The app TikTok, a short video sharing platform, took the world by storm. In the few years it has existed it has already skyrocketed to the top of the charts. Recently, many concerns have come up about threats to the app’s availability, to the point where it has become very confusing as to what’s going on.  TikTok seems to still be alive and thriving despite Trump and his administration threatening to ban it from the U.S., but how long can the app go on for? 

TikTok, originally called Musically, changed its name after a company called ByteDance acquired it and absorbed it into their already existing app called TikTok on August 2nd, 2018. The app has since then exploded in popularity with 800 million active users worldwide. What was Trump’s problem with this widely popular app that had become even more popular because of COVID-19?

 Trump and his administrations are worried that Americans’ information might be given over to the Chinese government, according to the New York Times, although ByteDance has repeatedly denied that, and claims that all US data is stored in the US, and that none of its data is subject to Chinese law. Already, though, there are some government sections that have banned TikTok on government-issued phones, such as the Army, Navy, House of Representatives and the Senate. For more information on TikTok security issues, visit Forbes. Besides banning the app on government-issued phones, TikTok has had a long history with President Trump and the threat of being banned in America as a whole.  

Although the app has been around since 2016, in early July of 2020 President Donald Trump and his administration started taking notice of the app, saying they were worried about how US data might fall into the Chinese government’s hands and were therefore considering a ban. But instead, they tried to force ByteDance to sell the app to an American company. Then, in August, Trump issued two executive orders to sell TikTok’s US business to American companies, which failed because of “new Chinese export regulations covering artificial intelligence,” according to Cnet. Finally, on August 6, an executive order was announced that banned American companies to do business with ByteDance and their subsidiaries, set to be in action on September 20. 

TikTok and the U.S. government have had a long and clear history with each other–the threat of TikTok’s permanent ban existing from the beginning of their relationship. Although Trump seems to have quieted down about TikTok now, who knows how long it’ll be before he brings it up again?