TikTok's Future in United States hangs in balance! Will it be Banned by 2025?

United States: Chinese owned social media app TikTok will be banned in the United States on January 19, 2025 unless it is sold to an American company. 

This comes one day before President-elect Trump’s inauguration. He had previously expressed support for TikTok and pledged to reverse the ban.

The social media application which is renowned among people of all ages across various countries in the world is edging closer to being banned in the US after it lost an appeal on Friday against a law needing the video sharing the app to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance by January 19. 

Reportedly, Federal judges unanimously voted to uphold the ban, saying that the platform could be unavailable on a temporary basis unless it is sold to an American owner next month. 

President-elect Trump could grant an extension which is based upon progress towards the divestiture order, said the experts. 

The legislation which was passed in April by Congress and signed into law by President Biden needs TikTok to be sold to an American owner or face a ban. 

The social media app’s bid to overturn this law has been rejected. The company hoped that a federal appeal court would agree with its argument that the law was unconstitutional because it represents a major impact in the free speech of its 170 million users across the United States. 

The court upheld the law saying that it was the end of extensive and bipartisan action by the Congress and by their successive presidents. 

The company is now saying that it will now take its fight to the US Supreme Court which is the highest legal authority of the country. 

The court further agreed that the law was carefully crafted to deal only with control by a foreign advisory and it was part of a wider effort to counter a well substantiated national security threat posed by the People’s Republic of China. 

However, TikTok is saying that it is not the end of the fight and they will continue to fight against this injustice which will directly impact the Americans’ right to free speech. 

Which other countries have banned TikTok 

There are a number of countries across the globe which have banned or restricted TikTok, including nations with full bans and partial bans. 

There are complete bans on the app in Afghanistan, India, Iran, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, and Senegal while partial bans have been implemented in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, European Union, France, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway, Taiwan, and United Kingdom.

Some countries have banned TikTok for specific reasons such as in India, the app was banned in 2020 over privacy and security concerns and in Denmark it was banned in 2024 over cybersecurity concerns. In Kyrgyztan, it was banned in 2023 over concerns about content regulation and its potential harm to children’s mental health and in Nepal also it was banned last year over concerns about its impact on social harmony.