The love for TikTok never gets old. With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, TikTok has quickly become the most popular social media platform- beloved by teenagers and Generation Z. Many celebrities who are widely known started their careers through content creation. You’ll find almost anything with just one click from the latest trends to all the delightful content of your interest. The craze over TikTok just never stops.
However, aside from being so popular, TikTok has been a source of many controversies over the past few months…
TikTok being operated by the Chinese company, ‘ByteDance,” has raised several national security concerns among the U.S. government. U.S. lawmakers worry about the app’s direct link to China, as they fear that TikTok may release U.S. data to the Chinese government. Mike Pompeo, former U.S. Secretary of State, rclaimed that the TikTok platform enables China to, “feed data directly to the Chinese Communist Party.” Many countries like Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Iran, and Somalia, have already established a full ban on TikTok. Other countries like Taiwan, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Indonesia, and France have prohibited government officials from installing TikTok on their devices.
These rising concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass legislation to ban TikTok in the U.S. on March 13, 2024. Later on April 24, 2024, President Biden signed the National Security Act into law in which ByteDance has nine months to sell TikTok to the U.S. owners, or it would be completely banned in the U.S. The ban will cause TikTok to disappear from all Apple and Google app stores, making it unavailable in all browsers in the United States. Those who already have TikTok installed wouldn’t be able to make any further updates or new features, making it extremely hard to use.
Though a bill has been passed, banning TikTok will not be easy. Over 220 million users live in the U.S., and banning TikTok will negatively influence the young users who enjoy the app. It will also negatively affect all users who use TikTok as a platform to start their business career. Many of these business owners use TikTok and other social media platforms to advertise their models worldwide.
In response to the ban, TikTok- further took action- by suing the U.S. government claiming that the ban was unconstitutional, as it violated the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. No matter what happens in the lower courts, the case will most likely head up to the Supreme Court, delaying the ban until further notice.