TikTok is one of the biggest social media platforms in the world right now, reaching and influencing millions of users unlike anything else the world has ever seen before. With over 1 billion monthly users, TikTok is the 4th most used social media platform. With its numbers only rising, reaching close to Instagram's 1.4 billion monthly viewers, TikTok is beginning to create a new realm of media.
Recently, lawmakers in several countries across the world, including the United States, have escalated efforts to ban access to TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance.
In the past year, several countries have already instituted bans on government officials using the app on government devices. In addition, some universities have banned the app from being used on school networks, including schools like Auburn, and Texas Tech among others.
In the past few months, the house passed legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States if ByteDance doesn’t sell its stake of ownership off the app within a year.
These increased prohibitions on the app have brought the debate to the forefront of media, bringing into question whether TikTok should be banned.
Those in favor of banning TikTok are concerned that ByteDance put sensitive user data, including location data, purchase data, and other factors that go into TikTok’s algorithm, into the hands of the Chinese government. Those in favor of the ban say this is a national security threat.
Those who want the ban also point to laws that allow the Chinese government to demand data from Chinese companies and citizens for intelligence-gathering operations.
They are also concerned about the possibility that the Chinese Government is using TikTok to spread misinformation, propaganda, and influence viewpoints, opinions, and elections within America.
Those against TikTok also point to potential harmful effects. Data from several studies including those from Microsoft and Nature Communications show that TikTok negatively affects the attention spans of users.
Data from these studies showed that users between the ages of 11-26 have been linked to decreased attention spans when using the app for more than 90 minutes (about 1 and a half hours) a day.
Those against banning TikTok believe that the ban would go against our First Amendment right to the freedom of speech. They believe that politicians are in favor of banning the app because they cannot censor content on TikTok.
Users of the app appreciate the ability to freely communicate about political topics without being censored, as is not the case on apps such as Instagram, or X (formerly known as Twitter), which are notorious for their fact checkers and censorship.
It is also believed that banning TikTok is a ploy by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to eliminate competition and maximize profit.
Last year, the Washington Post reported that Meta hired a GOP consulting firm to swing opinions against TikTok, to draw attention away from themselves.
Lastly, those in favor of keeping TikTok alive believe that the data being collected by TikTok is also being collected by other tech companies, such as Apple, Samsung, and Meta, so it is unfair to put the sole blame on one app or developer.
So, what do you think, should TikTok be banned?
