It’s easy to look at the current headlines about divestiture or bans and assume this is a new thing. It isn't. The push to kick TikTok out of the United States didn't start with a recent bill or a sudden viral security leak. It was a slow burn that turned into a wildfire.
If you’re looking for the specific person who wanted to ban TikTok first, you have to go back to 2019. Long before the 2024 legislation made it "official," a handful of lawmakers and a very specific administration started pulling the thread.
Honestly, it wasn't even called TikTok when the trouble started. It was Musical.ly.
The First Red Flags in 2019
The first real move came from Senator Marco Rubio. In October 2019, he requested that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) launch an investigation into ByteDance’s acquisition of Musical.ly. This was the catalyst. Rubio wasn't just worried about kids dancing; he was worried about censorship. He pointed to reports that TikTok was allegedly scrubbing content related to the Hong Kong protests.
He was the first high-profile voice to put it on paper.
Soon after, Senator Chuck Schumer joined the fray. It was a rare moment of bipartisan agreement. They both asked the Intelligence Community to assess the national security risks. By late 2019, the U.S. Army and Navy had already started banning the app from government-issued phones. They saw the writing on the wall.
Trump’s 2020 Executive Order Blitz
While Rubio and Schumer started the conversation, Donald Trump was the first to try and actually pull the plug. In August 2020, he issued an executive order that basically gave ByteDance 45 days to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a total ban.
He didn't hold back.
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Trump’s argument was straightforward: the app collects vast amounts of data that the Chinese government could theoretically access. TikTok sued. They argued that the administration was acting on political whims rather than legitimate security evidence.
Then came the "Oracle Deal." Remember that? For a few weeks in September 2020, it looked like Larry Ellison and Oracle were going to "save" TikTok by becoming its "trusted technology provider." It was a weird, messy time in tech history. The courts eventually stepped in and blocked Trump’s ban, calling it "arbitrary and capricious."
The ban died in court, but the seed was planted.
Why the "First" Ban Failed
It’s actually kinda fascinating why those early attempts flopped.
The legal system in the U.S. is notoriously protective of the First Amendment. Judges like Wendy Beetlestone and Carl Nichols ruled that the government hadn't proven the "emergency" was dire enough to justify shutting down a platform used by 100 million Americans (at the time).
Also, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) has limitations. It has something called the Berman Amendment, which prevents the president from regulating the "import or export of information materials." Basically, you can't ban a book or a movie just because it comes from a country you don't like. TikTok argued they were "information materials."
The courts agreed.
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The Pivot to the Biden Era
When Joe Biden took office, he initially revoked Trump’s specific executive orders. People thought the heat was off. They were wrong.
Biden replaced the "ban" with a broader mandate to investigate apps owned by foreign adversaries. This was a more surgical approach. Instead of a loud, public executive order that would get slapped down in court, his administration worked through CFIUS and Project Texas.
Project Texas is TikTok's $1.5 billion attempt to silo U.S. user data on American servers (managed by Oracle). They thought this would solve the problem. It didn't.
By 2023, the momentum shifted again.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress, stating that the Chinese government could use the app to control software on millions of devices or drive narrative operations. This shifted the "who wanted to ban TikTok first" conversation from a political talking point to a standard intelligence community stance.
Misconceptions About the Origins
A lot of people think it was Facebook (Meta) that started the ban rumors.
While it’s true that Meta hired a Republican consulting firm called Targeted Victory to spread negative stories about TikTok, they didn't start the ban movement. They certainly fueled it. They wanted the competition gone. But the actual legislative and executive moves came from the Senate and the White House, driven by intelligence briefings that most of us will never see.
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Another myth? That it was all about "The Slap" or some specific viral trend.
It wasn't. It was always about the data. Specifically, the 2017 National Intelligence Law of China, which requires Chinese companies to "support, assist, and cooperate with the state intelligence work." That single law is the reason TikTok is in the position it's in today.
Key Players Who Pushed the Needle
- Marco Rubio: The guy who asked for the first investigation.
- Donald Trump: The first to sign an executive order for a ban.
- Mike Gallagher: The former Representative who spearheaded the 2024 bill (Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act).
- Raja Krishnamoorthi: The Democrat who co-led the charge with Gallagher, showing that this wasn't just a GOP project.
What This Means for You Right Now
If you're a creator or a business owner, you shouldn't just be looking at the "who." You need to look at the "what next."
The 2024 law gives ByteDance a deadline to sell. If they don't, the app faces removal from app stores. This is different from Trump's attempt because it’s a law passed by Congress, not just an executive order. It's much harder to overturn in court.
TikTok is currently fighting this in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. They are leaning hard into the First Amendment argument again. They say a ban is an unconstitutional "prior restraint" on speech.
Actionable Steps for Content Creators
Stop putting all your eggs in the TikTok basket.
Diversify. Immediately.
- Download your data: Go into your TikTok settings and request a full export of your data and videos. Do this once a month.
- Pivot to Reels and Shorts: It’s annoying to manage multiple platforms, but you need a "warm" audience on YouTube or Instagram in case the switch gets flipped.
- Build an Email List: This is the only thing the government can't take away from you. If you have 500,000 followers on TikTok but zero email addresses, you don't own your audience. You're just renting it.
- Watch the Court Dates: The legal battles in late 2024 and throughout 2025 will determine if the "ban" actually happens. Keep an eye on the D.C. Circuit rulings.
The reality is that the push to ban TikTok was never about one person. It was a gradual realization by the U.S. government that they were uncomfortable with a foreign adversary owning the "digital town square." Whether you think it's a security necessity or a massive overreach, the history shows it was a collective effort that started way back in 2019.