By Foster Conner
Page Editor
According to a 2024 study, Pew Research found that one-third of Americans have used TikTok across the last six years. Originally only available in China, the app merged with the popular Musical.ly app in 2018. For many, the app is a source of entertainment and a way to find interesting recipes, music or new obsessions.
Last year, congress voted to ban the app from the United States unless the company sold and divested from Bytedance out of security concerns.
These security concerns are one-sided within the United States and make little sense compared to our businesses. Meta, which is owned by Mark Zuckerburg, is available worldwide and is notorious for showing ads based on what you say out loud within range of your phone.
If another nation were to demand Meta sell an app like Facebook to their nation out of security concerns, our politicians would laugh at the idea. The forced sale of the app or a proposed ban was never about security concerns but instead, a desire to control the American public.
For the government, the app was argued to be an influence from China on the American people, yet it is increasingly apparent that it was always about the American Government not being able to tell its people what to do or think.
On January 19 2025 Tik Tok was officially banned in the U.S. causing the app to no longer work and unable to be downloaded from the app store. In the week leading up to the ban, lawyers representing creators fought at the Supreme Court to prevent the ban from happening. That Friday just before the ban, the Supreme Court argued that banning the app was not a prevention of freedom of speech, and therefore the ban would be upheld. Former President Biden decided not to uphold the ban until President Trump took office so he could decide. Due to this situation, TikTok was offline for 12 hours before everyone slowly regained access.
Americans can still currently use the app because of an extension from President Trump as long as the app is sold to an American investor and according to Trump, “I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.
Americans exist on a social platform that gives millions a platform to freely express themselves and access information they normally would not be able to within their region. It is still unknown what will change or what information will be restricted if the government gains even partial control over the app.
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