TikTok head offices in Los Angeles /Photo courtesy/
Tiktok,one of the most popular social media platforms faces a potential ban in the United States as the supreme Court is set to hear arguments regarding its legality,and could have the ban enacted from January, 19 2025.
This comes after several ban attempts in the past by the US Government.
The first attempt to ban Tiktok was between 2017-2021, during Trump’s first administration. The Government announced in 2020 that it was considering banning Tiktok because it posed a national security threat. However, this decision was reconsidered after Tiktok owner,Bytedance which initially planned on selling a small portion to American company agreed to divest in order to prevent the ban
The second attempt was between 2021-2025 during president Biden’s reign. Biden issued an Executive order 14034, protecting Americans sensitive data from foreign adversaries (EO 14034) on June 9, 2021 which overturned the three Executive orders previously signed by Trump.
He later revoked all these Executive orders and instructed federal agencies to continue a broad review of the foreign- owned application and continuously inform him of the risks they pose to personal data and national security.
“The Biden administration is committed to promoting an open, interoperable,reliable and secure internet in order to protect human right both online and offline; and supporting a vibrant digital economy.” The Whitehouse reported
After these,there were several attempts to enact the ban. In December 2022, senator Marco Rubio and other representatives introduced the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act, which would prohibit Chinese and Russian owned social network from doing business in the United States. President Biden signed ‘No Tiktok on Government devices Act’ which prohibited using the app on devices owned by the Government.
On January 25,2023 Josh Hawley, Missouri introduced a bill to ban the platform nationwide,a bill succesfully blocked by the senate on March 29,2023. All the attempts did not come to an end because the United States House of Representatives passed an act on the same which was succesfully revoked by a Panel of Judges in Columbia.
Trump promised not to ban the app during his campaign in 2024 despite his original opposition. Seemingly,this has not been easy since a bigger percentage of Trump’s cabinet are suppprting the ban. Also, 34 out of the 50 states have banned the use of the app by state Government agencies,employees and contractors, which apparently, does not prohibit Civilians on using the app on their phones. Most of the public universities have also banned the app on their Wi-Fi and gadgets. The app has also faced attempted several public bans, and reportedly was succesfully banned by large organizations like Wells Fargo and also in New York city on Government devices.
All these have been met by different reactions by Americans,most who expressed their frustration over the ban.
“I can’t believe they are getting rid of Tiktok when AI is still there.” Gawd commented
“It’s bad for everyone,that’s like banning radio in the 2010s,tiktok is where people find music.” Drew added
Most of them also posted their favorite celebrity faces with the famous caption;
“Ooh Gowwd,My shayla,how will i survive without you.”
Over 10million Americans have already migrated to Tiktok alternative app, Lemon8, which despite its different rate of growth share ownership with tiktok. Although,most Americans have expressed their dissappointment and are fully convinced that no app can replace Tiktok.
“It’s not the same tho man,tiktok can never be replicated,gonna miss the algorithm and the users on Tiktok.”Vrewls commented
“People aren’t very smart and don’t realize the same bill that bans Tiktok will also ban Lemon8.” Power DF added.
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