SAN FRANCISCO — If you feel TikTok it has always been around, probably because it has been, at least if you’re measuring time spent on the internet. The question now is whether there will be much more and, if so, in what form?
Starting in 2017, when the Chinese social video app merged with competitor Musical.ly, TikTok went from a niche app for teenagers to a global trend. According to US officials, of course, while also posing as a potential threat to national security.
On April 24, President Joe Biden signed the required legislation TikTok parent ByteDance to sell to US owner within a year or to close. TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, filed a lawsuit against the US, arguing that security concerns were overblown and that the law should be struck down because it violates the First Amendment.
The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously approved the ban in federal law TikTokand popular short-form video service it went dark in the US — A few hours before the start of the ban.
Here’s how TikTok got to this point:
ByteDance was founded in China by entrepreneur Zhang Yimin. His The first successful product is ToutiaoCustom news aggregator for Chinese users.
Startup Musical.ly, later known by the same name as an app used to publish short lip-sync music videos, was founded in China by entrepreneur Alex Zhu.
Musical.ly has reached number one in the Apple App Store, after a design change which made the company’s logo visible when users shared their videos.
ByteDance launches Douyin, a video sharing app for Chinese users. Its popularity prompts the company to create a version for foreign audiences called TikTok.
ByteDance acquires Musical.ly for $1 billion. Nine months later, ByteDance merges with TikTok.
Powered by an algorithm that encourages binge-watching, users begin sharing a variety of videos on the app, including dance moves, cooking in the kitchen, and various “challenges” from the serious to the satirical.
Rapper Lil Nas X releases the country-trap song “Old Town Road” on TikTok, where it goes viral and pushes the song along. A record 17 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The phenomenon kicks off a wave of TikTok videos, with music artists suddenly seeing TikTok as a critical way to reach fans.
TikTok is fixed Alleged violation of US child privacy laws and agrees to pay a $5.7 million fine.
The Washington Post reports that while images of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests and police crackdowns are commonplace on most social media sites, not strange on TikTok. The same story says that TikTok posts with the hashtag #trump2020 have received more than 70 million hits.
The company insists that US-based moderation of TikTok content is not responsible and says the app is a place for entertainment, not politics.
The Guardian reports on internal documents showing how TikTok instructs moderators to delete or limit access. Videos that touch on issues sensitive to China such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and subsequent massacre, Tibetan independence or the banned religious group Falun Gong.
US politicians are starting to sound the alarm about TikTok’s influence, and calling for it federal investigations into its purchase of Musical.ly and a national security investigation into TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps. That investigation will begin in November. according to the news.
The Pentagon is recommending that all US military personnel delete TikTok from all phones, personal and government-issued. Some services prohibit the app on military-owned phones. In January, the Pentagon banned the app from all military phones.
TikTok becomes the second most downloaded app in the world, according to Data from analytics firm SensorTower.
Privacy groups are filing a complaint alleging that TikTok continues to violate US child protection laws and violate the 2019 settlement agreement. The company says it “takes the issue of security seriously” and continues to improve warranties.
TikTok He hires former Disney executive Kevin Mayer as its CEO in an apparent attempt to improve US relations. Mayer resigned three months later.
India bans TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps in response to a border skirmish with China.
President Donald Trump says so Considering banning TikTok In retaliation for China’s alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump a a broad but vague executive order Banning American companies from any “transactions” with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, including TikTok. Several days later, he issues a second order requiring this ByteDance has bailed out TikTok’s US operations within 90 days.
Microsoft confirms it Considering the acquisition of TikTok. The deal is never implemented; No similar overtures from Oracle and Walmart either. TikTok, on the other hand, He accuses the Trump administration for violating due process in his executive orders.
Joe Biden has been elected president. He’s not offering any new policies on TikTok and won’t take office until January, but Trump’s plans to force the sale of TikTok are starting to unravel anyway. The Trump administration extends the deadlines it imposed on ByteDance and TikTok and eventually lets them slide altogether.
Newly sworn-in President Joe Biden has delayed legal cases against Trump’s plan to ban TikTok, effectively stalling it.
TikTok has announced that it has over one billion monthly active users.
A Wall Street Journal report TikTok algorithms can inundate teenagers with a lot of harmful material, such as videos that recommend extreme diets, a type of eating disorder.
TikTok announces new rules to prevent the spread of harmful material such as viral scams and the promotion of eating disorders.
“The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical”, a project created by two Netflix fans as a TikTok project, It won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.
TikTok becomes the most downloaded app in the world, beating Instagram, According to data from SensorTower.
BuzzFeed reports that employees of China-based ByteDance have it public information of TikTok users has been repeatedly accessedBased on leaked recordings from over 80 internal TikTok meetings. TikTok responds with a vague comment denouncing its commitment to security that the BuzzFeed report doesn’t directly address.
TikTok has also announced that it has has migrated its user data to US servers It is managed by the US technology company Oracle. But that doesn’t prevent renewed alarm among US officials about the risk of Chinese authorities accessing US user data.
FBI Director Christopher Wray raises national security concerns about TikTokWarning that Chinese officials may manipulate the app’s recommendation algorithm for influence operations.
ByteDance also said it had fired four employees who accessed data from reporters at Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while trying to track leaks of confidential material about the company.
The White House is giving federal agencies 30 days to ensure that TikTok is deleted from all government-issued mobile devices. The FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance may share TikTok user data with the authoritarian Chinese government.
Lawmakers grill TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in a six-hour congressional hearing where Chew, from Singapore, tries to push back on claims that TikTok and ByteDance are tools of the Chinese government.
TikTok said limiting a tool some researchers use them to analyze popular videos on the platform.
A bill to ban TikTok or force it to sell to a US company is gaining momentum in Congress. TikTok brings dozens of its founders to Washington telling lawmakers to back off, emphasizing changes the company has made to protect user data. TikTok also annoys lawmakers by sending notifications asking users to “speak up now” or risk seeing TikTok banned; users then flood the conference offices with calls.
The House of Representatives has approved a bill to ban or sell TikTok.
The Senate continues to do so, sending the bill to President Biden, who signs it.
TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are suing the US federal government to challenge the law or ban that would force them to sell their stake in ByteDance, saying the law is unconstitutional.
Former President Donald Trump joins TikTok and begins posting campaign-related content.
Vice President Kamala Harris joins TikTok and begins posting campaign-related material as well.
A federal appeals court unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok, dealing a crushing setback to the popular social media platform as it struggles to survive in the US. A panel of judges ruled against the company’s charter. He argued that it violated the First Amendment.
President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to halt the implementation of a potential ban on TikTok until his administration reaches a “political solution” to the case.
The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal law’s ban TikTok If the China-based parent company doesn’t sell, it believes the national security risks to its ties to China outweigh concerns about restricting the app’s speech. The ban will take effect on January 19, 2025.
TikTok users in the United States were blocked from viewing videos on the popular social media platform just hours before the federal ban took effect.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US,” said a message on the app. “Unfortunately, this means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
The company’s app was also removed from major app stores, including those operated by Apple and Google, and its website told users that the short-form video platform was no longer available.
