The popular video-sharing app TikTok is on the brink of being outlawed in the United States. Legislators from both parties have greenlit a proposal that requires TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to unload the business to a non-Chinese entity or face a countrywide ban. The concern is that the Chinese government could coerce ByteDance into handing over data from its 170 million American users, a fear TikTok refutes.
Talks of banning TikTok aren’t newly brewing. In fact, the former reigning president, Donald Trump, publicly rallied for such a ban in 2020. However, he’s since criticized the recent bill, saying this would unduly prop up Facebook.
When you ask, “Could TikTok really be an endangerment?” or “Could ByteDance handle the loss of its flagship app?” the answers aren’t as simple. Even if the bill garners President Joe Biden’s signature, the ban won’t be immediate. Legal battles would likely follow, buying ByteDance time. In fact, the law grants ByteDance nine months to secure an American buyer, plus a three-month grace period, before the ban is enforced.
The most direct method to enforce a TikTok ban would be to pull it from app stores. This would prevent new users from downloading the app and existing users from accessing future updates, potentially compromising security or leading to bugs.
The proposed ban has been met with pushback. TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, has blasted the legislation, saying it’s a blow to free speech rights and risks many American jobs. TikTok users, too, have aired their grievances. For instance, disability advocate Tiffany Yu voiced that the platform is critical to her advocacy work.
Moreover, if China doesn’t greenlight the sale of TikTok, this could provoke further issues. Elsewhere in the world, TikTok is already barred in places like India, Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Somalia. The European Commission and the UK government have banned the app from work devices on account of security concerns.
A defining feature of TikTok is its algorithm, which shows users content based on their past behaviors. Detractors say the app collects more data than its rivals to fuel its highly personalized system. But TikTok is not alone in this – popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram are also known to gather similar user data.
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