Possible TikTok Ban Looms

Story by Talon Cleveland – Staff Reporter

 On March 14th, The House of Representatives passed legislation on the TikTok bill. Concerns about national security and data privacy have led to the potential ban of TikTok in the United States. With over 170 million American users, there is discomfort and resistance happening all over the country involving people of all ages. 

   “I think the TikTok ban is unnecessary,” Taylor Kindler, junior, said. 

   A common misconception people have is that the bill would eradicate TikTok from US users. But, in reality the bill would give Chinese parent company, ByteDance, six months to divest from Tikok. If Bytedance does not divest by then the US governemt would go as far to ban TikTok from within the country. 

   This whole situation started after ByteDance was accused of stealing data for the Chinese government. Even though TikTok has stated multiple times that it would deny the Chinese government access to the data, TikTok also brings up “Project Texas”, an initiative started by TikTok in 2022 to safeguard American users data in the US. Nothing has been confirmed that ByteDance has any ties to the Chinese government, but the allegations alone have started the situation Tiktok is currently facing. It also brings to question why the US government is so concerned with TikTok stealing American data when there are multiple other apps with connections to the Chinese government.

   “Any app can take your information if you allow it, TikTok is no different,” Holly Warnex, culinary teacher, said. 

   After passing in The House with a vote of 352-65, the bill has been sent to the Senate where it is still unsure which way they will tip. If the Senate passing the bill it will land on President Biden’s desk, which the president has already stated that if the bill gets as far as him he will pass it automatically. A controversy American citizens are having is that President Biden also stated that is the bill doesn’t pass in Senate he would continue to use TikTok. 

   Former president Donald Trump has said, “There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok, but the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you’re going to make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media,” (Courtesy of CBS NEWS). 

   Trump has previously been known to be against TikTok, but with recent events, he has switched perspectives saying “There are a lot of people on TikTok that love it,” including “young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it,” (Courtsey of CBS NEWS). 

   The American citizens now wait for the government to decide how they will receive their media.