170 Million Americans Grieve an App (Briefly)

On January 19, 2025, TikTok went dark in the United States after the Supreme Court upheld a law requiring ByteDance to divest its American operations or face a ban. For approximately 14 hours, 170 million American users experienced what it felt like to lose access to their primary source of entertainment, news, recipes, political commentary, and parasocial relationships. The grief was instantaneous and dramatic. Teenagers posted farewell videos (on Instagram, which felt like betrayal). RedNote, a Chinese app, surged in downloads because apparently the national security concern was about which Chinese app, not Chinese apps in general. Then Trump signaled he'd issue an executive order to extend the deadline, TikTok restored service, and the whole saga revealed itself as the geopolitical equivalent of your parents threatening to take your phone and then giving it back at dinner. The app was back. The underlying questions about data sovereignty, free expression, and whether any of this was ever really about security remained unanswered. But the For You Page was loading again, so who cared.