US-world politics: How TikTok grew from a enjoyable social media app for teenagers into a possible nationwide safety risk | Timeline

SAN FRANCISCO — If it seems like TikTok has been round without end, that is in all probability as a result of it has, at the least in the event you’re measuring through web time. What’s now in query is whether or not it will likely be round for much longer and, if that’s the case, in what type?

Beginning in 2017, when the Chinese language social video app merged with its competitor Musical.ly, TikTok has grown from a distinct segment teen app into a world trendsetter. Whereas, in fact, additionally rising as a possible nationwide safety risk, in accordance with U.S. officers.

On April 24, President Joe Biden signed laws requiring TikTok father or mother ByteDance to promote to a U.S. proprietor inside a yr or to close down. TikTok and its China-based father or mother firm, ByteDance, filed a lawsuit in opposition to the U.S., claiming the safety considerations have been overblown and the legislation ought to be struck down as a result of it violates the First Modification.

The Supreme Courtroom on Friday unanimously upheld the federal legislation banning TikTok, and the favored quick type video service went darkish within the U.S. – simply hours earlier than the ban was set to start.

This is how TikTok got here to this juncture:

March 2012

ByteDance is based in China by entrepreneur Zhang Yimin. Its first hit product is Toutiao, a customized information aggregator for Chinese language customers.

July 2014

Startup Musical.ly, later identified for an eponymous app used to put up quick lipsyncing music movies, is based in China by entrepreneur Alex Zhu.

July 2015

Musical.ly hits #1 within the Apple App Retailer, following a design change that made the corporate’s brand seen when customers shared their movies.

2016

ByteDance launches Douyin, a video sharing app for Chinese language customers. Its reputation evokes the corporate to spin off a model for international audiences known as TikTok.

November 2017

ByteDance acquires Musical.ly for $1 billion. 9 months later, ByteDance merges it with TikTok.

Powered by an algorithm that encourages binge-watching, customers start to share all kinds of video on the app, together with dance strikes, kitchen meals preparation and varied “challenges” to carry out, file and put up acts that vary from critical to satirical.

February 2019

Rapper Lil Nas X releases the country-trap music “Outdated City Highway” on TikTok, the place it goes viral and pushes the music to a file 17 weeks within the #1 spot on the Billboard Scorching 100 chart. The phenomenon kicks off a wave of TikTok movies from musical artists who abruptly see TikTok as a essential option to attain followers.

TikTok settles federal prices of violating U.S. child-privacy legal guidelines and agrees to pay a $5.7 million nice.

September 2019

The Washington Publish stories that whereas photos of Hong Kong democracy protests and police crackdowns are widespread on most social media websites, they’re surprisingly absent on TikTok. The identical story notes that TikTok posts with the #trump2020 tag acquired greater than 70 million views.

The corporate insists that TikTok content material moderation, carried out within the U.S., isn’t accountable and says the app is a spot for leisure, not politics.

The Guardian stories on inner paperwork that reportedly element how TikTok instructs its moderators to delete or restrict the attain of movies relating matters delicate to China such because the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. protests and subsequent bloodbath, Tibetan independence or the sanctioned non secular group Falun Gong.

October 2019

U.S. politicians start to lift alarms about TikTok’s affect, calling for a federal investigations of its Musical.ly acquisition and a nationwide safety probe into TikTok and different Chinese language-owned apps. That investigation begins in November, in accordance with information stories.

December 2019

The Pentagon recommends that every one U.S. navy personnel delete TikTok from all telephones, private and government-issued. Some companies ban the app on navy owned telephones. In January, the Pentagon bans the app from all navy telephones.

TikTok turns into the second-most downloaded app on the earth, in accordance with information from analytics agency SensorTower.

Might 2020

Privateness teams file a criticism alleging TikTok remains to be violating U.S. child-protection legal guidelines and flouting a 2019 settlement settlement. The corporate “takes the problem of safely severely” and continues to enhance safeguards, it says.

TikTok hires former Disney government Kevin Mayer as its chief government officer in an obvious try to enhance its U.S. relations. Mayer resigns three months later.

July 2020

India bans TikTok and dozens of different Chinese language apps in response to a border conflict with China.

President Donald Trump says he’s contemplating banning TikTok as retaliation for China’s alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

August 2020

Trump points a sweeping however imprecise government order banning American firms from any “transaction” with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, together with TikTok. A number of days later, he points a second order demanding that ByteDance divest itself of TikTok’s U.S. operations inside 90 days.

Microsoft confirms it’s exploring acquisition of TikTok. The deal by no means materializes; neither does an analogous overture from Oracle and Walmart. TikTok, in the meantime, sues the Trump administration for alleged violation of due course of in its government orders.

November 2020

Joe Biden is elected president. He does not provide new coverage on TikTok and will not take workplace till January, however Trump’s plans to drive a sale of TikTok begin to unravel anyway. The Trump administration extends the deadlines it had imposed on ByteDance and TikTok and finally lets them slide altogether.

February 2021

Newly sworn-in President Joe Biden postpones the authorized instances involving Trump’s plan to ban TikTok, successfully bringing them to a halt.

September 2021

T

ikTok proclaims it has greater than a billion month-to-month energetic customers.

December 2021

A Wall Avenue Journal report finds TikTok algorithms can flood teenagers with a torrent of dangerous materials resembling movies recommending excessive weight-reduction plan, a type of consuming dysfunction.

February 2022

TikTok proclaims new guidelines to discourage the unfold of dangerous materials resembling viral hoaxes and promotion of consuming problems.

April 2022

“The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical,” a mission created by two followers of the Netflix present as a TikTok mission, wins the Grammy for Finest Musical Theater Album.

TikTok turns into essentially the most downloaded app on the earth, beating out Instagram, in accordance with SensorTower information.

June 2022

BuzzFeed stories that China-based ByteDance staff have repeatedly accessed the nonpublic data of TikTok customers, based mostly on leaked recordings from greater than 80 inner TikTok conferences. TikTok responds with a imprecise remark touting its dedication to safety that does not straight handle the BuzzFeed report.

TikTok additionally proclaims it has migrated its person information to U.S. servers managed by the U.S. tech agency Oracle. However that does not stop contemporary alarm amongst U.S. officers in regards to the danger of Chinese language authorities accessing U.S. person information.

December 2022

FBI Director Christopher Wray raises nationwide safety considerations about TikTok, warning that Chinese language officers might manipulate the app’s advice algorithm for affect operations.

ByteDance additionally stated it fired 4 staff who accessed information on journalists from Buzzfeed Information and The Monetary Occasions whereas making an attempt to trace down leaks of confidential supplies in regards to the firm.

February 2023

The White Home offers federal businesses 30 days to make sure TikTok is deleted from all government-issued cellular units. Each the FBI and the Federal Communications Fee warn that ByteDance might share TikTok person information with China’s authoritarian authorities.

March 2023

Legislators grill TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at a six-hour congressional listening to the place Chew, a local of Singapore, makes an attempt to push again on assertions that TikTok and ByteDance are instruments of the Chinese language authorities.

January 2024

TikTok stated it was proscribing a software some researchers use to investigate widespread movies on the platform.

March 2024

A invoice to ban TikTok or drive its sale to a U.S. firm gathers steam in Congress. TikTok brings dozens of its creators to Washington to inform lawmakers to again off, whereas emphasizing adjustments the corporate has made to guard person information. TikTok additionally annoys legislators by sending notifications to customers urging them to “communicate up now” or danger seeing TikTok banned; customers then flood congressional workplaces with calls.

The Home of Representatives passes the TikTok ban-or-sell invoice.

April 2024

The Senate follows swimsuit, sending the invoice to President Biden, who indicators it.

Might 2024

TikTok and its Chinese language father or mother firm ByteDance sue the U.S. federal authorities to problem a legislation that might drive the sale of ByteDance’s stake or face a ban, saying that the legislation is unconstitutional.

June 2024

Former President Donald Trump joins TikTok and begins posting campaign-related content material.

July 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris joins TikTok and in addition begins posting campaign-related materials.

Dec. 6, 2024

A federal appeals courtroom panel unanimously upheld a legislation that would result in a ban on TikTok, handing a powerful defeat to the favored social media platform because it fights for its survival within the U.S. The panel of judges rebuffed the corporate’s problem of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Modification.

Dec. 27, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump requested the Supreme Courtroom to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into impact till his administration can pursue a “political decision” to the problem.

Jan. 17, 2025

The Supreme Courtroom unanimously upheld the federal legislation banning TikTok starting until it is offered by its China-based father or mother firm, holding that the chance to nationwide safety posed by its ties to China overcomes considerations about limiting speech by the app. A ban is about to into impact on Jan. 19, 2025.

Jan. 18, 2025

TikTok customers in the US have been prevented from watching movies on the favored social media platform simply hours earlier than a federal ban was set to take impact.

“A legislation banning TikTok has been enacted within the U.S.,” a message within the app stated. “Sadly meaning you may’t use TikTok for now.”

The corporate’s app was additionally faraway from outstanding app shops, together with those operated by Apple and Google, whereas its web site informed customers that the short-form video platform was not out there.