing the origin of the issue–the 2020 executive order signed by Trump–millions of users have decided to celebrate Trump for the temporary extension of TikTok in America. As a generation, it is imperative that we see through the fog and recognize the blatant hypocrisy demonstrated by President Trump when it comes to TikTok. Remember this now, because if the permanent ban occurs as it was meant to in 2020, no one will be celebrating.
