Doomscrolling came to a screeching halt on Jan. 18. TikTok enforced a temporary ban on the popular app in the United States.
TikTok’s target audience is young people ages 18-24. This makes BYU campus a prime target for their marketing.
“The TikTok ban, um, I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen,” Riley Bramwell, a BYU student and TikTok user said.
“I actually think it’s hilarious,” Marshall Short, a BYU student, said.
TikTok users in the United States opened their phones on Saturday to find that the app had officially been banned.
“I was devastated cause I thought that I'd have one more night to like, you know, rot in bed a little bit,” Bramwell said.
However, on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order postponing the TikTok ban for 75 days. He said he is working with advisors to balance issues of national security and the right to free speech for TikTok creators.
“We don't have to have two options, either it's banned or it's not banned, but compromises can be made about, you know, data collection and about the content that's on there that worries people,” Julia Walters, a BYU student and author of "The TikTok Dilemma: Regulating TikTok for Minors in the Age of Free Speech," said.
“What they’re trying to do is get, like, ownership for the U.S. to have TikTok instead of just China, which I think is a good idea so they can kinda protect it a little more,” Lexi Kofoed, a BYU student, said.
There have been recent speculations on the top money makers in the United States purchasing TikTok from Bytedance, Tiktok's parent company.
“I don't think Elon Musk should, since he already has Twitter or X. I just feel like so many rich people control so many things, but maybe that's better than China,” Steven Godfrey, a BYU student, said.
The United States may be on edge for the next few months to find out if TikTok will be banned or if someone will step in to purchase the app. Until then, students will keep on scrolling.