By: Cynthia He

Over the past few years, some U.S. Lawmakers have hoped for TikTok to be banned or sold out of concern that ByteDance, the Chinese company which currently owns the app, may provide data to the Chinese government.

TikTok is a viral social media platform that has grown in popularity. It has over 100 million active users in just the U.S. and more than 1 billion users globally, making it one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.

Despite TikTok’s popularity, many countries have already banned the app on all government platforms. Such examples include Canada, Britain, Australia, and Taiwan. In 2020, India was among the first countries to ban TikTok, along with other Chinese apps. This was because they believed it was sending user data to the Chinese government.

In the U.S., many government authorities have noticed certain laws in China that permit the government to collect data from citizens and private companies. These laws created worries that TikTok and ByteDance may be providing information such as a user’s location to Chinese authorities.

This year, President Biden signed legislation which gave ByteDance a year to sell TikTok or face a complete ban. In retaliation, TikTok sued the government for violating the First Amendment and stated, “The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression.”

To date, more than 30 states have outlawed TikTok from any government-issued devices. In 2023, Montana had attempted to prohibit the app completely, but it was unsuccessful, resulting in another lawsuit from TikTok.

TikTok criticizes the bans, commenting that the lawmakers were infringing on citizen’s First Amendment rights. TikTok has also started encouraging users to fight against the bans. They have done this by sending a notification to all users telling them to call their local representatives about the ban.