I opened up my news app on the morning of Sunday, January 19, 2025 to see that TikTok had gone dark at about 10:30pm the previous evening. This was before the ban was set to take place and a decision made completely by TikTok.
Approximately, 4 hours later my phone starts blowing up with text messages. “TikTok is back!” And shortly on the heels of this text were messages stating that people were praising “President” (He wasn’t President yet) Trump for saving TikTok.
I’m sorry….WHAT?

How did we get here?
Let’s back up a few hundred days and talk about how we got here.
About 270 days ago, Congress passed a bi-partisan bill (miracle right there) banning TikTok under it’s current owners, ByteDance. It was said that it was a National Security Threat to Americans since China would have full access to all of TikTok users data. Theoretically, it would also have access to the data of the contacts that people shared with the app without their contacts permission.
BEFORE April of 2024 when the law was tucked in with a bill to fund the Ukraine war, the Trump administration and then the Biden administration were working with TikTok to find alternative solutions. For over four years TikTok attempted to come up with a solution such as storing all of American’s information in Texas and the locations of servers.
They gave the government options.
The US government said no to all scenarios. There was no way to keep the data of millions of American’s out of the hands of China unless China divested ownership. Hence, a bill was passed saying that ByteDance had six months to sell the app or it would be banned on January 19, 2025.

What did the bill say would happen on the 19th?
TikTok would become unavailable on the app stores and internet browsers. The app would also lose access to any updates sent by the parent company. In essence, TikTok would slowly fade away as it started to break. UNLESS, TikTok sold at some point. Once ByteDance sells the app, then everything would start working once again.
So what happened on Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th?
A PR Stunt of EPIC proportions is what happened.
Executed flawlessly and convincingly. The absolute best example of propaganda in the US in a very long time.
TikTok played the American people.
Let’s take TikTok offline and panic all TikTok users.
Then they put up a notice saying that due to the bill passed by Congress TikTok is now banned in the US but thank you to President Trump for working with us to come up with a solution in the future.
And then by miracles of miracles, not 24 hours later, the app is back and they are praising President Trump for giving them the confidence to keep the app going in the US.
Remember, the app was never intended to go offline. It was a bill to pressure the Chinese into selling it and if they didn’t, it would slowly break and then disappear.
In doing what TikTok did, they created a passion for President Trump that he couldn’t pay for. He is the savior of TikTok and he didn’t do a damn thing while this all went down. He couldn’t, he wasn’t President yet.

What’s next?
Once President Trump was sworn into office yesterday, he passed a lot of executive actions. One of which was extending the deadline by 75 days for TikTok to sell.
But here is my question. They didn’t sell in the past six months. They said that they would not sell.
So why is 75 more days going to do anything?
Also, why is it that 80% of Americans opt out of tracking for pretty much every app, but yet they are completely fine with China having all of their information?
I have so many questions…and unfortunately, not a lot of answers.
I am advising my clients to download everything they have on TikTok and begin posting it on additional platforms. Is it the same? No, but at least you have your content and can begin to build anew if needed.
I don’t think TikTok will ever sell. I doubt that they will come to another agreement that will save them. BUT, for arguments sake, say I’m wrong. What will the app even look like without the algorithm?
That is the heart and soul of TikTok. It is why people will scroll for hours watching video after video.
Meta hasn’t been able to replicate it and currently, they are the only platforms that have anything that functions similar to TikTok.
So TikTok sells and we get an empty shell. TikTok fails…and then who do we blame? Trump or Biden or Congress? All of the above? None of the above?
The next few years are going to be wild in the tech space. I’ll do my best to keep you informed and give my opinions on the best way for businesses to handle the ups and downs. For now my friends, dial in that email list. It’s still the most reliable way to market to your customer. Find a solid CRM and buckle up. It’s going to be one hell of a ride.
What are your opinions on TikTok? Was your business active there? I would love to hear your feedback!
Cheers my friends!