On Jan. 19, 2025, the social media app TikTok went dark in the United States for approximately 14 hours. This worried content creators who built a livelihood on the app, and the ban concerned small businesses around the country. 

In April 2024, TikTok hit over one billion users. The United States had 170 million active users as of the executive action. According to a study by Oxford Economics, seven million small businesses relied on the platform for economic growth. The introduction of the TikTok shop helped add 224,000 jobs in 2023. TikTok generated $14.7 billion for small businesses in 2023, proving to be a massive asset to the economic growth of the U.S. 

President Donald Trump’s first term marked the first public talks about banning TikTok. In August 2020, he proposed banning the app, saying, “spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States.” 

The Biden administration cited these same fears when the blackout went into effect earlier this month. Despite concerns about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) having access to American users’ data, TikTok refugees flocked to RedNote. This separate Chinese app gained 700,000 users in two days, skyrocketing to the top of the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. 

On Jan. 20, 2025, President Trump extended the negotiations by 75 days. Given this information, TikTok could go away again in a few months if the app is not purchased.

Sources familiar with the negotiations cite Oracle as the frontrunner for purchasing the app, although Trump denies these claims.​​ 

This situation is far from finished, and the power of social media applications is on full display to start 2025.