You probably already know a lot about the beloved social media app, TikTok. It is one of the most popular and fastest-growing apps in the world. It has over 1 billion monthly users with the US being the country with the largest audience. So imagine the impact of 150 million US users suddenly losing their favorite app.
Musical.ly which was released in 2014 was the first version of TikTok, where users posted short lip-sync videos with effects. It was headquartered in Shanghai with an American office in Santa Monica, California. Before its end in 2017, the app had acquired over 200 million users and boosted the careers and popularity of many influencers.
In November 2017, ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company based in China, bought Musical.ly and merged it with TikTok. After its merge and during the global pandemic in 2020, Tiktok began to grow extremely and gain tons of faithful users. By 2021, it had acquired 1 billion viewers and creators. This obsession has been caused by the various content that has a genre or interest for everybody. It’s very popular for its clever algorithm that brings videos to viewers that they will definitely like and relate to. Anyone can create content that has a chance to go viral whether it be funny, entertaining, informational, spreading awareness and so much more. Many influencers and social media stars these days have grown their entire fan base from just posting simple videos on the platform. The app boosted their careers making it possible to do a lot of incredible opportunities. Some of the users include Charli Damelio, Addison Rae, Khaby Lame, and more.
But, the app has begun to look too good to be true as many privacy concerns have been brought up. The concern is that the relationship between Beijing and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, raises national security risks. The American personal user data being on Chinese soil puts America at a weak point/disadvantage if the data were to be used against the country. On March 5th, legislation introduced the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. Which two days later, got voted on and approved by house members. The law would force TikTok to either sell the app from its Chinese parent company or cause it to get banned from the United States. This bill has traveled remarkably quickly.
This also is not the first time there has been an attempted ban of TikTok. When Trump was in office, he tried to use executive orders to get the app banned or sold. These efforts failed. So why is this attempt different from then? This bill was passed by congressional legislation, not caused by executive action. The first efforts to ban TikTok ran into serious First Amendment issues, but now the lawmakers behind this bill say they have worked hard to fix those issues. Supposedly President Biden has agreed to sign it if it passes through the Senate.
During the case, lots of back and forth occurred. The Singaporean CEO of TikTok, Shou Chew was grilled for over five hours by Congress. They not only questioned his ties to China, but also his own life and citizenry. Congress asked lots of questions about the specs of the app and what it does/why it does it. Many have reacted to the case as it felt as they were asking him simple/dumb questions and trying to get some reaction or response from him. So far, there has not been any publicly presented evidence that China has accessed TikTok user data.
The ban would have huge effects on the entire country. First, so many people would lose their favorite source of entertainment, information, and connection with others. Influencers would lose their platform, therefore causing many to lose money the app helped them with. Businesses would lose the ability to advertise and sponsor which would decrease sales and awareness. This extremely affects smaller businesses that get their consumers from the platform. People have found it incredibly interesting that the government is focusing on TikTok when there are truly so many bigger problems in the world. “TikTok is calling the legislation an attack on the First Amendment rights of its users. It launched a call-to-action campaign within its app, urging users to call their representatives in Washington to oppose the bill. Multiple congressional offices say they’ve been flooded with calls. (CNN)”
When asking the Saugus Journalism class many said they would miss it, but it would make their screen time less. Many of us said Instagram Reels would be a good replacement. It’s very important that our American data stays safe, in order to keep the entire country safe. But there has to be a way to ensure this doesn’t take away such a crucial and useful platform. Hopefully, TikTok and the Government come to a fair agreement that keeps everyone happy.
