Is the Federal Ban Against TikTok Going to Be Enforced in January of 2025?

Amidst all the political chaos of the past few months, it might have been easy to forget that a bill passed Congress earlier in 2024 that banned TikTok. The bill was signed by the president and gave TikTok a deadline by which it had to be sold to an American company. The fear was that the app could be used by the Chinese government to steal Americans' data or create propaganda.

The deadline for that sale was Jan. 19, 2025, which has led some to wonder whether TikTok is really set to be banned early next year. Here's what we know about whether the sale is going to go through.

If the bill's deadline is enforced, then TikTok would indeed become unavailable in January. There are several stipulations, though, that might mean that TikTok isn't actually going anywhere. For one thing, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act has been challenged in court, and the law even gave ByteDance, which owns TikTok, an avenue to challenge the law.

The company did exactly that, filing a suit in May claiming that the law violates the First Amendment right to free speech. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is currently hearing the case and is expected to decide before the end of the year, according to The New York Times. That ruling could also be appealed to the Supreme Court, where a final decision on the law's legality will be reached.

The Washington Post has also reported that incoming President-elect Donald Trump may try to stop the ban from being enacted. He promised to stop the ban on the campaign trail and could simply choose not to enforce it even if it did become law. He could also assist ByteDance in finding a way to divest from the company or encourage lawmakers to repeal the ban.

Although there are clearly many people in government who think a ban is a good idea, it's never been clear exactly why they believe that. In addition to the fact that many Americans find joy through the app, or even make a living off of it, there is no evidence that the Chinese Communist Party has influenced the app or its algorithm.

ByteDance claims that it has taken steps to ensure that TikTok is free from Chinese influence, and while it's true that the app does use some personal data from its users, that's also true of every other social media platform.

It's also not the case that TikTok is the only place Chinese propaganda can be found.

What seems clear, then, is that the evidence supporting a ban is likely circumstantial, and it's now very much unclear whether the ban will ever actually be put in place. For now, then, those who love the app and use it regularly will just have to wait and see how the court case and Trump's administration handles the ban.