On Wednesday March 15th, The House passed legislation that could ban TikTok in the United States. The house gave the company who owns the app, China-based ByteDance, an ultimatum. They can either Sell TikTok within six months, or they lose access to app stores and web-hosting services in the United States. The house passed legislation to keep U.S. TikTok users safe from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The popular app’s potential ban depends on whether the bill can overcome a number of challenges. It now all lies in the hands of the Senate.
There is no current update of when the Senate will send the bill to President Joe Biden, but some senators are not in a hurry at all. In an interview with Democratic politician Ron Wyden, he states, “There are lots of mistakes that get made when you rush it without thinking through the implications.”
Since TikTok is a Chinese-owned app, The U.S. government is worried about foreign hackers stealing personal information. Lawmakers have tried to ban TikTok in the past due to suspecting China of spying on Americans. Every couple of months there are rumors of TikTok being banned, to which TikTok need users to help save the app. So is TikTok really getting banned this time?
In an interview with Fox News, Biden stated that if congress passes the bill, he would sign it in hopes of TikTok being deleted. Considering it is an election year, Biden stating that he wants TikTok to be banned does not look good for him and his campaign team, given a decent portion of TikTok users are eligible to vote this year.
Maddie Halliez ‘26 states, “Biden saying that he is going to ban tiktok does not look good on him. A lot of people’s jobs are TikTok, so if he does ban TikTok he is going to lose a lot of voters in the upcoming election.”
TikTok influencers began to speak on this issue voicing their opinion on why this ban should not happen. TikTok is home to many influencers who rely on the app for their paychecks and how they get by. By the House and Biden trying to ban TikTok to keep users “safe from foreign control” they are taking away thousands of jobs for those who use TikTok for a job.
If the government is so worried about keeping users safe, then Shein, YouTube, WeChat, and more apps that are owned by foreign countries that are popular in the U.S. should also be deleted. The attention is all on TikTok, but the government should shift its attention to other apps who have been known for stealing personal information from active users. In 2018, the popular shopping app, Shein, had a data breach where 40 million U.S. logins were stolen. Instead of putting all the attention on TikTok the country should consider looking into the apps who are known for taking credit card information, etc.
TiKTok could be banned any day now and no one knows what the future holds for this app. But it is known that it now all lies in the hands of the Senate.
