TikTok was shut down for around 14 hours after Congress’ act went into effect on Jan. 18, 2025.
It returned a day later after President Donald Trump promised an executive order to extend the act’s deadline, despite his previous support for the bill, according to an AP News article.
Those who didn’t have the app before the ban can’t redownload it indefinitely.
Students at Westminster University shared their thoughts on the TikTok ban.
“I went on Instagram Reels for a second, and it just wasn’t the same,” said Ellie Zeitz, a sophomore sociology major.
“ I felt like our government was doing it as some sort of political spectacle… It was also a political grab to try to get the youth in favor of Donald Trump,” said Paxton Stevenson, a first-year physics major.
When TikTok returned on Jan. 19, 2025, the app displayed a message crediting President Donald Trump for the return.
The bill cited data security as the reason for the ban, however, students don’t believe that reasoning.
“ It was…at its root, an infringement of free speech and I know that they wanted to present it like it was some kind of security issue for the United States,” said Tasman Raleigh, a first-year physics major, who uses TikTok to show their art.
“ Data was never the problem,” Stevenson said, the first-year physics major who uses the app. “It was always about restricting our rights to free speech and our rights to protest,”
“If it was a problem about data security, other companies like Meta needed to be held accountable,” said Raleigh.
Many TikTok users downloaded the Chinese app Xiaohongshu also referred to as “RedNote” by American users according to an article from AP News.
Zeitz, the sophomore sociology major who couldn’t adjust to Instagram Reels, downloaded RedNote to avoid supporting Meta but felt ethical concerns about using the app.
“ I felt like I was violating a community that already existed and I didn’t want to do that,” said Zeitz.
“ I am actually okay not being on TikTok,” said Raleigh, the first-year physics major. “However, I know how much people rely on TikTok for their income. And as an artist myself, I participated in the art community.”
Some students said the ban was overall positive as it helped many recognize their phone addiction. Other students say this was not the primary reason for the ban and phone addiction needs to be addressed in other ways.
“ I think that banning an app to address a phone addiction as a secondary result is not the answer…If we’re going to address phone addictions, there needs to be other safety parameters put inside apps specifically,” Raleigh said.
Students said they are interested to see what happens during the ban extension and are following to see if ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, sells to an American-based owner.
