By: Maggie Z

The United States has been more and more apprehensive about sensitive user data leaking to the Chinese government via the popular app TikTok since 2020, but in 2024, the federal government is prepared to take drastic measures: U.S. President Biden has demanded that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, break away from TikTok or face a TikTok ban in the United States.

Enforcing this ban will be no small feat, as TikTok has been racing up the charts for the world’s most-used social media app over the past few years. According to Statista, there are over 120 million TikTok users in the U.S. alone.

Because of continued concerns about data leaks, the federal government has decided to step in despite TikTok’s denial of these claims. Many lawmakers are worried that TikTok might be giving user data to the Chinese government, possibly due to an information-gathering mission and using TikTok’s content suggestions to help disinformation campaigns. They have noted laws that give the Chinese government permission to collect data covertly from Chinese companies, such as ByteDance. TikTok has denied these charges, but the U.S. government is willing to take action.

President Joe Biden signed a law that will force ByteDance to break from TikTok within a year, but ByteDance retaliated soon after by suing the U.S. federal government. “A . . . government-imposed ban that blocks Americans from using the app could face legal challenges on First Amendment grounds,” says Caitlin Chin from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as banning TikTok without particular evidence can be seen as a violation of the First Amendment.

This ban targets app stores, like Apple and Google, to prevent them from distributing TikTok, so if they do, the government has permission to penalize them. “Apple and other companies that operate app stores can block downloads of apps that no longer work. They also ban apps that carry inappropriate or illegal content,” said Justin Cappos, a professor at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering. However, legal objections may prevent the ban from being passed. More than thirty states have sided with the Fed in banning TikTok, but the matter could remain unresolved for years to come.