As the hours ticked down on the Sept. 17 deadline, TikTok received a 90-day extension delaying its ban in the United States through an executive order by President Donald Trump.
The order issued Wednesday delays the potential ban on the platform until Dec. 16. This marks the fourth time TikTok has been given an extension by the Trump administration since Jan.
The short-form video platform faced scrutiny from previous administrations due to the alleged threat it poses to national security.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act passed the house in March of 2024 and required that China give up control over TikTok in order for the app to remain accessible in America.
The parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, is headquartered in Beijing, China. The potential closeness between ByteDance and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has created a concern among proponents of an anti-China foreign policy that the app may be used for Chinese intelligence and espionage projects, though some people feel the concern is negligible.
“China already has all my info so who cares if they take more,” sophomore Will Palmer said.
Other students at EHS are pointing to the data collection methods of other platforms, and are arguing that a TikTok ban is an artificial means of boosting the numbers of other social media apps.
“I think the ban is dumb,” sophomore Ace Sample said. “They just want everyone to move to Meta apps so they can make all the money.”
TikTok is estimated to have over 100 million users in the United States, according to the World Population Review. Out of 113 poll respondents at EHS, 75.2% had at least one TikTok account.
One of the issues has been the lack of information given to the public. Few specifics have been released about the proposed American version of the platform and what the process would be for migrating to the new app.
“[The idea of a TikTok ban] is aggravating, as I don’t want to have to rebuild my account’s videos and followers on another platform,” senior Madelyn Wolf said. “I would be less upset about the change if all my data transferred to the new app.”
The temporary ban period in Jan. had a surge of Americans protesting by joining the Chinese platform Xiaohongshu, more commonly known as RedNote or Little Red Book, and some EHS students are looking to move back to it if the app was banned again.
Instagram and YouTube are the most popular alternatives to an American version of TikTok among students. Other platforms students responded they would move to are X, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Xiaohongshu.
A call between Chairman Xi Jinping and President Trump is expected to happen sometime today to finalize the deals of the ban and the creation of the new platform.
“As much as I dislike TikTok, I don’t want there to be a precedent of the government banning media platforms,” freshman Ben Tingley said. “That seems dangerous.”