The History Behind Tikok
The original app, Musical.ly gained popularity in July, 2014 reaching over 70 million people. ByteDance, a Chinese company and the creators of Musical.ly teamed up to create Tiktok in 2018. In 2019, Tiktok gained a lot of popularity and became one of the fastest growing apps. Tiktok provides a platform to create videos and to share them.

Why Might Tiktok Get Banned?
According to The New York Times reporter Amanda Holpuch, “Governments have expressed concerns that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, may endanger sensitive user data.” However, there are other reasons for the potential ban of Tiktok, such as being able to do direct messaging, being able to buy things from 3rd party sites, as well as, the fact that Tik Tok has access to the users, location, device information, cookies and device metadata. In 2020, former President Donald Trump tried to pass an executive order to ban Tiktok, but was stopped by a federal judge. As of February 28, 2023 the US government passed an order giving government officials 30 days to remove Tik Tok from all government-issued mobile devices. President Joe Biden approved this order. That gives federal employees until March 15 to take Tik Tok off government owned devices. Following the United States lead, Belgium, Canada, Denmark and the UK have banned Tiktok from all federal devices due to all of the reasons listed above. However, not just countries have banned Tiktok from certain devices, colleges including Auburn University, University of Oklahoma, University of Texas-Austin, and Texas A&M have all banned Tiktok from state owned devices.

What was Tiktok’s response?
After each ban, representatives from Tiktok have given responses. After the United States announced the banning, a representative said that it was unfair not to consult the company first, and that the company is disappointed in the United States’ decision. In response to Canada and the UK, a U.S. representative said that getting rid of Tik Tok is getting rid of a way to reach the public. Tiktok and its representatives are very unhappy with the decisions that are being made.

What does this mean for the future?
As of right now, the U.S. House and Senate are considering bills that would give the Executive Branch power to ban Tik Tok nationwide. On March 1, 2023, a bill was passed giving President Joe Biden the power to ban Tik Tok for the U.S. This will affect every Tiktok user nationwide.

Student Lexie Morse was asked how she would feel if Tiktok where to get banned, she said, “I honestly think it would be good for our generation to go without this social media platform. Many studies have shown the negative effects of social media. It affects so many teenagers sleep scheduales, school, sports and especially their mental health.”