Tik Tok, the app that over half of American teens use, may be banned in nine months in the United States if it does not find a new owner. Both Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives agreed in a 352-65 vote to ban Tik Tok in the US or force Chinese owned ByteDance, Tik Tok’s parent company, to sell the company to a more US friendly owner. This bill then passed in the Senate with a vote of 79-18 and was signed into law by President Joe Biden on April 24, 2024. According to the New York Times, the reasoning for the ban is that lawmakers believe that the Chinese government
has huge control over TikTok and this is a national security risk; Tik Tok col-
lects users’ information in many forms, such as direct messages, country loca-
tion, internet address and device type. When individuals consent, the plat-
form can also collect users’ exact location, contacts, age, and phone numbers. When companies gather a lot of data about its users there are consequences, like potential
data breaches that could expose private information. The US government believes that selling Tik Tok to a US company is a matter of protecting national security. In addition to surveillance concerns, another concern of the US is that the Chinese government caninfluence what users see on their TikTok feeds, something that is especially alarming in an election year.

“We are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok — a platform with enormous power to influence and divide Americans whose parent company ByteDance remains legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese
Communist Party,” Senator Mark Warner, Democrat, and Senator Marco Rubio, Republican, said in a joint statement.

Although Tik Tok may have its dangers, many people rely on it as a job or as a form of promotion for their business or passions. Sequoia sophomore Lucas S h u m a ke r  p o s t s  v i d e o s of himself playing guitar on Tik Tok and says it gives him a better opportunity to get his name and music out there compared to other apps.

“I like Tik Tok for the promoting aspect of it… I feel like I have a chance to reach an audience and you can blow up easier than any other social media platform.” Shumakers said. According to the Washington Post, Tik Tok brought $14 billion dollars to small businesses last year. It has almost 150 million users in the US (according to Statista), which makes it great for promoting businesses and products; and since there are so many users and most of the videos are less than a minute, the app allows for a lot of exposure for businesses, artists and influencers. While the U.S. government is
concerned that Tik Tok/ByteDance is violating the privacy of its users, some young people are indifferent about their data being tracked by the app and shared with the Chinese government.

“[Tik tok] might be recording our information but I’m sure many other apps do it too, it’s not only Tik Tok,” junior Ava Hiss said. While the US government has concerns about Tik Tok, many Americans oppose the prospect of banning the app; it is a way for people to express themselves and for many it can be used positively. It provides entertainment and serves as a creative outlet that many students don’t want to say goodbye to.

“I do not agree [with the ban] because I think that Tik Tok is for everyone to connect. If they ban it, everyone’s going to be using different apps where there won’t be that connection and sense of community anymore,” senior Natalia Sweet said.