Imagine you wake up one day, reach over to grab your phone, try to find TikTok and realize that it’s completely gone off your phone. As of March 13, 2024, the House has officially passed the bill that could lead to the ban of TikTok because the Chinese government can access personal user data through TikTok. This would leave the company’s owner of “ByteDance” with two options: sell the company to American investors or have 180 days to remove the company from all American app stores. The reason for this ban is that the U.S. government wants to cut off China from gathering U.S. citizens’ data and information. This ban will affect millions of Americans, as the app will be removed from all app stores.
“I don’t think anything can match it in terms of what TikTok has. If TikTok does get banned, I will probably move to like Instagram Reels or something,” Quentin Chacon said. “It probably will make my quality of life go down, but I am definitely willing to switch.”
TikTok has responded by saying this is an attack on users’ freedom of expression.TikTok started asking users to call representatives in Washington to fight against the bill. Many congressmen said they’ve been spammed with calls.
This isn’t the first time this bill has been attempted to be passed. When Trump was president, he wanted to ban the app, but now he has backed away because of harsh backlash from his followers.
TikTok sent letters to House lawmakers accusing them of mistaking TikTok’s call-to-action campaign and saying it is “offensive” to lawmakers.
“I feel like there are some creeps on it,” Roman Canlas said. “But if you feel like it’s harmful, then it may need to be banned in some regard, but for me. Comments can be mean. People are always going to be mean towards other people, just not harmful. I feel like there’s a lot of inclusivity or there’s a lot of attempts.”
Looking back, TikTok has grown massively over the past couple of years. The app lets people express themselves freely and explore people’s lifestyles, use TikTok as a source of information, join new communities, and much more. What will happen to TikTok is still unknown.
“I think because there are a lot of people on it,” Canlas said, “Because, to be honest, I’m on TikTok more than I am on most other platforms. And that means overall, it’s just a great way to spread information, share your opinions and it’s nice for them to be seen.”
“I’ve learned so much from just scrolling through the app; things that I would never even have known of,” Nicole Booker said. “Of course, there is going to be misinformation, but there is misinformation everywhere. I feel like so many other things are going on in the world that deserve more attention than a ban on TikTok.”
by MATVEY YAZKOV AND ELIAS WHITEHEAD
