The social media platform TikTok released in September of 2016 has shown up on the news recently as a potential threat to national security because of their parent company ByteDance. The Time of events goes as follows:
- In April 2024, Pres. Biden signed a bill to ban TikTok if TikTok’s parent company ByteDance didn’t sell to a U.S. owner within a year.
- On January 17th, 2025 the Supreme Court upheld the federal law banning TikTok, the ban was planned to set into effect on January 19th, 2025.
- On January 20th 2025, President Trump signed an executive order to hit pause to the law on banning TikTok and provide a liability shield.
Those in favor of the ban claim that TikTok is a gateway for China to take personal data. AP News states, “TikTok and it’s China-based parent company, ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the U.S. claiming the security concerns were overblown and the law should be struck down because it violate the First Amendment.” Reuters states “FBI Director Chirs Wrary has said TikTok poses a national security risk, adding that Chinese companies are required to essentially ‘do whatever the Chinese government wants them to in terms of sharing information or serving as a tool of the Chinese government.”
According to some opponents, is TikTok isn’t anymore a threat than a American-owned social media sites since they also collect and sell people data. According to Britannia, “for the average user, TikTok appears no more risky than Facebook. That’s not entirely a compliment, ‘explains technology columnist Geoffrey Fowler.” The second con is the ban is discriminatory, un-American, undemocratic. Britannia states, “No government, as far as we know, has ever told Americans what they can or can’t download from an app store or access on the web, TikTok states in a response to Montana’s ban.” When asked if TikTok should be banned Brayden Jadulang, Kealakene High School Class of 2026 said no, and states that he downloaded TikTok out of boredom in seventh grade. He also stated that 300 million people or 1 out of every 3 Americans use TikTok, Jadulang from Ctlhawai.org stated “censorship leads to a lack of information, which could foster apathy, a lack of individualism and excessive conformism.” NPR states, “the text of the order said this will give Trump’s administration time ‘to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.” Pres. Trump said that TikTok is set to get banned in 90 days if TikTok doesn’t find a solution.
For the ban:
https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-timeline-ban-biden-india-d3219a32de913f8083612e71ecf1f428
Against the ban:
https://www.britannica.com/procon/TikTok-debate
https://www.ctlhawaii.org/news/should-tiktok-be-banned
Trump extending the ban:
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/20/nx-s1-5268701/trump-executive-order-tiktok-ban
