On Jan. 18, TikTok, an app that has taken over people’s lives since 2016, went offline for everyone in the United States.
Talk about banning TikTok started during President Trump’s first presidency. However, it became real when former President Biden signed a bill back in April 2024 possibly leading to a nationwide TikTok ban due to concerns over data privacy and national security from potential Chinese government influence.
The app is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, and has faced backlash and suspicion for its data collection practices. The U.S government believes that the company could be sharing this information with the Chinese government which could be dangerous and harm all users of the app.
So, before TikTok went offline and stopped working for 12 hours, the deal was that TikTok would either be banned or ByteDance would sell the app to an American company but no one had a clear sense of when this would actually happen.
However, the app users were shocked when TikTok all of a sudden actually shut down. Even so, the day after, President Trump decided to put a 90 day delay on the ban and to wait for ByteDance to find an American seller while the app remains off the app store, meaning no one can download it if they don’t currently own the app.
This has become an extremely problematic and controversial issue amongst the younger generations, since they are TikTok’s main users.
Many believe that TikTok should not be banned and that it supports the U.S economy. A permanent ban could instead negatively affect the country. Millions of users use the TikTok shop regularly which increases consumer surplus. TikTok also provides many jobs including influencers who make their salary off of posting videos. With a ban, the unemployment rate could increase.
However, people think that a ban would actually be beneficial because TikTok has become an addictive app.
Senior Jordan Serata claims that, “After the app gets banned I think my attention span will improve and I hope to be more productive,” Serata said, because she spends “way too much time scrolling.”
Some also don’t think it would be that much of a difference because there will be other apps that people start using instead.
Senior Chase Van Saun explains how he would feel if TikTok got banned, “I would be a bit disappointed because TikTok was good, but Instagram reels is basically the same thing,” Van Saun said.
This could be a huge shift for a large amount of the U.S population, and most don’t know how to deal with it. Even if the app is not banned, the short glimpse of it being offline gave everyone a taste of life without TikTok.
