Monday, February 10, 2025
When Chris Schacca, 38, clocked in for a shift at Jersey Mike’s on Sunrise Highway on Sunday, all he and his co-workers wanted to talk about was the pop-up message blocking content on one of their favorite apps, TikTok.
“We were showing each other our screens and couldn’t believe it was gone,” Schacca said.
The message told users to “stay tuned,” but read, “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
By Sunday afternoon, however, the app’s functionality returned, a few hours after then President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would issue an executive order delaying the ban once he took office on Monday — allowing access to its 170 million American users, but keeping the app unavailable for new downloads on Apple and Samsung devices.
“Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President-elect Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” the company announced in a statement to users.
The law, the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, passed by Congress last April, required ByteDance, a Chinese technology company, to sell TikTok or face a ban. It gave the company 270 days, until Jan. 19, to sell the app to a U.S. or allied company.
In 2020, in his first term, Trump said he had the same concerns about data integrity, and imposed broad sanctions against TikTok. But a federal court blocked the ban of the app, questioning its legality and the grounds for enforcement.
Nathan DeCorpo, an attorney in Lynbrook, said the law presents a legal “gray area,” especially because lawmakers have only recently begun writing legislation governing social media. And, DeCorpo added, it appears that the only ways to keep TikTok online are for Congress to pass a new law reversing the current one, or for the company to sell to an acceptable buyer.
Two groups have submitted formal bids to purchase TikTok: one led by billionaire Frank McCourt and investor Kevin O’Leary, and another from the AI search engine PerplexityAI. Several other potential buyers have also expressed interest in the app, but ByteDance has maintained that it has no plans to sell it.
Schacca said that the law’s emphasis on foreign entities holding data, has led him to believe its true motives revolve around American control of wealth and data.
He said he uses the app for entertainment — for tarot card readings and video analyses of anime shows he watches. He enjoys how current the videos are, he said, updating him on new shows, events and pop culture phenomena.
Lynbrook High School senior Nina Tomao said she also believes the push to sell TikTok is unnecessary, arguing that concerns over data privacy should also extend to other tech giants like Meta, which she feels are just as problematic.
“The ban would have only made people switch to Meta more, which still profits off of American data,” Tomao said.
She sees TikTok as a platform where people, especially small businesses and influencers, can thrive by selling their products. Tomao added that the app has become a major income source for many small businesses, thanks to the integrated TikTok Shop, where users can purchase items.
While she acknowledged that some users become dependent on the app, she doesn’t view the platform as inherently negative. Having used TikTok since its early days in 2016, when it was called Musical.ly, Tomao believes it has been more beneficial than harmful.
In a survey conducted by the Herald in Lynbrook and East Rockaway, one East Rockaway resident said that while he is less concerned about what countries have users’ data, he believes that more age restrictions are needed on social media applications, beyond just TikTok.
According to a Pew Research report in April, 63 percent of U.S. teens said they used TikTok, with 68 percent of girls saying they use it, and 59 percent of boys. And among the teenage users, over half said they use it every day. The respondents who reported using TikTok said it would be “very difficult” to give up social media.
As the Herald went to press, Trump had not issued an executive order on the law passed last year, but he said his administration would work with TikTok executives to find solutions. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew attended Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
