Teens in America woke up on January 18, 2025 to one of the most recent and controversial government decisions: the social media app known as TikTok had been banned across all devices. The ruling was unanimous and passed abruptly, banning the app from being accessed by the public. Thinking there would be no way to get it back, many people uninstalled the app from their phone.
170 million Americans use TikTok, and recently elected President Donald Trump recognized this. On his first day in office, Trump signed an Executive Order that put a 75 day halt on the ban which will end on April 5th, 2025. After this passed on Monday, January 20th the app became fully functional again to all users. However, many would come to find that the app was removed from every app store in America, and those who deleted it would never be able to reinstall it again.
This recent ban has become very controversial to Americans. Many don’t fully understand the reasons as to why it was banned, and simply hope to see their favorite app back in the app store. Despite the argument that there is a major security threat from China, I argue that the ban of TikTok is unconstitutional and operated with a heavy use of fear tactics.
To understand more of the situation, TikTok is owned by a technology company called ByteDance, which is based in Beijing, China. The arguments made by government officials in the Supreme Court hearing argued that there is a serious possibility that the Chinese government could use TikTok for spying and political manipulation.
ByteDance was given an ultimatum: sell TikTok, or it gets removed for all Americans. ByteDance did not comply, and resulted in the ban we see today.
However, government and politics teacher at the high school Matt McKay believes that the arguments used by the Biden administration are very weak.
“If you believe in free markets, this is a real slap in the face to the beliefs of free markets because the government is targeting a specific company,” McKay said. “Their arguments are solid but also focused on that company and not applying that threat to others.”
McKay points out that the reason this is even an issue is because of the fact that ByteDance is Chinese. The same standards often do not apply to apps like Facebook, which is run by the American-based company Meta. There is clear evidence that Facebook harnesses a lot of users’ data, yet there is no proposal to ban Facebook.
The simple fact that TikTok is owned by the Chinese government and not the American government instills a level of uncertainty as to what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will do with it (with concerns of data-mining). However, this is hypocritical to what American values represent. If we believe in a free market, then the government has to give clear evidence to the resentment towards TikTok, but not the American-owned Facebook.
Not only this, but the ban is unconstitutional, as it limits the rights given to American citizens in the first amendment.
“The consequence [of allowing the ban of TikTok] is that you’re allowing the federal government, which traditionally holds the place that free market economies are supposed to be better, to come in and take that right away [from Americans] in this instance,” McKay said.
The ban proposed by the Biden administration has often used fear tactics to Americans to get them to be skeptical of China and support the ban. However, sufficient evidence of a security threat from China has not been released to the public, which raises suspicion surrounding the concerns that the government has.
McKay argues that there may indeed be a security threat posed by China, but until that information gets out, there is little reason to believe that China has used TikTok to gain classified information about Americans, and can be disregarded as uncertain speculation.
“It really depends on the credibility of the threat from China,” McKay said. “If there is evidence that the government isn’t sharing to the public, then I could support the ban of TikTok. But, that information has not been released publicly.”
The future remains up in the air as to what will happen with the popular social media app. In Trump’s executive order, his administration has explained why they desire to delay the ban for 75 days.
“I [President Trump] hereby order the Attorney General not to take any action on behalf of the United States to enforce the [TikTok ban] for 75 days from the date of this order, to permit my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action with respect to TikTok.”
During this time, the US government hopes that other non-Chinese (preferably American) investors purchase the app in order to return it to the American app stores. This act will theoretically give plenty of time for any corporation that is interested in buying TikTok to not only make a profit from the app, but also benefit the 170 million Americans who use it.
Though the American government may be taking steps in getting around the ban, it is still largely unknown what will happen. The ban of TikTok can be summed up by the American government officials using their power to potentially prohibit the ability for China to exploit its businesses, while blind to the millions of Americans who are affected by it.
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