The Supreme Court calls TikTok a potential threat to national security
TikTok has been in a battle with the U.S. government since Donald Trump’s first term as president due to the app’s ties to China. Their concern: China’s access to American data.
On Jan. 17, the Supreme Court upheld the law banning TikTok in the U.S., citing its potential risk to national security. They stated the ban would begin on Sunday, Jan. 19 unless an American company bought the app.
Thousands of social media content creators who depend on the app as a source of income worry about a ban. Creators have now begun to look at other social media platforms to provide income security if there happens to be a ban in the U.S. Small businesses fear losing the free advertising and promotional advantages that TikTok has provided them—these promotions help businesses reach customers who have never heard of and have helped keep businesses open.
The U.S. government says ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, must abide by Chinese laws. If a Chinese official requests any user data from the company, ByteDance would have to comply with the Chinese government and release potentially sensitive user data.
There is also concern about misinformation as China could have control over algorithmic patterns that can spread misinformation in the U.S. Some worry China’s control over the app’s algorithm could even influence elections in the U.S.
The Supreme Court backed the ban, telling users the app will be unavailable in app stores starting Jan. 19. President Donald Trump extended the ban another 75 days in order to reach a compromise. President Trump still wants ByteDance to sell the company and find a solution to keeping the app open in the U.S.
How did we get here?
TikTok was first introduced to the U.S. after ByteDance bought the popular social media app Musical.ly for about $1 billion in November 2017.
Musical.ly was a video-sharing platform where users could lip-sync to popular songs and trending audio tracks, similar to TikTok.
In August 2018, Musical.ly users were merged to TikTok. TikTok’s popularity surged to over 39 million American users towards the end of 2019.
National security concerns grew due to ByteDance’s headquarters in Beijing, China. Senators Chuck Schumer and Tom Cotton wrote a joint letter to the Acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, in October 2019 expressing concerns about TikTok’s collection of sensitive user data and alleged censorship of political content.
In August 2020, President Trump issued an executive order prohibiting American companies from having transactions with ByteDance. Days later, Trump signed another ban ordering ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets.
After former President Biden entered the White House in January 2021, Trump’s plan to ban TikTok was postponed but the app continued to face scrutiny from government agencies and officials.
Two years later, in March 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified in a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill about the platform’s safety.
The bill that initiated TikTok’s recent ban was signed into law by Biden in April 2024. The law gave the app 270 days to be sold to an American company or face a ban.
Those 270 days ended on January 19, the day Apple halted downloads and updates on the app. The Google Play store has also removed the app. Despite the delay of the ban, it is still gone from both app stores.
The good, the bad and the ugly sides of TikTok
The recent ban of TikTok sparked mixed reactions—while many were disappointed, others welcomed it.
One of the biggest benefits of TikTok has been its economic impact in the United States. A study conducted by Oxford Economics found that the app provided $5.3 billion in tax revenue to the U.S. government last year alone. TikTok, who funded the study, said that seven million businesses use the app, which helped to drive $15 billion in profit for these U.S. businesses in 2023.
Many small business owners credit TikTok for business growth including Felicia Jackson, the owner of CPR Wrap—a patented, disposable CPR template designed to help both trained and untrained individuals perform CPR correctly. Jackson says she made over $300,000 in just two days thanks to the app.
TikTok also connects users nationally and globally, which Associate Professor Jess McLean at Macquarie University found helps teens build relationships and a greater knowledge of global issues. McLean conducted a qualitative study with a group of teenagers aged between 13 and 17. Her results noted that TikTok enabled teens to build relationships, seek support, express themselves, and gain a deeper awareness of their privilege and global social issues.
Many love that TikTok’s algorithm connects users with like-minded individuals, fostering communities based on shared interests, experiences, and struggles. The platform’s diverse range of content ensures that there is a space for almost every niche.
However, some users feel that TikTok’s algorithm only curates similar content on their For You Page, limiting exposure to diverse topics and perspectives. Additionally, some users take issue with TikTok’s policies on inappropriate content. Users have flagged inappropriate content on their For You Page only to find that no action was taken on their complaints.
Researchers have found the mental and physical health tolls of TikTok to be a point of concern. In terms of mental health, the app functions on a reward system that triggers the release of dopamine whenever users receive likes or comments on their videos. TikTok users across multiple generations agree with the app’s addictive nature according to a survey conducted between April and May 2023. The survey found that 77.7% of Gen Z participants considered TikTok addictive while approximately 72% of Gen X respondents shared the same sentiment.
How people are reacting
Avery Broom, a senior studying economics with financial application, didn’t think the TikTok ban would actually happen.
“I didn’t think it would be gone forever,” Broom said. “I thought someone would buy it and it would come back, so it wasn’t that sad. I was only kind of sad when I was scrolling on TikTok that night at 10:45 and it was glitching and then I got the notification.”
The morning after the ban, Broom found herself clicking on the TikTok app icon, forgetting it wouldn’t work.
“Then I moved to Twitter, but it’s just not as interesting to me,” she said. “It’s still funny, but I wasn’t dying to be on Twitter for hours.”
Sophomore Alexandra Kouretas, who has over 25,000 followers and 1 million likes on TikTok, had a slightly different worry, given her following. Though like Broom, she didn’t anticipate the app would actually go away, Kouretas had a bit more at stake.
“I was definitely nervous,” she said. “I was starting to do research on other platforms to see their algorithm and how it works. Once the ban happened, I definitely went into fight or flight mode.”
Kouretas hopes the app won’t be banned again, but she’s started to transition her content onto Instagram Reels just in case.
“I started my following more on TikTok. All brands know me through TikTok, not my Instagram,” Kouretas said. “So I think it’s important to keep those brand connections, because if TikTok does go, I can still work with them through Instagram.”
Pei-Ju Chen, a junior studying fashion media and finance, uses the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, meaning she was not affected by the ban in the same way others were.
“I don’t have any feeling toward it, because it doesn’t really affect me,” Chen said. “I didn’t even notice it until my feed started being taken over by TikTok refugees. A lot of people have come to say ‘hi’ and comment. But I haven’t seen them make videos.”
Though others may have been annoyed by the influx of new users, Chen said the combination of Douyin users and TikTok refugees has led to cultural communication in the comment section.
The ban not only upset doom-scrolling high school and college students but experts as well, for reasons aside from no longer being able to scroll. Experts like David Greene, Civil Liberties Director at Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believe that the TikTok ban is a direct hit on the constitutional rights of the United States. Greene and the EFF urged the government to not to move forward with a ban as they believe it’s unconstitutional.
“We urged Congress not to pass it, President Biden not to sign it and the Supreme Court to overturn it,” Greene said. “We are also concerned about government pressure to force a sale based on buyers friendliness to the administration—an especially pernicious type of ‘jawboning’ coercion. There are no winners here, unless Congress repeals this law.”
