TikTok, previously known as Musically before it was revamped in August of 2018, has been a hit for the past couple of years and has been a beloved app to many. TikTok is a platform where people from all over the world share videos on a public platform to share their days and to gain likes from their social media posts. Although, TikTok was on the rocks as of late, and had a short time of existence on app stores nationwide, as Joe Biden on April 24, 2024 signed the bill that would ban TikTok from every app store across the United States. On January 19, if TikTok did not sell it or the Supreme Court officiated the ban, TikTok would have been inaccessible through the app store, and due to lack of updates, will be unusable on every United States citizen’s phone.
TikTok was a concern for the United States government way longer than that, though. Donald Trump back in 2020 had tried to ban TikTok, saying that it was a huge threat because of China’s “poor handling” of the Coronavirus going rampant at the time and decided to make an executive order to Bytedance, the company who owns TikTok, to divest interests or be banned in the United States. Although nothing had really gone through as the elections came around and Joe Biden had been inaugurated, and the TikTok ban issue had riled down until recently.
Today in 2025, the government under President Biden claimed that TikTok is causing “national security risks” and that due to it being owned by China, it is tracking American Citizen’s data on their phones. They also said it was a safety violation and must be banned in order to protect the United States. The requirements for TikTok to still be in the U.S. this time around though, is that Tiktok had to be sold from its parent company and bought by the U.S. or face a nationwide ban.
Some students at Hamburg Area High School had both positive and negative outlooks on this nationwide ban. Lilly Gibson, sophomore and avid TikTok user, believed that the ban was a terrible decision and that TikTok is a popular app within the United States, especially with younger generations. “TikTok is a popular social media app, where lots of information about the world is spread. Even though people could get this same information from news apps, most news apps do not go into detail about the travesties going on in the world, like the war between Israel and Palestine.” Lilly believes that TikTok is a way to share culture and that deleting the app removes communications from people across the world. “TikTok has also become a career choice for a lot of people. Taking TikTok away leaves people without jobs.” Lilly also believes that America banning TikTok means other countries might too. “America is like a role model for other countries in a way. If TikTok is banned in America, it creates a pattern for other countries to follow suit.”
Another student, Kaylum Riegel, thought banning TikTok would be an improvement to the United States. “I think the ban would help increase people’s attention spans as the short video time on TikTok has really decreased that.” Kaylum also believes that due to TikTok being banned, the spread of fake news will also decrease due to the fact that some people get all their information from TikTok instead of news websites. “TikTok will always have a replacement, like Instagram or Twitter, so I believe everyone freaking out about it and acting like it is the end of the world are being dramatic. It will improve people’s lives more than they might know.”
The government trying to ban the TikTok app for a short period of time affected Lilly, who uses TikTok as a way to learn. For others like Kaylum, they learned elsewhere about the world. One thing about the ban that stands, though, is that many citizens were affected by its ban, and they are happy that TikTok is back and running.
For more information about the TikTok ban on January 19, 2025, read here: https://www.nytimes.com/article/tiktok-ban.html
