The American Tik Tok Ban

by Maren Franklin

On March 7th  2024,  American users of the popular app TikTok opened the app to find a message that said “Stop a TikTok shutdown” which asked users to call their local congressman to “speak up” against the ban of TikTok. From this message, Capitol hill was soon bombarded with calls from kids, teens, parents, and even the elderly begging for their congressmen to vote no on the TikTok ban in America. 

But why does the US government think it’s necessary to ban the app?

The banning of TikTok by the US government has been debated and rumored over the past few years, but it wasn’t until March 2024 that it became a very serious possibility. But why has the government been debating this over the past few years? An article in The New York Times written by Sapna Maheshwari and Amanda Holpuch answers this simply, “It all comes down to China”. The app TikTok is owned by a Chinese parent company called ByteDance. The main concern of the US government is that within the terms and conditions of the app and the governmental laws in China, is that the company ByteDance, “may put sensitive user data, like location information, into the hands of the Chinese government” (Maheshwari & Holpuch). The article goes onto explain that the worry of the Chinese government stealing American data has only been worsened with the Israel-Hamas war and that the app has been a ground of spreading “antisemitism” and pro-Palestinian ideas. 

What are the laws that allow the Chinese government to take our data?

In an article on Axios by Sam Sabin, they explain three of the laws that could legally allow the Chinese government's storing of American data. The first is, “A 1993 law requires the vast majority of companies to establish a Chinese Community Party presence in its organization.” Which goes on to include in parenthesis that “A former ByteDance executive has alleged that the company’s CCP presence could view U.S. user data back in 2018.” Which means they have been able to view U.S. data for around 7 years! The second law mentioned is, “A 2017 national intelligence law requires individuals, organizations and institutions to assist China’s Public Security and State Security Offices in their intelligence work.” This includes the company ByteDance. And the third law is, “A 2021 law also requires that businesses work with national security agencies to train staff to detect espionage and provide them with counter-espionage equipment.” To define espionage for those unfamiliar with the term, The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as, “the practice of spying or using spies to obtain information about the plans and activities especially of a foreign government or a competing company.” What this means for this law is that businesses, such as ByteDance, are required to look at our data and find any spying or tracking that may be from the U.S government and counter it, while they are still free to use our data. 

Has ByteDance complied with these laws?

In a short answer, yes ByteDance has been giving our information to the Chinese government. There have been multiple reports and investigations that prove this claim. Sam Sabin on Axios states that, “A BuzzFeed News investigation based on 80 internal TikTok meetings showed that China-based ByteDance employees have accessed nonpublic data about U.S. TikTok users. (Sabin)” From this investigation, BuzzFeed found that, at the very least, China has had access to our data between September 2021 to January 2022 (Baker-White). Senator Josh Hawley has also told an Axios interviewer that, “The app collects way more information than it needs to, to feed its algorithm, and that information is available to the Chinese Communist Party upon request. (Sabin)” Out of all the statements so far, this is probably the most worrisome one. The information we share and post on TikTok is much more accessible than people realize, they have your phone number, email, password, age, and even your other social media login information if you link it to your account, and that’s just the surface information. If the anti-Americans in the Chinese Communist Party can easily get all that information from a simple request, then it should be seen as a valid concern for the U.S. Government and U.S. TikTok users.

The Decision and the “Ultimatum”

On March 13th, 2024, the members of congress gathered to vote on passing a new bill that will ban the use of the app in America. Even with the never-ending calls from Americans all over the country, the bill was passed through congress with a whopping 352 votes to ban and 65 votes not to (Freking, Hadero, Jalonick). What is interesting about this, is that the ban is that it’s not yet set in stone. Even though TikTok users all around the world have seemed to accept that the banning of TikTok in America is inevitable, the passed bill includes an “ultimatum” for ByteDance to decide on. According to The New York Times, “The Biden administration has wanted TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the app or face a possible ban since last year.” So, within the now passed bill, it gives ByteDance 165 days after the bill is signed to sell TikTok to an American company, explains Jon Raasch on Daily Mail. 

The effect of banning TikTok for American citizens

There are over 170 million TikTok users in America and over 1 billion users worldwide. ByteDance has made 16 billion dollars in revenue in the last year from the U.S ALONE (Fischer). With the extremely high revenue and large number of app users in the U.S, the company ByteDance is hesitant to sell the popular app to American developers. With those 170 millions users many of them rely on TikTok to support their small businesses, make money from sponsorships, or even TikTok live, which is an option available to those with 1000+ followers where watchers can send “gifts'' that are purchased through the app. 

Banning the use of the popular app would not only affect the revenue of many American citizens but there has been a lot of argument that the ban is actually an infringement of the First amendment, freedom of speech. According to The New York Times, the democrat representative Maxwell Frost states, “I hear from students all the time that get their information, the truth of what has happened in this country, from content creators on TikTok.” He said he was concerned about Americans’ data, but “this bill does not fix that problem.” (Maheshwari, McCabe, Karni)'' There has been a lot of discussion and speculation both on and off the app about how this bill is a way for the U.S. government to “control” our knowledge of the government and their mistakes. One video posted by @emyjeano states “anyone else feeling super SCARED about the fact that TikTok is being banned? The government realized Gen Z knows too much and they can’t control the narrative anymore so they’re just going to silence us instead.” There have been hundreds of thousands of videos posted by American users, especially Gen Z, who basically say the same thing. One comment on this video from @braapeyy says “U and I don’t align politically but this is so true”. 

One issue TikTok has faced throughout its years is political one-sidedness, which worsened in 2020. Usually, any video that even slightly mentions politics leads to a war in the comments, so this comment is just a small way of expressing how American TikTok users agree on this breach of their rights. Though TikTok is absolutely full of false information, there is also so much real information that Americans have learned through TikTok. Though not always reliable and you have to be careful what you believe, TikTok pretty much became a news source for Gen Z. Personally, there are so many tragedies and events that I would have never learned about if it wasn’t for TikTok. Majority of Gen Z is not tuning into the news each day and just end up relying on TikTok for their knowledge of the U.S and the world. TikTok became a way for users to share their voice and learn so many things, the banning of TikTok would not only take away an entertainment platform but a platform that allows everyone to truly share their opinions.There are over 170 million TikTok users in America and over 1 billion users worldwide. ByteDance has made 16 billion dollars in revenue in the last year from the U.S ALONE (Fischer). With the extremely high revenue and large number of app users in the U.S, the company ByteDance is hesitant to sell the popular app to American developers. With those 170 millions users many of them rely on TikTok to support their small businesses, make money from sponsorships, or even TikTok live, which is an option available to those with 1000+ followers where watchers can send “gifts'' that are purchased through the app.