By Shirin Batra ‘28 (Reporter)
TikTok, a short-form video-sharing social media platform, was first launched in 2016, by a Chinese technology company called ByteDance. In 2017, ByteDance acquired another already existing social media platform called Musical.ly with a much larger and growing user base and merged the two platforms into TikTok by August 2018. Prior to the integration of these two companies in January 2018, TikTok had only 55 million users worldwide. 11 months later and only 4 months after the merger the platform had grown to 271 million users worldwide. Today, TikTok has over 2.1 billion users worldwide, including 170 million users in the United States alone.
While billions of consumers enjoy TikTok to learn dance moves, look for recipe inspirations, and catch up on the latest fashion and beauty trends, the U.S. government sees the app as an urgent threat to national security. U.S. officials claim that the app provides the Chinese government an opportunity to gather American data and potentially manipulate content to promote propaganda. This concern might be warranted as Chinese national security laws require companies to comply with intelligence gathering.
In an attempt to sever ties between TikTok and the Chinese government, the Supreme Court signed an act in April 2024 requiring TikTok to divest itself from ByteDance before January 19th, 2025, or face a nationwide ban. Since then, several companies have expressed interest in buying TikTok, including Microsoft, Oracle, and Walmart. In fact, even wealthy individuals such as Elon Musk and internet personality Mr. Beast have made bids to acquire TikTok, but ByteDance has rejected every offer. As a result, the ban was officially enforced on January 19th when TikTok momentarily went dark. Even though this ban remained for less than 24 hours, it felt like an eternity for many viewers and content creators.
Soon after his inauguration on January 20th, President Donald Trump suspended the ban, giving ByteDance an additional 90 days to meet the U.S. government’s standards. He posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social, explaining that he seeks to “make a deal to protect our national security” while still, if possible, allowing TikTok to operate. He proposed that TikTok can avoid a nationwide ban by agreeing to a 50% ownership by an American company through a joint venture. As of now, there has been no additional information released concerning TikTok’s response to potential partnerships, but according to recent interviews with executive members of ByteDance, the company is still reluctant to sell.
As TikTok now faces an uncertain path forward, users are considering alternatives. Since last week, an app called RedNote, one of China’s most popular social media apps, has brought millions of downloads from the United States. This is surprising considering that the majority of content on RedNote is in Mandarin. However, due to its Chinese ties RedNote will likely find itself under similar scrutiny, with the government potentially mirroring the actions taken against TikTok.
One might guess that the hole left by TikTok would be filled by existing American social media platforms, such as Instagram and YouTube; however, many users of TikTok claim that they will miss the magic of the app. Perhaps they are referring to the magic of the platform’s unique algorithm focused on showing users content based mainly on categorized relevance and interest. In contrast, platforms like Instagram and YouTube show users videos mostly based on the creators they follow and specific accounts with which they frequently interact.
Even content creators much prefer TikTok because of the larger audience. For example, TikTok posts receive an average of 32,000 views, whereas the average post on Instagram receives 3,500 views, and the average post on YouTube receives 5,000 views. RedNote’s popularity above Instagram and Youtube might be rooted in the fact that it’s algorithm is relatively similar to TikTok’s and that views per post are greater, explaining why many American creators and users are gravitating toward the Chinese platform, even at the risk of another ban and when language is a barrier.
Though many users of TikTok are worried about losing a source of entertainment, others have also expressed concern about whether the banning of TikTok is unconstitutional. Lawmakers and politicians are arguing that the ban infringes on citizens' right of free speech. In a recent interview with CBS, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said, "Most of the reasons the government banned it were based on accusations, not proof…[TikTok has] never been tried and found guilty of sharing information with the communist government." He later elaborated on his views, claiming that the ban runs completely against the First Amendment. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has also mentioned that she believes that this ban is unconstitutional and will build distrust between politicians and the general public.
The global conversation about our nation’s decision to ban TikTok highlights broader views on social media, business, the freedom of speech, and of course, national security. As this story evolves, additional developments may further affect the fate of TikTok. Currently, the future of TikTok remains undetermined, but officials are expecting to make a formal decision within the next few months. For now, the 90-day timer has started and ByteDance is counting the days…tick tock.
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