Millions of American TikTok users were shocked to learn on Saturday night that their favorite app had been shut down and banned, the first time this has happened to them in five years.
Following President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement on Sunday that he will restore U.S. access, the restriction was lifted less than twenty-four hours later. Trump will take office on Monday.
But since TikTok has captured the attention of almost half of all Americans, many users had already begun to think about life without it by the time the app was back online.
On social networking platform X, people who had returned shared their feelings on the sudden shutdown by thanking Trump or giving heartfelt farewells. If the TikTok experience will ever be the same again, others wondered.
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“What cost is it to be back?” The platform was pondered by one user.
Reversing his first term in office, Trump is now attempting to salvage ByteDance’s TikTok.
His goal in 2020 was to outlaw the short-video app because of worries that the corporation would provide the Chinese government access to Americans’ private information.
In a more recent statement, Trump claimed to have “a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” attributing his success in the 2024 election to the app’s role in recruiting young voters.
TikTok came down for U.S. users late on Saturday, and on Sunday, a statute that shuts it down for national security reasons went into effect.
Trump promised to “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can achieve an agreement to safeguard our national security.”
“In a joint venture, I would like the United States to own 50% of the business,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
Users express relief, while some question whether the TikTok experience would change as a result of the company’s ownership structure change.
I recall how Elon’s acquisition of Twitter fundamentally changed public opinion and the way users engaged with the app.
“So that gives me a lot of concern,” said 38-year-old Kelly Sites, in reference to the acquisition of the social media platform now known as X by billionaire Elon Musk.
According to Sites, a part-time content maker from Kansas City, Kansas, “I don’t want the magic of the algorithm to change.”
TikTok’s algorithms are considered essential to ByteDance’s overall business, which makes a sale of the app with algorithms extremely improbable, according to a Reuters story from April.
While concerns remain regarding TikTok’s future, some users, especially those who make a career from the app, complain that their faith in the government will never be the same.
An auto-influencer and mechanic from Duchess County, New York named Richard “Chuck” Fasulo, 37, stated, “I believe that this is a really terrible time in history.”
The program helped him pay off his debt, more than double his income, and take his family on their first vacation last summer, Fasulo told Reuters.
It was unpleasant to face the possible loss of the commercial potential the app offered him.
The roughly 400,000-strong Fasulo stated, “I think that myself, like many others, have gained a lot of disdain for the U.S. government.”
Regardless of its source, relief is what matters to others.
The 31-year-old Austin, Texas-based dating and relationships content maker Charlotte Warren told Reuters, “I would rather do a political stunt than lose TikTok forever.”
She claimed that without TikTok, she may lose over 200,000 followers, up to $60,000 in yearly revenue, and the certainty that she would keep sharing material on other networks.
“All I wanted was my app returned.”
