By: Olivia Ho
On April 24, 2024, President Biden signed a law that gave ByteDance, the Chinese start-up company, 270 days to give up TikTok or to sell it to a government approved buyer.
On January 19, 2025, if Tik Tok isn’t sold, the ban will not only affect the company but also the millions of people who use the popular social media app. The app will be removed from all devices and app stores, making the app completely inaccessible.
President Biden and many other major officials are not the only people in the U.S. who aren’t supporting TikTok. Many colleges in America have already banned Tik Tok so all students can’t access it when on campus wifi.
However, many other countries didn’t just have TikTok banned in multiple colleges, the app was banned completely and sometimes TikTok wasn’t the only chinese app that was banned in the country. India banned TikTok on June 29, 2020 and a few hundred other apps owned by Chinese companies due to Chinese laws that let the Chinese government gather private information. Afghanistan, France, Australia, and other countries have also banned Tiktok because of the same reason.
The reason why the U.S. wants to ban Tik Tok isn’t any different from the other countries that have already banned the app. According to China’s 2017 national intelligence law: “Article 7 obligates Chinese individuals, organizations, and institutions to support national intelligence work. Article 14 gives the Chinese intelligence agencies the authority to demand such cooperation.” Because Tik Tok is a chinese company the government is allowed to take any piece of information from them posing a security threat.
Tik tok was an app that was globally used that helped billions of people globally including promoting businesses and motivating people. It would impact many businesses who switch platforms as Tik Tok is one of the most popular social media apps and most businesses won’t have the same amount of profit as they would have when using Tik Tok for their business.
There are many people in America who are hoping that the app will stay but now it’s only up to ByteDance and to see what decision they will make next.