Is TikTok actually getting banned? How to backup and download your videos, just in case
On Friday the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about the fate of TikTok, the wildly popular social media video app used by 170 million Americans. Depending on how they rule, TikTok could be banned in the U.S. in just over a week, and the endless scrolling will stop.
The U.S. Department of Justice says TikTok, whose owner, ByteDance, based in Beijing, has access to American data and is sharing it with the Chinese government, and could manipulate the content on the app to shape American opinions. Biden signed legislation requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. company by Jan. 19, 2025.
TikTok says the government has yet to prove that such a security risk has ever happened and is arguing the ban violates First Amendment rights and threatens the voices of millions of Americans. They have an uphill battle. The lower court's decision to uphold the law was unanimous, from judges appointed by both Democrat and Republican presidents.
In case TikTok loses and can't or won't sell in time, here's what you need to know.
What is the TikTok ban date?
If ByteDance does not sell TikTok by Sunday, January 19, 2025, the law says it will be banned in the United States.
What happens if TikTok is banned? Will the TikTok app still work?
If ByteDance does not sell TikTok to someone less adversarial than a Chinese company, the app will be removed from American app stores and U.S. internet service providers will be instructed to block access to the site.
If you have the app on your phone it won't go away, but services may be limited or unavailable and no further updates will be forthcoming. It's unclear if you'll be able to add new content.
If you wish to keep a copy of your activity on the app, you may want to do that now.
How to request a copy of your TikTok account
In TikTok, go to your profile page and tap the 3-line menu at the top right.
- Go to your Profile page (tap Profile at the bottom)
- Tap the Menu bottom, three lines stacked vertically
- Tap Settings and privacy
- Tap Account
- Tap Download your data
- Select your data to download (all info or just select data) and the file format (easy-to-read text or JSON, which allows other services to import your file)
- Tap Request data
You'll be notified in the app when the file is ready. It may take a few days to prepare the file, depending on how many videos you've uploaded and how many other people are doing the same thing.
To download your TikTok data:
- Go to your Profile page (tap Profile at the bottom)
- Tap the Menu bottom, three lines stacked vertically
- Tap Settings and privacy
- Tap Account
- Tap Download your data
- Tap Download data to see if you're request is ready and tap Download if it is.
Your file will be available for up to four days.
Could President-elect Donald Trump save TikTok?
Maybe? At the end of last year, he asked the Supreme Court to pause any bans on the app so that his administration, which will begin the day after the deadline when he formally takes office on Inauguration Day, to “pursue a negotiated resolution.”
At a December press conference, Trump — who currently has nearly 15 million followers on the app — told reporters "TikTok has a 'warm spot in my heart' and credited the app for growing his relationship with young voters. He also posted his support for the app on Truth Social, writing "Why would I want to ban TikTok?"
But he was against it before he was for it.
Trump issued the first TikTok ban by executive order in 2020. His ban, which also gave ByteDance a deadline to sell to a U.S. company, coincidentally came a month after TikTokkers gleefully trolled him by gleefully organizing a campaign through the app to sign up for seats at his rallies, causing Trunp to brag about the number of RSVPs received, and then not showing up.
While ByteDance was in negotiations to sell to Microsoft and Oracle, the company filed a request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the app from being banned and got it, so Trump's ban never went into effect.
Biden later revoked the order and ordered the Secretary of Commerce to investigate the app. In 2022, Biden signed a bill prohibiting the app on government devices.
Is TikTok already banned in Florida? Sort of
While the app is not completely banned in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has blocked it on government devices and school networks. Back in 2023, he signed two bills to restrict TikTok — The Florida Digital Bill of Rights and HB 379.
In an interview with Piers Morgan for Fox Nation the same year, he voiced his thoughts on TikTok and confirmed he would completely ban the app if he could.
"I would. I think so. I think it's a security risk. They are harvesting so much data on our citizens," DeSantis said when asked about it. "There's a whole bunch of other apps and stuff that are out there and, honestly, I've got young kids and I don't want our kids on some of this stuff."