By Sonny Aragba-Akpore
President Donald Trump muted a ban on Tik Tok in 2020 in the dying days of his first White House residency but strangely after signing the Executive Order in his second coming on January 20,2025, to stay action on the enforcement of the Supreme Court ban,he was asked by a reporter why he’s had a change of heart since trying to ban TikTok in 2020, his response was “Because I got to use it.”
He floated the possibility of a joint venture running the company, saying he was seeking a 50-50 partnership between “the United States” and its Chinese owner ByteDance. But he did not give any further details on how that might work.
Trump also said he may impose new trade tariffs on China if a deal for the platform is not struck.He was quoted as saying If Beijing rejected a deal “it would be somewhat of a hostile act”,
In the year 2020, Trump issued an executive order citing TikTok’s ability to capture vast amounts of user data as a significant national security threat. The order sought to prohibit certain transactions involving ByteDance but was blocked by federal courts.
Subsequently, the Trump Administration directed ByteDance to divest its U.S. TikTok operations and user data, but these efforts were stalled as negotiations with the President Joe Biden Administration aimed at a nondivestiture agreement failed to resolve the government’s concerns.
ByteDance’s proposed national security agreement was ultimately deemed insufficient to mitigate risks posed by Chinese control. Against this backdrop, Congress enacted the sale-or-ban law, further targeting TikTok and similar applications.
According to the Supreme Court’s finding, TikTok’s ultimate parent company, ByteDance, is a privately held company that has operations in China. ByteDance owns TikTok’s proprietary algorithm, which is developed and maintained in China. The company is subject to Chinese laws that require it to assist or cooperate with the Chinese government’s intelligence work and to ensure that the Chinese government has the power to access and control private data that the company holds.
Underscored in the decision, TikTok’s extensive data collection from more than 170 million U.S. users could be exploited for surveillance, public influence campaigns or other harmful purposes that threaten national security. The Act and the holding reflect Congress’ and the Supreme Court’s efforts to address growing concerns over foreign adversary-controlled applications through the access to sensitive data of U.S. nationals and the resulting potential risks to U.S. national security.
With President Trump’s Executive Order to maintain the status quo on Tik Tok for 75 days, and the likely acquisition of 50% ownership in ByteDance, by Americans, Tik Tok still swims against the tide.
Tik Tok had gone to the Supreme Court to appeal against the April 24, 2024 “Protecting Americans Against Foreign Adversary Controlled Application Act” but in a much-anticipated decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 17, 2025, rejected TikTok’s appeal and upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (Act).
The Act which was signed into law on April 24, 2024, gave ByteDance Ltd., the TikTok app’s Chinese parent company, nine months to divest the popular U.S. company or be banned from operating in the U.S. ByteDance mounted a First Amendment challenge to the Act but was unsuccessful at the high court.
Starting on Jan. 19, 2025, one day before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the Act effectively banned TikTok unless its U.S. operations are divested from ByteDance. The platform went off air for 24 hours but after the Executive Order, it has 75 days to rejig its operations and determine the status of its operations in line with the subsisting Act.
In TikTok’s case, as established by the Supreme Court’s decision, the app is classified as a foreign adversary-controlled application due to its ownership and control by ByteDance. Accordingly, the Act bans the distribution, maintenance or updates of TikTok in the U.S. unless ByteDance completes a qualified divestiture. This divestiture would require ByteDance to relinquish all direct and indirect control over TikTok’s U.S. operations, ensuring its operational independence and preventing any future ties with ByteDance or other entities designated as foreign adversaries.
Should ByteDance refuse to divest its holdings in TikTok, the app would face a nationwide ban. The ban would not result in the immediate removal of the app from users’ devices. Instead, the ban would be enforced through penalties targeting companies that provide services to banned entities, such as internet hosting providers and app store operators such as Apple and Google.
These companies would be prohibited from distributing or updating TikTok on their platforms, leading to a gradual degradation of the app. Over time, without updates or maintenance, TikTok would likely become obsolete and unusable.
The Act also prohibits any company from distributing, maintaining or updating an entity classified as a foreign adversary-controlled application within the U.S.. Such an application is defined as one operated by a company that’s controlled by a foreign adversary and deemed by the president to pose a significant threat to U.S. national security. Violations of these restrictions can result in civil enforcement actions and significant monetary penalties.
The Act provides an exception for foreign adversary-controlled applications if they undergo a qualified divestiture. A qualified divestiture requires a presidential determination that the application is no longer under the control of a foreign adversary. Furthermore, the divestiture must ensure that no operational relationships remain between the U.S. operations of the application and any former entities affiliated with a foreign adversary.
The Act was signed with broad support from Republicans and Democrats.
Although some lawmakers had urged President Joe Biden to grant a reprieve to prevent TikTok from going dark in the U.S. as soon as Jan. 19, 2025 , the TikTok ban had already resulted in a number of “TikTok refugees” who moved to another Chinese app, RedNote, short for “Little Red Book.” RedNote became the most downloaded app in Apple’s app store in the U.S. the week leading up to the Supreme Court’s decision. If this trend continues, this “migration” to a similarly situated app might defeat the purpose of the Act. The TikTok ban illustrates how U.S. regulatory actions are designed to mitigate potential threats posed by foreign adversaries, significantly increasing compliance requirements for cross-border investments and technology operations. Particularly, the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the TikTok ban underlines the trend of intensifying scrutiny of foreign-controlled entities that collect or handle sensitive data in the U.S..
Although it’s not clear whether there will be a reprieve for Tik Tok, there are strong indications that the Trump administration needs more time to understand the situation and perhaps to be the one to implement the ban.
TikTok has 1,925 billion users globally, with 170 million monthly active users in the United States. The average daily time spent on TikTok has more than doubled from 27 minutes in 2019 to 58 minutes in 2024.
The most popular categories on TikTok are Entertainment, Dance, and Pranks, with billions of views each.
Top influencers on TikTok include Charli D’Amelio, Khabane Lame, and Addison Rae, each with tens of millions of followers.
TikTok’s user base has grown exponentially from 133 million in 2018 to over 1,925 billion in 2024.
Daily active users on TikTok have skyrocketed into the millions, reflecting the platform’s ability to engage users on a daily basis.
● Aragba-Akpore is an Abuja-based analyst on tech trends, and he sent this via WhatsApp.
