There has been a recent debate surrounding the U.S potentially banning TikTok because of concerns over data privacy, security, and the influence that this app has on teenagers. I have heard about this issue but I never really understood what was actually happening, so how did this start?
TikTok was launched in 2017 by ByteDance which is a Chinese internet company and is best known for its mobile apps. This company had initially bought Musical.ly for $1 billion dollars and nine months later merged this app with TikTok.
The controversy started when people started accusing ByteDance of using their apps, like TikTok, to use intrusive gathering techniques of information. According to the article ByteDance by Nicholas Gisonna, “Company officials initially rebuffed these claims but later admitted that their employees had obtained data from American TikTok users, including journalists and those connected to them. According to Baker-White, this misuse of data included spying on her and other users’ IP addresses in an attempt to track an internal mole at the company who was thought to be in contact with reporters. In 2023 the U.S. The Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that they had begun an investigation in late 2022 into the claim against ByteDance.” Following this congress passed legislation banning TikTok on government issued devices.
This became a national security issue with people worrying that TikTok could be part of a plan that the Chinese government had to sway the U.S politically and that the app could be used to gain personal information. In March 2024 there was a bill to ban TikTok or force the sale and let the U.S own Tik Tok and in April the Senate followed on this and President Joe Biden signed it. Later in January of 2025 a ban was set to take effect on the 19.
However, on President Trump’s first day back into office, he issued an executive order that extended the ban on TilTok with a 75 -day extension. President Trump said this will give him a chance to discuss the ban with his advisors, government departments and agencies, to see if TikTok provides to be a threat to national security.
