January 24, 2024/Midnight
Erie, Pa.— Tiktok temporarily shut down all their activities in the U.S on January 19, as a law banning TikTok went into effect.
The law, which is called the “Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act”, was passed by the House of Representatives on March 13 last year, and focused specifically on TikTok and apps operated by the parent company ByteDance. The main concern from the government is that TikTok is collecting data from American users and selling it to other companies, in this case, the Chinese Communist Party (CPP). This problem could cause disadvantages for the U.S. and possibly put Americans in danger.
TikTok confirmed that all of its data is stored in the U.S. they had never been asked and would never turn over the data for CPP. According to a statistic, the population of the U.S. is about 340 million, and the number of users of TikTok is 170 million, nearly half of Americans are using this app, so the government will not take the security risk. The law forced TikTok to be sold to another non–Chinese company before January 19, or be banned in the United States.
Since then, many billionaires have expressed interest in acquiring TikTok. Famous American YouTuber Mr. Beast, billionaire Frank McCourt, and investor and “Shark Tank” host Kevin O’Leary have all expressed interest in this race to buy. However, the big problem is that TikTok is not for sale.
Starting late Saturday night, many Tiktok users in the U.S found themselves unable to access the app. When they logged in, a small notification would appear, which read, “Sorry, Tiktok isn’t available right now.”
There are many controversial arguments surrounding this act. Some agree with the law, as it could be a threat to American safety, and some argue it is a useless app. Others, especially younger generations, take it as a way for entertainment, creating various content, updating news, or it is their job. Some Tiktok users have responded to the government’s ban by moving to Xiaohongshu (Red Note), a not very globally common app but popular in China. The law banning was enacted one day before President Donald Trump came to the White House.
He has some strong reactions to this issue. Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the ban and wait for his inauguration, however, they still upheld the law. Trump posted on his post that “The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it.” Even so, he said that he would likely have a solution to bring Tiktok back. In a post on Truth Social, he announced that when he returned to office, he would issue an executive order to prolong the time for Tiktok before they could make a deal to protect national security.
Upon Trump’s statement, Tiktok restored its services in the U.S. Tiktok said that it is willing to work with Trump’s administration and come up with the best solution for its operations in the U.S.
