Banned and unbanned – a TikTok story

By Tatum James
Staff writer
Email: thehutchinsoncollegian@gmail.com

TikTok, Ti​​kTok off the clock for the little time we thought we had left with TikTok. 

After there were many concerns that the Chinese government could manipulate content and data from users throughout the app, a ban against TikTok was pretty much getting directly filed into place. 

The last few hours of Jan. 18, TikTok was completely paused from all users in the United States. Little did Americans know that it would last a total of 14 hours. As Inauguration Day approached, TikTok credited Trump with saving TikTok.

“I didn’t really think it would actually be banned,” Hutchinson Community College freshman Elleson Yost said, “and when it did finally get banned, I thought we would’ve been without it for much longer, so I actually ended up deleting it.” 

Since the app is still technically owned by Chinese company ByteDance, the app will remain illegal for United States companies, like the app store. Therefore, if you do not already have the app TikTok on your phone, you will not be able to download it onto your phone until it is legal in the United States.

“Since I haven’t had the app, I’ve found that I have a lot more time on my hands and I’ve gotten used to not having it,” Yost said.

Most people don’t even realize how much time they use on TikTok. TikTok can be a useful app to help speed up some boring, useless time that you have no idea what to do with. 

“I will easily spend two hours scrolling through TikTok and I won’t even realize that much time has passed,” HutchCC sophomore Alyssa Johnson said.

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