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Definition: TikTok
The most popular video sharing social media platform. TikTok is used to upload videos and view them on mobile devices via the TikTok app, as well as from a browser on any computer at tiktok.com. Introduced in 2016 in China by ByteDance as Douyin (shaking sound) and one year later in the U.S. as TikTok, like all social media platforms, algorithms select content to keep users online. Depending on the number of followers, TikTok influencers make from a few thousand dollars per year to millions. See user engagement.
Videos Are Addictive
Like most social media, the next video that appears is based on the material people previously liked. However, compared to text and images, videos seem much more addictive. TikTok, along with Instagram and other social media, are responsible for teens having a lot of fun but they also cause alarming rates of anxiety, especially among young girls.
Banned and Then Unbanned in the U.S.
In 2020, ByteDance was given 90 days to sell TikTok to a U.S. company, but that order was revoked in 2021. A year later, the federal government and several states banned the app from government-owned devices. In March 2024, ByteDance was once again given a deadline to sell TikTok to a U.S. company by January 19, 2025. On that day, TikTok went out of service but only for a few hours (see below).
TikTok Clips
Banned Less Than a Day
Videos Are Addictive
Like most social media, the next video that appears is based on the material people previously liked. However, compared to text and images, videos seem much more addictive. TikTok, along with Instagram and other social media, are responsible for teens having a lot of fun but they also cause alarming rates of anxiety, especially among young girls.
Banned and Then Unbanned in the U.S.
In 2020, ByteDance was given 90 days to sell TikTok to a U.S. company, but that order was revoked in 2021. A year later, the federal government and several states banned the app from government-owned devices. In March 2024, ByteDance was once again given a deadline to sell TikTok to a U.S. company by January 19, 2025. On that day, TikTok went out of service but only for a few hours (see below).
Unless the videos are designed to sell something, which many are, there is often a lot of singing, dancing, pranks and antics, as well as unpretentious events such as trimming hair. TikTok learns users' preferences and strives to deliver the type of clips they enjoy.
On January 19, 2025, TikTok went out of service in the U.S. with this message. Within a few hours it came back online.