Last week on Wednesday, congress was presented with a legislation that could seemingly ban TikTok in the US. The bipartisan bill states that ByteDance, the company which owns TikTok, would have 180 days to sell TikTok after U.S officials deem it a national threat. If it isn’t sold, it will be prohibited from being on the American app stores and will not be usable on American phones. Well, The House voted and they were strongly leaning towards passing this bill, with the vote being 352-65.
Lawmakers in America, Canada, and Europe have been showing growing concerns about the risk of TikTok and ByteDance sharing classified user information to the Chinese government. On top of sharing private user information, lawmakers are also worried that TikTok is being used to spread misinformation. Congress questioned the CEO of TiktTok, Shou Zi Chew, for around 5 hours, and deemed his answers suspicious and a possible threat to the American people.
While this legislation passed The House, its support in the Senate is somewhat clouded. The Senate doesn’t seem to have a sense of urgency in passing this bill. It may take much longer than it took for The House to pass to vote for and pass this bill. While some members of the Senate have spoken out about their support for the bill, the timeline in which this bill will be passed and when it will go into effect is quite unclear.
Congress has spoken out about their support for the bill, but what about average Americans? Well, many people on the TikTok app and other social media platforms have made videos showing their anger towards this new legislation. Many have called this new bill unnecessary, a threat to our 1st amendment rights, and just plain stupid. One argument that seems to be popular is that Congress is focusing on minuscule issues while the country is dealing with inflation, homelessness, and debt. The US is facing so many different crises in 2024, and instead of coming together and agreeing on bills that would actually help the country, Congress is instead trying to ban a short-video app. Another standpoint is that some people aren’t in support of banning TikTok completely, but instead adding some sort of restriction for young users. Xander Lopez, a senior at Don Lugo states,” There needs to be a better way to keep young kids off the app, I know they have a 13+ rating, but I see kids on there all the time. They need to find a way to keep small children off the app.” Overall, many Americans are against this bill and seem to think banning TikTok isn’t the best decision for the US.
All in all, in the near future TikTok could be banned from the US, though it’s still uncertain. While Congress thinks it’s a good decision, most of the users on the app are outraged and appalled that lawmakers think this is a good choice for the country. Maybe Congress will ban other apps that they deem as “national threats”. Nothing is too clear at this moment, but many feel that if they go through with banning TikTok it will start a whole new era of Congress regulating of banning other social media.
