SAN FRANCISCO — If it seems like TikTok has been round ceaselessly, that is in all probability as a result of it has, no less than when you’re measuring through web time. What’s now in query is whether or not it is going to be round for much longer and, in that case, in what kind?
Beginning in 2017, when the Chinese language social video app merged with its competitor Musical.ly, TikTok has grown from a distinct segment teen app into a world trendsetter. Whereas, in fact, additionally rising as a possible nationwide safety menace, in accordance with U.S. officers.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed laws requiring TikTok father or mother ByteDance to promote to a U.S. proprietor inside a 12 months or to close down. It is not clear whether or not that legislation will survive an anticipated authorized problem or that ByteDance would comply with promote.
Here is how TikTok got here to this juncture:
ByteDance is based in China by entrepreneur Zhang Yimin. Its first hit product is Toutiao, a customized information aggregator for Chinese language customers.
Startup Musical.ly, later identified for an eponymous app used to submit brief lipsyncing music movies, is based in China by entrepreneur Alex Zhu.
Musical.ly hits #1 within the Apple App Retailer, following a design change that made the corporate’s brand seen when customers shared their movies.
ByteDance launches Douyin, a video sharing app for Chinese language customers. Its recognition evokes the corporate to spin off a model for overseas audiences known as TikTok.
ByteDance acquires Musical.ly for $1 billion. 9 months later, ByteDance merges it with TikTok.
Powered by an algorithm that encourages binge-watching, customers start to share all kinds of video on the app, together with dance strikes, kitchen meals preparation and varied “challenges” to carry out, file and submit acts that vary from severe to satirical.
Rapper Lil Nas X releases the country-trap tune “Previous City Highway” on TikTok, the place it goes viral and pushes the tune to a file 17 weeks within the #1 spot on the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart. The phenomenon kicks off a wave of TikTok movies from musical artists who abruptly see TikTok as a essential solution to attain followers.
TikTok settles federal fees of violating U.S. child-privacy legal guidelines and agrees to pay a $5.7 million high quality.
The Washington Put up studies that whereas photos of Hong Kong democracy protests and police crackdowns are widespread on most social media websites, they’re surprisingly absent on TikTok. The identical story notes that TikTok posts with the #trump2020 tag acquired greater than 70 million views.
The corporate insists that TikTok content material moderation, carried out within the U.S., will not be accountable and says the app is a spot for leisure, not politics.
The Guardian studies on inner paperwork that reportedly element how TikTok instructs its moderators to delete or restrict the attain of movies bearing on matters delicate to China such because the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. protests and subsequent bloodbath, Tibetan independence or the sanctioned spiritual group Falun Gong.
U.S. politicians start to lift alarms about TikTok’s affect, calling for a federal investigations of its Musical.ly acquisition and a nationwide safety probe into TikTok and different Chinese language-owned apps. That investigation begins in November, in accordance with information studies.
The Pentagon recommends that every one U.S. army personnel delete TikTok from all telephones, private and government-issued. Some companies ban the app on army owned telephones. In January, the Pentagon bans the app from all army telephones.
TikTok turns into the second-most downloaded app on the planet, in accordance with knowledge from analytics agency SensorTower.
Privateness teams file a grievance alleging TikTok continues to be violating U.S. child-protection legal guidelines and flouting a 2019 settlement settlement. The corporate “takes the problem of safely severely” and continues to enhance safeguards, it says.
TikTok hires former Disney govt Kevin Mayer as its chief govt officer in an obvious try to enhance its U.S. relations. Mayer resigns three months later.
India bans TikTok and dozens of different Chinese language apps in response to a border conflict with China.
President Donald Trump says he’s contemplating banning TikTok as retaliation for China’s alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump points a sweeping however imprecise govt order banning American firms from any “transaction” with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, together with TikTok. A number of days later, he points a second order demanding that ByteDance divest itself of TikTok’s U.S. operations inside 90 days.
Microsoft confirms it’s exploring acquisition of TikTok. The deal by no means materializes; neither does the same overture from Oracle and Walmart. TikTok, in the meantime, sues the Trump administration for alleged violation of due course of in its govt orders.
Joe Biden is elected president. He does not supply new coverage on TikTok and will not take workplace till January, however Trump’s plans to pressure a sale of TikTok begin to unravel anyway. The Trump administration extends the deadlines it had imposed on ByteDance and TikTok and ultimately lets them slide altogether.
Newly sworn-in President Joe Biden postpones the authorized circumstances involving Trump’s plan to ban TikTok, successfully bringing them to a halt.
TikTok declares it has greater than a billion month-to-month lively customers.
A Wall Road Journal report finds TikTok algorithms can flood teenagers with a torrent of dangerous materials comparable to movies recommending excessive weight-reduction plan, a type of consuming dysfunction.
TikTok declares new guidelines to discourage the unfold of dangerous materials comparable to viral hoaxes and promotion of consuming issues.
“The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical,” a mission created by two followers of the Netflix present as a TikTok mission, wins the Grammy for Finest Musical Theater Album.
TikTok turns into essentially the most downloaded app on the planet, beating out Instagram, in accordance with SensorTower knowledge.
BuzzFeed studies that China-based ByteDance staff have repeatedly accessed the nonpublic info of TikTok customers, primarily based on leaked recordings from greater than 80 inner TikTok conferences. TikTok responds with a imprecise remark touting its dedication to safety that does not immediately deal with the BuzzFeed report.
TikTok additionally declares it has migrated its consumer knowledge to U.S. servers managed by the U.S. tech agency Oracle. However that does not stop recent alarm amongst U.S. officers in regards to the threat of Chinese language authorities accessing U.S. consumer knowledge.
FBI Director Chris Wrap raises nationwide safety considerations about TikTok, warning that Chinese language officers may manipulate the app’s advice algorithm for affect operations.
The White Home provides federal companies 30 days to make sure TikTok is deleted from all government-issued cell units. Each the FBI and the Federal Communications Fee warn that ByteDance may share TikTok consumer knowledge with China’s authoritarian authorities.
A invoice to ban TikTok or pressure its sale to a U.S. firm gathers steam in Congress. TikTok brings dozens of its creators to Washington to inform lawmakers to again off, whereas emphasizing modifications the corporate has made to guard consumer knowledge. TikTok additionally annoys legislators by sending notifications to customers urging them to “communicate up now” or threat seeing TikTok banned; customers then flood congressional places of work with calls.
Legislators grill TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at a six-hour congressional listening to the place Chew, a local of Singapore, makes an attempt to push again on assertions that TikTok and ByteDance are instruments of the Chinese language authorities.
The Home of Representatives passes the TikTok ban-or-sell invoice.
The Senate follows go well with, sending the invoice to President Biden, who indicators it.