photo courtesy of Reuters.com
Since January 19, 2025, TikTok has been banned for all users in the United States. From now on, if you were to uninstall TikTok, or any other ByteDance app, from a device, you wouldn’t be able to reinstall it. The same should apply to any other devices with app store capabilities.
The law banning TikTok states that “US app stores could face fines of $5000 for each user granted access to the app.”
Anyone who has TikTok will be able to use it until the 75-day extension is over or if something else happens. The Supreme Court ruled against TikTok’s argument and rejected their argument that the ban would violate the First Amendment Rights (freedom of speech), so it seems unlikely for a complete 180* on the ban for now.
So, what will happen to all of ByteDance’s apps?
Everyone will probably have to wait until ByteDance sells or they gain more legal freedom, but there might be another way of getting TikTok back. President Trump signed an executive order to establish a sovereign wealth fund for the United States, and this could lead to TikTok being put in it. A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned fund that can “invest in stocks, real estate, bonds, hedge funds, and more” to build a source of money that can “insulate the government from economic stressors.” (Molly Bohannon, Forbes Staff) If the order goes through, TikTok could be saved in the end.
For now, users of TikTok will have to wait for more updates on the app since it’s in a grey area right now.
Sources used: Apple, NBC News, Forbes
