“At this moment, I just want to say goodbye to my personal Chinese spy,” said TikTok user @leo.kitaen88 in his “Chinglish” (a mix of English and Chinese, often using Chinese words and grammar) speech. “ Thank you for looking after me, and I’ll miss you.” Unfortunately, his goodbye video is only one of the millions of farewell posts that Americans are making on TikTok under the hashtag “#tiktokban” right now. As the clock is ticking, the prohibition of one of the world’s most influential social media platforms in the United States is coming closer than ever. Is this prohibition actually protecting our privacy, or is it just another lie that the government made up for its Sinophobia (anti-Chinese) sentiment? Before discussing how this banning affected millions of American Internet users, let’s go back in time to find out what happened exactly.
For the past five years, TikTok has been facing an ongoing crisis regarding its existence, as it has been threatened with a ban in the United States since the Trump administration in 2020. Concerns about whether the Chinese-owned social media platform collects data on US citizens for the Chinese government have led to several restrictions, including bans on military computers and personal devices used by policymakers. This issue gained further attention when President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan law in December 2022 that prohibits the app on federal government phones.
The controversy surrounding this potential ban has escalated nationwide, as President Biden signed another additional law in April 2024 that would ban the Chinese-owned app unless it is sold to a US business within a year. However, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has indicated that the app is not for sale, effectively marking the prohibition of TikTok in the foreseeable future in the US. Despite the app facing a potential ban and growing national security concerns, the impact of TikTok on the political field was clearly demonstrated through the last presidential race since both of the candidates utilized TikTok as their battleground for engaging and attracting young voters.
On January 10, 2025, the Supreme Court held an emergency hearing for the case titled “TikTok v. Merrick Garland.” During this hearing, TikTok’s legal team argued that the Biden administration’s law banning the app is unconstitutional because it infringes on the freedom of speech of millions of Americans who use the platform. Despite the references to the First Amendment in the US Constitution to support their claims, the judges repeatedly rejected their arguments.
At this point, ByteDance must either sell the app, which has over 170 million users in the US by January 19, 2025, or cease operations entirely. If the law is enacted, both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store will be required to remove TikTok from their platforms. As a result, American users—who have built a vibrant community on the app—will instantly lose access. After January 19, the app will no longer receive updates and will gradually become unusable over time.
“The US government has decided to implement an extensive ban on TikTok, rather than limiting it to lawmakers’ phones as was previously done due to the concern of how this app can mine personal information of American users and create a national security threat,” said Audrey Christen, US History teacher at The Village School. “From my understanding, I don’t think the prohibition of this app violated the freedom of speech in the First Amendment. In fact, the government does not restrict what people are saying; they only stop them from producing content on this specific app, which means there are still plenty of platforms for everyone to express their opinions,” said Christen. “The main argument here is how the authorities view it as a national security problem rather than just about freedom of speech. It’s similar to how they banned alcohol in the roaring twenties, you know, just for the public goods.”
“I don’t care about this prohibition because I used to download TikTok. As you can tell, I’m referring to it in the past tense. I stopped using it [TikTok] after a while because I found the contents of the app to be kind of ‘cringe’ (extremely embarrassing or unfavorable, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary)” said junior Evan Pham. “I see that people have started migrating to other short video platforms like Instagram reels (Reels) and YouTube Shorts because we do have other social media before TikTok. TikTok is not our only choice, you know; I’m using Reels at this moment, but it still feels off somehow, like I’m talking about the feelings, experiences, interface, etc.” said junior Harry Nguyen. ‘Other alternatives have been discussed, and people have started to “migrate” into other platforms.”
As I’m writing this line on January 17, 2025, the Supreme Court just unanimously upheld a law requiring TikTok’s China-based parent company to divest from the app, teeing up a ban soon set to take effect for another 270 days. At this point, nothing is guaranteed, leaving TikTok’s future in the US in limbo.
References:
Bobby, A (2025, January 17), Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, threatening app’s existence in the U.S., npr.com. NPR Business.
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/17/nx-s1-5258396/supreme-court-upholds-tiktok-ban
