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Coco Feng

Beijing-based ByteDance launched the international version of its short video app in 2017. TikTok soon became a global hit thanks to its advanced algorithm. This success, however, drew the attention of the US government and others, which raised concerns about data privacy and national security.
After a rocky few years, TikTok seems ready to secure a permanent foothold in the US market via a deal that would see American investors control the US operations.
The following timeline plots TikTok’s journey.
2012
March – Zhang Yiming establishes ByteDance in Beijing.
2016
September – ByteDance launches Douyin, a social media platform based on user-generated short videos. Douyin would only be available in mainland China.
2017
September – ByteDance launches TikTok, the international version of Douyin. Two months later, it bought lip-synching app Musical.ly.
2018
August – ByteDance integrates Musical.ly into TikTok. The short video app initially ran into problems in several markets, including Indonesia, where it was banned for allegedly containing “pornography, inappropriate content and blasphemy”. The ban was lifted a week later after TikTok agreed to remove “all negative content” from the app and open an office in Indonesia.

2019
February – ByteDance is fined US$5.7 million by the US Federal Trade Commission over Musical.ly’s illegal collection of personal information from minors.
March – TikTok surpasses 1 billion downloads globally on Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
2020
April – TikTok reports 2 billion downloads globally.
May – TikTok appoints former Walt Disney streaming chief Kevin Mayer as its chief executive, but he only lasts three months in the job.
June – European Union regulators begin to scrutinise TikTok’s practices after the Netherlands opens an investigation into the company’s policies to protect children’s data.
July – Mike Pompeo, then US Secretary of State, makes the first assertion that TikTok’s user data “could end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party”. The US government was looking at potentially banning TikTok, he says in a Fox News interview.
July – In his first term, US President Donald Trump says that a TikTok ban could be deployed to “punish” China for the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
July – Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers urge the government to limit the use of TikTok, concerned that user data may end up in the hands of the Chinese government, according to a report by the state broadcaster NHK.
July – During his re-election campaign, Trump says he would ban TikTok in the United States within 24 hours.
August – Microsoft says it is “exploring” a purchase of TikTok’s US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand operations. A month later, Microsoft drops out of the talks after ByteDance rejects the idea of selling TikTok piecemeal.
2023
March – TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi weathers blistering questioning during a Congressional hearing in Washington, as US lawmakers grill him on the app’s alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party, its danger to teenagers, and risk to American national security and data privacy.
April – Montana becomes the first US state to pass legislation banning TikTok on all personal devices operating within state borders. The ban was blocked in November by a US federal judge, citing free speech rights.
2024
January – TikTok’s CEO makes his second appearance before the US Congress, testifying before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
March – The US House of Representatives passes the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) to ban operations related to TikTok. The US Senate passes the bill a month later, and US President Joe Biden signs it into law to take effect on January 19, 2025, on the eve of the end of his presidency.
May – TikTok files a lawsuit to block the sell-or-ban law.

2025
January 17 – The US Supreme Court upholds a law requiring TikTok to be banned in the US unless it secured a non-Chinese buyer by January 19.
January 18 – Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store remove the app in the US. On the same day, TikTok makes its services temporarily unavailable in the country.
January 19 – TikTok is scheduled to shut its US service ahead of a federal ban taking effect.
January 21 - On his first day back in office, Trump extends the sell-or-ban deadline for TikTok by 75 days to April 4, from January 19.
April 2 – Trump slaps import tariffs on all of America’s trading partners.
June – Trump extends the deadline for TikTok’s shutdown by 90 days until September, the third time he shifted the timetable.
July – ByteDance denies a report that it agreed to sell TikTok’s US operations to a consortium led by Oracle.
September 17 – Trump extends the deadline for TikTok’s US shutdown for the fourth time, setting a new deadline for December 16.
September 25 – Trump signs an executive order to approve a proposed deal under which American investors would own around 80 per cent of TikTok’s US operations, with ByteDance and its affiliates taking less than 20 per cent. He also extends the deadline by another 120 days, but the deal remains pending Beijing’s approval.


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