Note: Since this article, on September 27, a federal judge granted TikTok’s request for a temporary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s ban.
Hit or miss, I guess they never miss, huh? But will President Trump hit or miss in banning TikTok? His recent executive order has supposedly put an end to the hugely popular app, or so we think.
The main reason for Trump seeking to ban TikTok in the US is due to national security concerns. The rationale for this is based on the possibility that China is using TikTok to take the personal information of users in the US. TikTok has continuously said this is false and users’ personal data is inaccessible, however, we have no way of knowing if this is the truth. On August 6, Trump issued an executive order stating that additional steps had to be taken towards dealing with the national security threat posed by TikTok.
Because of this executive order, TikTok sued President Trump, claiming that this lawsuit was unlawful. The Trump administration claims that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is conducting corporate espionage, and building folders of blackmail with personal information, along with having access to the location of users, federal employers and contractors. There is no concrete evidence on whether TikTok is sending our information to China and the CCP or not, but it is very plausible, and it is important to stay cautious on the internet for personal safety.
Due to Trump’s executive order, TikTok has already been taken off the app store in the US, so anyone who doesn’t have the app will no longer be able to get it. According to the New York Times, on November 12 TikTok will be permanently shut down in the US. However, “the prohibitions could be lifted if TikTok resolves the administration’s national security concerns by the November deadline.” This shows that TikTok’s banning is in no way final, and it depends solely on if TikTok can make amends with the Trump administration.
So is this really a win or not? For the Trump Administration, yes. But what about the millions of users, primarily Gen Z? TikTok has a very strong influence on Gen Z and their ever-changing culture. Each week on TikTok there are new trends, songs, dances, and influencers popping up. This feeds directly in Gen Z, who take up over 60% of the app, says a statistic from Forbes.
The reason TikTok is so popular is because with each trend, comes a variety of different kinds of people trying them. Kids, teenagers, and young adults take what they see and either want to recreate it, or share it with their friends. Gen Z is one of, if not the most diverse generation of people, and TikTok allows all of these different people to have a platform and share their creativity with the world. So it’s not surprising that TikTok has gotten so popular amongst Gen Z and is now interconnected to its culture.
It is a huge loss for our generation and will most likely halt the growth TikTok had made for the culture. Music-, humor-, and art-wise, we would be set back lengths. Many of the people who grew from TikTok and had impacts on Gen Z culture in some way would be gone and many people wouldn’t have anyone to look to for inspiration.
This loss would also affect other social media platforms like Instagram who get much of their content from TikTok. Many accounts post content from TikTok, and Instagram reels have also become a very large part of the platform which almost exclusively features TikToks. So what could we do to cope with this loss?
TikTok leaving the US would be so sudden as many of the platform’s users aren’t even aware that it’s likely getting banned this time. Potentially, some TikTokers will move to places like YouTube or Instagram to spread their content, so possibly other social media platforms will gain users and popularity with the loss of TikTok. And for the culture, it’s almost impossible to say what will happen with this incredible loss.
Twenty, primarily junior Roosevelt students responded to a poll. When asked which social media app they believed had the largest impact on Gen Z culture, fifteen responded with TikTok. They were also asked what they thought about Trump banning TikTok based on the circumstances. They replied in various ways stating it was “unfair”, they “didn’t understand”, or “it was justified”.
The overall consensus from the poll was that even with the threat TikTok poses to national security, it’s not enough to ban the app altogether in the US. Trump’s suspicion is realistic, but the measures taken are problematic. Banning TikTok will do more harm than good when you consider who will be affected by this ban and how it will affect social media and the culture of young people in the US.
Will TikTok be banned come the November deadline, or will the app continue to create more stars and viral challenges? Only time will tell, the clock is Tik-ing.
