President Donald Trump signed an executive order to stall the ban on popular social media app, TikTok in the United States after a bipartisan law and a Supreme Court ruling resulted in a federal ban for the app that went into effect on Jan. 18.
The app went dark on Jan. 18 due to a bipartisan law that passed by Congress last year. The law states that the app will be federally banned on Jan. 19 if TikTok’s Chinese parent company was not able to sell it to the U.S.
When the ban was enacted on Jan.18, it left TikTok with this message when they tried to open the app: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
However, after Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, he signed a series of executive orders, one of them being an executive order to delay the federal ban of TikTok for 75 days. This executive order made it so people can still use the app however no one can download the app in the app store.
According to The White House, the Trump administration is “instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow [The Trump] Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.”
The executive order to delay the ban hasn’t caused any major changes to how the app functions and many active users of the app have appreciated the order to delay the ban.
“I haven’t noticed much of a difference,” Kody Goldman’25 said. “I am happy that the ban got delayed because I am a pretty avid user of the app and I use it for entertainment.”
Even though the executive order delayed the ban of the app for 75 days, it is unclear what will happen to the app after the 75 days elapses.
“I think the future of the app is unclear at this point,” AP government teacher Robert Shamberg said. “A number of scenarios could unfold: TikTok is able to find a suitor to purchase the company, Mr. Trump could implement the law after the 75 days period has elapsed or Mr. Trump tests the extent to which a president must take care that the laws be faithfully executed and the issue could be much larger than just a social media app.”