Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!
Over 150 million Americans were met with this message when TikTok was restored on Jan. 19 after going dark for a mere 14 hours. It seemed to have its intended effect, as Trump loudly boasted about “saving TikTok” as one of his new administration’s first major wins soon after (despite him not actually having been in office yet when TikTok went back online). But as much credit as Trump is taking for restoring access to TikTok, it’s not lost on many young internet users that the idea for a TikTok ban was initially raised by none other than (*checks notes*) Trump himself.Â
Concerns about the short-form video-sharing app’s potential threat to national security have been brewing for years — dating back to 2020, when Trump thrust TikTok into the national spotlight with an executive order that sought to ban TikTok unless its U.S. operations were sold. His order highlighted TikTok’s terms of service, which allowed for data-sharing with its parent company, the Chinese-owned ByteDance, and stated that the order was necessary to prevent the Chinese government from accessing U.S. users’ data. Â
These initial efforts stalled for a few years, but in March 2024, Congress passed the bill forcing TikTok’s U.S. operations to divest from ByteDance or face a ban, and it was signed into law by former President Joe Biden in April 2024. On Jan. 17, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the law just two days before the ban was set to go into effect. (And then, as most know, TikTok did briefly go dark in the U.S. in anticipation of the ban, but came back online with its message thanking Trump.)
Trump’s stance on TikTok has shifted in recent months — which many consider to be due at least in large part to TikTok helping him get the attention of Gen Z — who comprise over 60% of the app’s user base — during the 2024 election cycle. As a result of this shift, he’s rebranded himself as a champion of the app. But does Gen Z actually see him as such? And if so, does this help him score some political points with the slightly left-leaning demographic?Â
The answer, according to dozens of Gen Zers polled by Her Campus on Jan. 21, is an emphatic, overwhelming no.
For starters, the fact that Trump was the one who originally called for the TikTok ban is not lost on Gen Z. “I already am not a fan of Trump, but the fact that he is taking credit for bringing TikTok back after he is the one who introduced the ban in the first place makes me dislike him even more,” Amber, a recent UCLA grad, tells Her Campus. “It feels like a ploy to get Gen Z on his side.”
Starr, a San Francisco State University senior, agrees. “It’s like he set a house on fire, and then ran back inside to save everyone,” she says.
Further, Trump’s sudden pivot to wanting to keep TikTok in the U.S., paired with the in-app notifications thanking Trump, has raised Gen Zers’ suspicions about the theatrics of it all, with some speculating on how much PR factored into the near-shutdown and revival.
It feels like a ploy to get Gen Z on his side.
“I think it’s a publicity stunt where he is toying with the American audience, and it just shows how much power he has,” Ella, a junior at Virginia Tech, says.Â
For some who feel this way, the president gets negative aura points in their book. “Our world leaders should be above attention-seeking, cheap, transparent actions,” Elaine, a junior at Virginia Tech, says. Emma, a fourth year at James Madison University, concurs: “It feels pathetic.”
Some argue the saga even borders on propaganda, pointing to the emotional responses it elicited from millions of users who were devastated to lose TikTok and elated to get it back. “The propaganda we are seeing gets more concerning each day,” Jackie, a senior at UMass Boston, says.
Some wonder if the move actually goes beyond capitalizing on a good old-fashioned PR opportunity. “It makes me question what deal was made between Trump and TikTok, and how that will influence the content on the app going forward,” Emma, a recent grad from Thomas Jefferson University, says. “I do not trust that the leader of the country has so much stake in social media platforms because I feel they will not remain politically neutral.”
Since coming back online, some U.S. users have reported difficulty accessing content on TikTok that was critical of Trump, with search terms like “fascism” reportedly turning up no results in the app. This has raised questions about whether the U.S. version of TikTok was adjusted to align more with conservative power structures, or if the abrupt shutdown and revival simply caused technical glitches. According to multiple outlets, TikTok has maintained that its policies and algorithms have not changed; Her Campus reached out to TikTok for further clarification, but didn’t hear back in time for publication. Â
Alyssa*, a junior at Virginia Tech, is one user who believes her TikTok experience has changed post-shutdown, saying the content she’s served is “completely different” from what it used to be, and that she believes some topics related to Trump have been censored. “It makes me feel like my rights are slowly disappearing.”
Because he had previously tried to ban TikTok, I am not entirely trusting that he actually wants it to stay.
On top of all this, Trump’s efforts to “save” TikTok are only temporary — the app’s future in the U.S. is still very much in limbo. On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order delaying the ban by 75 days, buying everyone more time to figure out their next steps. From here, Trump could seek to repeal the law that led to the ban through Congress, or TikTok could avoid the ban by finally selling its U.S. operations (some billionaires like Elon Musk and Frank McCourt have indicated interest in buying the app). Also raising eyebrows is Trump’s recent comment that the U.S. should “get half” of TikTok in a sale, without specifying what that kind of ownership deal might look like. Namely, should the U.S. government itself seek to have a stake in TikTok, that could greatly impact the spread of information and discourse of millions of Americans.
For now, the only thing certain about TikTok (and Trump’s connection to the app) is that many Gen Zers are uncertain about it. “Because he had previously tried to ban TikTok, I am not entirely trusting that he actually wants it to stay,” Sam* a junior at the University of Virginia, says. And even if Trump does want to save TikTok for good, many — like Madalynn, a junior from Belmont University — are keeping in mind that this means it likely serves his best interests to do so: “For that, I will be even more careful in using this platform going forward.”