As TikTok disappeared from phones throughout the United States on Jan. 18, students at California State University, East Bay were worried that this was the beginning of a new form of social media censorship. The nationwide shutdown of the app was a combination of failed executive orders put forth by President Trump that then turned into new policies signed by the Biden administration.  

TikTok initially became the target of Donald Trump and Executive Order 13873 in 2020, banning the popular social media platform as a threat to national security. However, it continued operating due to multiple push backs by its parent company ByteDance resulting in Judge Carl Nichols blocking Trump’s Executive Order.

Fear of the Chinese government’s interference with the American people’s data prompted the Biden administration to give TikTok an ultimatum that would force it to sell to an American-owned company or cease its U.S. operations by Jan. 19, 2025. 

However, after TikTok’s lawsuit, claiming that the Biden Administration was infringing upon the First Amendment, failed, they voluntarily took down the platform the night before the deadline. The company then expressed excitement to be collaborating with the Trump Administration to keep the app up and running for their American consumers. 

Due to previous opposition, many worry that the new 75-day TikTok extension, that president Trump set in place with another Executive Order, has now turned into a political battleground in which the U.S government is trying to push its own agenda.

Rachel Salinas, a communication student at CSUEB, believes that Trump’s claim to have saved TikTok was nothing more than a political publicity stunt to gain “people points.” A stunt she believes was made to divert attention from his other controversial political actions in the works 

Dr. Grant Kien, a professor in the Department of Communication at CSUEB and author of several social media books, asserts that although there is no way to confirm the allegation unless users were to specifically look at the codes, there is no denying the new stream of content taking over people’s FYP (For You Page). He acknowledges the rise of, sometimes extreme, right-wing content on FYPs and attributes it to Trump’s return to office emboldening users to create content aligned with his beliefs.

“Success for them is just that you’ve seen it. They don’t care if you like it or don’t like it,” said Kien.