President Donald Trump announced his plan to ban TikTok in the U.S. by Sep. 15 on Aug. 6, 2020, if it is not bought by an American company. 

In the Washington Post, the order issued in early Aug. says the reason for the ban was that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, a China-based company, was storing people’s information. Which could potentially allow “the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information” in order to “track the locations of Federal employees and contractors,” however, others don’t believe that.

“TikTok themselves even said that nothing was happening,” Sophomore Hailey Lancaster said. 

TikTok said on their website that the information they have stored is “standard for thousands of mobile apps around the world” and that they have never shared that information. 

“We have made clear that TikTok has never shared user data with the Chinese government,” TikTok’s website said, “nor censored content at its request.”

While Trump was adamant that TikTok was going to be gone for good in the U.S., users were doubtful and started looking into other ways to access the app’s content. 

“I thought it was pretty stupid and that people were going to find a way around it,” Lancaster said, “Like VPNs or just watching TikToks on Youtube.”

Much to users’ relief, however, District Judge Carl Nichols decided that TikTok will not be banned from app stores, instead, the Sept. 27 deadline was postponed. 

 “TikTok averted a ban in the United States last week when a federal judge ruled that Washington couldn’t ban it from app stores yet,” an article from CNN on Oct. 5 said. 

Thankfully there is a deal on the horizon that might save TikTok. Oracle and its partner Walmart are looking to buy a stake in the company that will hopefully allow it to stay in the country. 

“TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, is racing to close a deal with American firms Oracle and Walmart that might be enough to satisfy the Trump administration’s concerns about the app,” a CNN article said.

Things seem to be looking up for the popular video-sharing app TikTok, but the president is still a little hesitant about it all. He is still concerned that the country’s security could be at risk if a Chinese company still owned TikTok. 

“As far as TikTok is concerned,” Trump said, “we’re banning it from the United States.”