On Wednesday, April 22, President Joe Biden officially signed the law causing the popular social media platform TikTok to be banned in the United States unless the owner of the app, ByteDance, decides to sell it. If this ban goes into effect, it will hurt small businesses across the country and damper many teens’ way of communicating with one another.
The main reason for this ban has to do with concern over China taking users’ data. Due to the United States and China not being on the best of terms, law makers are worried that the app could be mining users’ data to help benefit China.
The ban was passed as a package that included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, which politicians had been trying to get passed for several months. Some believe that part of the reason the ban got tied in with this package was to help get the aid for these countries.
TikTok still has a chance of not getting banned for U.S. users, if the tech company ByteDance sells it to an American company. Based on the new law, ByteDance has until Jan. 15, 2025 to sell the app. However, if the current sitting president chooses too, the date could be postponed by 90 days if the company begins the process of selling the app.
Most Americans are against this ban, over 102.3 million Americans use the app every month. Many small businesses across the country rely on the app to help promote their goods and services. With TikTok going away, it will hurt those businesses and may cause them to close.
Most Del Val students are also apposed to this ban. Freshmen Madigan McGourty explained that she enjoys using the app and does not want it to go away. When asked about the risk of China mining her data, she claimed that it did not concern her.
Although the threat of users’ data being mined is not a concern for most users, government officials do have reason to be worried. TikTok has claimed countless times that they do not share users’ data with the Chinese government, however, with ByteDance being a Chinese company, its government would have the authority to force ByteDance to share American users’ data.
If this were to happen, the Chinese would have the ability to control the content TikTok users see while using the app. This would have the potential to be harmful because it would allow the Chinese government to spread propaganda if they wanted to.
TikTok becoming banned in the United States is a real possibility and could happen within the next year if the owner does not sell the app. This could cause harm to small businesses and teens’ social lives, however, it may also help keep users safe.
