By: Kingsley Wong
Legislators in many countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia have conveyed that they might ban Tik Tok, an app widely used by countless people in the world. In addition, TikTok has been banned in India, Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan and Somalia, and the UK government and parliament have banned TikTok on employees’ work devices. Many outlets say that more than 2 billion people around the world use this app. TikTok has been around for a long time, at least from an internet perspective. Since merging the Chinese social video app with its enemy Musical.ly in 2017, TikTok has grown from an app for teens to a global trendsetter. However, it is also considered a potential national security threat by U.S. officials. Additionally, they are concerned that China might spread false information through TikTok’s content recommendations, a worry that has grown in the US throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict and the presidential election. Some claim that TikTok has contributed to the rise in antisemitism.
On April 24, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell to owners in the U.S. within a year or shut down. It’s unclear whether this law will be able to withstand the legal action filed by TikTok or if ByteDance will agree to sell TikTok.
Global authorities have been trying to ban TikTok since 2020. India did in 2020, Afghanistan followed in 2022, and the US has a temporary ban as of 2024. Many countries like Australia, Austria, Canada, Estonia, France, and Ireland have banned TikTok on government devices. Many countries that are experiencing political uprisings state that TikTok is teaching kids about non-moral things, and how TikTok is sharing their political secrets. An example of this was when a video of a police officer that got killed in a protest in Jordan, went viral on TikTok. The Kingdom of Jordan banned TikTok shortly after.
Western lawmakers and regulators are becoming more concerned that TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, might give the Chinese government access to private user data, such as location data. They have cited legal provisions that permit the Chinese government to surreptitiously obtain information for intelligence-gathering purposes from Chinese citizens and businesses.
Although many people believe that Tik Tok is bad, many young people think it is a great app to help socialize and connect with other people. Many young kids have an account on Tik Tok, where they have gathered up millions of followers. It’s free and easy to use.
To sum up, a lot of people use Tik Tok. Many authorities concluded that Tik Tok is a very bad website that manipulates what you see and sends your information back to the Chinese government. Nevertheless, a large number of people use it. The question remains, with 150 million monthly American active users, should the U.S. government or state governments enact TikTok bans?