TikTok, created back in 2016, is a social media platform used to create and share short videos. With over a billion users on TikTok, this app is worth billions of dollars. Back in April, Joe Biden signed a law that TikTok must be sold by January 19. If not, TikTok will be banned on national security grounds. Fastforward to today, the day is getting closer and TikTok users are concerned at the fact that their favorite app will no longer be accessible in the U.S. Any TikTok user has experienced in the past years a scare of TikTok getting banned due to rumors but fortunately, it never went through.
“Since I use TikTok daily, it is unfortunate to see it go, but I think everyone can benefit from the ban,” said Ivy Neckar, a senior.
TikTok is currently owned by a China-based company, ByteDance. This brings a risk in security to citizens in the United States. Although, many content creators on TikTok have argued that the ban violates their First Amendment rights and question what social media they will post on after TikTok is gone. Other social media platforms provide short videos to watch, like Instagram reels and YouTube Shorts yet TikTokers have announced that they will shift to RedNote which is another Chinese app.
RedNote is a short video app owned by a Chinese company. With TikTok being banned, Americans have already started to migrate to RedNote. This brings the same issue to the United States. TikTokers have made the joke “Saying goodbye to my Chinese spy” on social media and are making a mockery of the situation.
“If the ban goes through, I think everyone will use RedNote. It has not been banned yet, but people are already transitioning over to it,” said Neckar.
The U.S. Supreme Court was still deciding if they will uphold the law, overturn the law, or pause the process by extending the deadline for another 270 days, the proposal was denied though by Republican Senator Tom Cotton. As of Jan 15 though, TikTok will be banned on Jan 19. With Donald Trump going into office the day after the ban, he claims to suspend the ban but has not given a reason of how he will do so.
Offers have been sent by Kevin O’Leary and Frank McCourt, Project Liberty, Bobby Kotick, Doug McMillion, Microsoft, and Elon Musk to purchase TikTok. Although there have been rumors of selling TikTok to Musk, it has been repeatedly confirmed by ByteDance that TikTok is not for sale.
At the time of publish, Joe Biden announced that Donald Trump will oversee the decision of banning TikTok. On Jan 18, TikTok was officially banned, and a message was sent out to inform users that they are no longer able to use the app. The app was unbanned 12 hours later due to Trump extending the decision for 90 days, shocking the public.