Whether you use the app or not, you've probably heard a thing or two about a "TikTok ban." It's true: After an unusual bipartisan effort in both chambers of Congress, President Biden signed the bill on Wednesday. How did we get here? Is TikTok really gone forever?
A brief history of TikTok
TikTok isn’t always TikTok. The app that many Americans know and love began as Musical.ly, an app designed for sharing 15-second lip-sync videos. Musical.ly survived in this form from 2014 until 2018, when its new owner, ByteDance, renamed the app TikTok.
Since the rebranding, the app has exploded in popularity around the world, especially in the United States. According to ByteDance data, the app's user base grew by 1,239.29% between 2018 and 2023. That is 11.2 million to over 150 million. What started as an app for young people to send lip-syncing videos to friends has turned into an entertainment revolution seemingly overnight.
TikTok is ByteDance’s second video app: its first was Douyin, which until now was a China-exclusive app. In many ways, Douyin is similar to TikTok: users scroll through vertical videos fed to them via an addictive algorithm. Like TikTok, Douyin relies on advertising and shopping to drive profits. However, contrary to what you might think, Douyin is Bytedance's main source of revenue, accounting for about 80% of the company's $54 billion in revenue in the first half of last year. Globally popular TikTok accounts for another 20%.
Why does TikTok pose a security threat?
TikTok is popular, of course, but so are many other apps. Why would the U.S. government single out TikTok instead of any of Meta’s products (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) or products like Snapchat, many of which have addicted Americans? In short, the Chinese government.
ByteDance is a Chinese company and therefore must comply with China’s corporate laws. The rules are quite strict: For example, the Chinese government not only maintains a party branch within ByteDance (which is standard protocol in the country), but also has a seat on the company's board of directors. On top of that, certain laws, notably the National Intelligence Act of 2017, force companies to share data with the Chinese government and conceal the fact that they do so.
As a result, lawmakers and intelligence agencies worry that U.S. user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government. Like most social media applications, TikTok collects a large amount of data, including names, addresses, email addresses, IP addresses, contacts, messages, location data, platform usage, and more. While everyone from Meta to Snapchat collects similar information, they don't do so. It is based in another country with complex and sometimes hostile geopolitical differences.
From here, there are also concerns that TikTok is manipulating what American audiences see. Yes, some lawmakers are very concerned about how TikTok is spreading videos about the war between Israel and Hamas, leading some users to believe the government doesn't like the lack of control over the narrative in the case. But TikTok’s problems go deeper than that: Remember TikTok? The Chinese government is very strict about the content broadcast to children and teenagers, with a focus on more educational content. While there have been few calls for TikTok to censor all non-educational content for users under 18, existing patterns of manipulation are worrisome about how TikTok could theoretically influence U.S. users’ perceptions of the Chinese government’s strengths.
Timeline for TikTok ban
U.S. government officials have been publicly concerned that TikTok poses a national security threat since at least 2019. At the time, TikTok banned the account of a New Jersey user who claimed he was banned after posting about the Chinese government’s persecution of American citizens. Uyghurs, while TikTok claimed the ban was for unrelated reasons and that the video in question was removed due to "human moderation error." Lawmakers were also concerned about how TikTok shared data about U.S. users with the Chinese government, although there were no known data breaches at the time.
In 2020, the app landed in the Trump administration's crosshairs: In an executive order, Trump gave ByteDance two options: sell TikTok to a U.S. company, or see the app Banned in the US (sound familiar?) At the time, Microsoft was in talks to buy the app, but Oracle ended up being the lead partner. But the sale ultimately never happened: A court blocked the executive order in December 2020, so ByteDance was off the hook.
But Oracle still has a role to play: In 2022, through the Texas plan, TikTok began passing all U.S. user data through Oracle servers, and Oracle reviewed TikTok algorithms and moderation policies, looking for any evidence of tampering or interference from the Chinese government. But 2022 is not the year TikTok wins over the U.S. government: In the same year that Project Texas launched, ByteDance employees scraped the TikTok accounts of U.S. journalists to obtain their IP addresses. The company is looking for the source of the Bytedance leaks reported by these targeted journalists.
In December 2022, the Biden administration banned TikTok from federal devices, months after TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress, a chaotic scene that left lawmakers looking deeply out of touch and aloof, weakening There are some legitimate concerns:
Despite Shou Zi Chew's best efforts to portray TikTok as disconnected from the Chinese government, we learned in July 2023 that some U.S. user data was, in fact, stored in China. The data relates to creators who are paid to post content, rather than regular TikTok users, but TikTok still stores these creators' information in China, such as Social Security numbers and tax forms. That year, 39 states followed the Biden administration's lead and banned TikTok from government equipment. Montana even tried to ban the app entirely in the state, but a judge blocked the ban in December.
When the House of Representatives began seriously considering a possible crackdown on TikTok, the company panicked. Chew posted a call on the platform asking users to contact MPs in support of saving the app. As expected, TikTok fans are calling Congress. According to the New York Times, this frightened lawmakers — not because they thought they were doing something wrong, but because it showed how much power TikTok has over its users. The campaign backfired and actually accelerated legislation.
After years of debate and discussion, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill forcing ByteDance to divest its stake in the app to a U.S. company, linking the legislation to $95 billion in aid targeting Ukraine, Israel and Gaza Plan hook. The House passed the bill by a vote of 352 to 65, a rare act of bipartisan agreement. The Senate also passed the bill in April in a bipartisan effort, although its fate in the Senate is far from certain. The president quickly signed it into law, focusing primarily on international aid.
So, is TikTok dead in the United States?
No. In fact, its fate is far from certain. What we do know is that you can continue using TikTok to your heart's content, at least until January 2025: While the original House bill forced ByteDance to sell or be banned within six months, the Senate extended that timeline to nine months . President Biden also has the option of extending the deadline by 90 days if ByteDance appears to be meaningfully committed to a sale. So, anyway, this won't be a problem until next year.
This means the app will play an important role in the 2024 elections. Come November, we'll have to see how it plays out and how TikTok affects (or doesn't affect) voters' opinions. If TikTok is what the government considers a national security threat, this is going to be a bad election season. These videos will no doubt be steamy enough to lead to a possible exit in January.
But if ByteDance sells it to an American company, TikTok won’t have to leave the United States. ByteDance has so far said it won't sell, but it has its options if it wants to. Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and investor Kevin O'Leary are all interested Acquire TikTok. Maybe Oracle or Microsoft will make a bid, but nothing is certain yet.
Don’t rush to write TikTok’s obituary yet.
